Over a decade ago, when Madhumita Murgia was starting out in journalism (she had studied biology and clinical immunology at Oxford and then worked on developing vaccines for HIV), she became curious about the world of data brokering—where shadowy companies “collect data about our online lives and turn them into saleable profiles of who we are today, and who we will one day become”. To make the story more tangible, she decided to track down the profile of someone she was intimately familiar with— herself. She contacted an ad-tech startup to decode the information collected about her from her own web browser. The report they sent her of an ‘anonymised version' of herself included her profile put together by Experian, a credit-rating agency that doubled as a data broker.
The report was shocking, not just because of the personal details it contained—from where she worked and lived and how she spent her money to the holidays she had taken in the past year—but also because it detailed her opinions, interests, and personality traits, from her TV-watching habits and food preferences to her level of ambition and political leanings.
This was really her baptism into the murky world of data colonialism, big tech, surveillance, and artificial intelligence. “My life—and yours—is being converted into such a data package that is then sold on,” she writes in her new book, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI. “Ultimately, we are the products.”
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
What Will It Take To Clean Up Delhi Air?
IT IS ASKED, year after year, why Delhi’s air remains unbreathable despite several interventions to reduce pollution.
Trump and the crisis of liberalism
Although Donald Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term to the US presidency is not unprecedented—Grover Cleveland had done it in 1893—it is nevertheless a watershed moment.
Men eye the woman's purse
A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a young 20-something man at my gym walking out with a women’s sling bag.
When trees hold hands
A filmmaker explores the human-nature connect through the living root bridges
Ms Gee & Gen Z
The vibrant Anuja Chauhan and her daughter Nayantara on the generational gap in romance writing
Vikram Seth-a suitable man
Our golden boy of literature was the star attraction at the recent Shillong Literary Festival in mysterious Meghalaya.
Superman bites the dust
When my granddaughter Kim was about three, I often took her to play in a nearby park.
OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Meet G. Govinda Menon, the 102-year-old engineer who had a key role in surveying the Vizhinjam coast in the 1940s, assessing its potential for an international port
Managing volatility: smarter equity choices in uncertain markets
THE INDIAN STOCK MARKET has delivered a strong 11 per cent CAGR over the past decade, with positive returns for eight straight years.
Investing in actively managed low-volatility portfolios keeps risks at bay
AFTER A ROARING bull market over the past year, equity markets in the recent months have gone into a correction mode as FIIs go on a selling spree. Volatility has risen and investment returns are hurt.
