The Transcript of ‘What Happens Next Will Amaze You’ ⇥ idlewords.com

Yet another terrific talk from Maciej Cegłowski on corporate information gathering and tracking:

Advertising-related surveillance has destroyed our privacy and made the web a much more dangerous place for everyone. The practice of serving unvetted third-party content chosen at the last minute, with no human oversight, creates ideal conditions for malware to spread. The need for robots that can emulate human web users drives a market for hacked home computers.

It’s no accident how much the ad racket resembles high-frequency trading. A small number of sophisticated players are making a killing at the expense of everybody else. The biggest profits go to the most ruthless, encouraging a race to the bottom.

Aptly, for a talk on surveillance, it was recorded; I hope the video gets posted soon.