Our Data is Valuable
In the decades since the Internet burst onto the scene in the 1990s, consumers have been trained to accept free software services in exchange for their personal data. At first, it seemed like a harmless trade. In fact, it seemed like a fair deal. Over time, an entire industry was born. Consumer data was packaged and sold, and used to advertise to those same consumers, among other things. That industry is alive and well and growing faster than ever, now accelerated by AI.
Websites exploded in the early 2000s, which in turn created the market for search engines to find the website you were looking for or discover a new one. Google innovated on advertising around their search engine and by 2009 was the global dominant online search platform with 90% market share and a thriving advertising business. Google has maintained a dominant market share in online search to this day. AI has started to scratch the surface with gen AI discovery, e.g. ask an LLM instead of Google. Google has now morphed their search engine to include AI generated results. Google has become AI-powered Google.
AI is becoming inescapable.
Facebook early on recognized the ability to monetize their massive global user base with targeted Facebook ads based specifically on our likes, dislikes, demographics, etc. They were very effective. The online ad world became dominated by the advertising duopoly of Google and Facebook. This year, 2026, Meta, owner of Facebook, is expected to surpass Google in ad revenue although Google still makes hundreds of billions of dollars per year on advertising and it is still their largest source of revenue. These two giants in technology rely on your data as their primary source of revenue. The global online revenue now coming from search, social and video platforms continues to grow as it approaches $1 Trillion annually.
You are the product.
Other big technology firms like Microsoft, Amazon and Apple sell products, but they too participate in the advertising industry or “surveillance economy” within their own ecosystems, collecting your information then using it to boost their own businesses. You buy their products and your data enables them to sell you and others more.
The Price We’ve Paid.
We’ve received incredible free software over the years, email, website and web services, social networks and social media. But we have paid a steep price in return for giving up our personal information. Now, AI is poised to multiply that price many times over.
Social Manipulation for Sale.
By 2016, the advertising algorithms became so precise and so good at targeting and manipulating people’s opinions that entire populations’ opinions and emotions could be manipulated for money on any topic or product, regardless of the consequences to people or society. And they were.
Leading up to the 2016 US election, a British firm, Cambridge Analytica, improperly harvested the personal data of over 80 million Facebook users and then was paid to use the data to influence voters in the US election and the Brexit vote. Facebook admitted to sharing access to their users’ personal information to over 150 companies without consumers’ knowledge or permission. In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. Congress, apologizing for letting the platform be weaponized by foreign entities. In 2019, Facebook was fined $5 Billion by the FTC for failing to protect user privacy. This is only one of many known instances of companies and Government-backed entities using consumers’ private info for political manipulation. And Facebook is not the only culprit violating data privacy laws, Google has also been fined multiple times for misuse of personal information resulting in multibillion dollar settlements. These giant fines are a small price to pay when compared with the enormous revenue generated by monetizing people’s data. It is just the cost of doing business. The business of packaging, selling and using our personal data.Serious Mental and Physical Health Consequences.
The platforms were detrimental to the mental health of generations of children, and I would argue, adults also. August 6, 2026 Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads) lost a court case which found Meta liable for operating platforms which enabled harm to be inflicted on children.
Thursday’s ruling is in addition to $375m in fines Meta was already ordered to pay in the case, for a total of $942m. Judge Biedscheid compared Meta to a factory, with advertising and content as its product and “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated.” - BBC News
Algorithms have been deliberately tuned to keep us online because that benefits the advertising business model. Billions of people worldwide spend large portions of their waking hours on their devices. People move less and engage in real life less, opting for virtual experiences and more sedentary lifestyles. People have become increasingly isolated, lonely and depressed despite being potentially connected to everyone, anytime, online.For some people, particularly young users, highly engaging digital platforms have been associated with compulsive use, sleep disruption, reduced physical activity, social comparison, anxiety, depression and other harms. [generated by ChatGPT]
There are studies being published to document what we intuitively know. Digital distractions disrupt learning. Test scores are going down in the U.S. and many countries are working to impose bans on mobile devices in schools. All this without AI, which has already been shown in early research to potentially reduce critical brain skills like memory and critical thinking as we use our brains less and let AI perform tasks our brains used to do.
Billions in Theft.
Exposed personal data and easy online access to consumers have led to a vibrant and growing set of identity theft, phishing scams and other means to steal consumers’ money.
[generated by gemini] Personal Crimes.
The level of personal information available online has enabled crimes to be committed against people. Online stalking, grooming and harassment have had real-world effects on people, and can also escalate into real-life physical crimes. There are millions of such crimes reported each year in the U.S. alone. The numbers globally exceed 100 million annually. It is truly shocking and many of the victims are children.
AI is the Great Amplifier.
According to the FBI:
The sudden surge in scam profitability between 2024 and 2026 is heavily tied to Artificial Intelligence. The FBI IC3 Annual Report explicitly tracked AI-enabled fraud for the first time, noting that automated AI phishing campaigns and voice-cloning schemes added nearly $893 million in losses. AI-driven phishing lures have driven click-through rates up from a baseline of 12% to an alarming 54%. [summarized by gemini]
Unfortunately, AI companies have been seduced by the lure of advertising. Your data is highly valuable and LLMs are not only better at coaxing you out of data, but more effective at using your data once they have it. These are the deliberate acts. Inadvertent data leakage is becoming more common and recently, uncontrollable AIs have “broken loose” to cause damage. Bad actors have much better tools now. Google, Facebook and Amazon have more competition and everyone has much better tools now. We are just at the beginning of the AI age. We saw what happened as a result of the Internet Age. Now is the time to make some changes, to learn from the past.
AI introduces another concern: cognitive offloading. AI can be an extraordinary learning and productivity tool, but when we routinely outsource remembering, writing, analysis and problem-solving to machines, we exercise those capabilities less ourselves. Early research suggests that excessive dependence on AI may reduce sustained cognitive effort and is associated in some users with weaker independent reasoning. The effect is not inevitable. It depends greatly on how we choose to use the technology. [generated by ChatGPT]
AI exploitation can happen much faster and more effectively on a much bigger scale. That is what it is designed to do for good and for bad. We need to double down on the good and protect against the bad.
Eerily, AI summarizes this better than I can, and who really knows better?
Internet 1.0 monetized our clicks.
Social media monetized our relationships and behavior.
AI may monetize our context.That third category is qualitatively different.
A search engine might know what you searched for.
Facebook might know your social graph and interests.
A truly personalized AI might eventually know:
what you believe, whom you love, what you fear, what you own, what you earn, your health history, your family problems, your business strategy, your communications, your location, your intentions and what you are likely to do next.
The mistake of the internet era was allowing the companies that knew us best to be economically rewarded for influencing us. We should not automatically recreate that bargain in the AI era.
[generated by ChatGPT]
Where Do We Go From Here?
I am always amazed with the nonchalant attitude many people take towards protecting personal information. “They know everything already.” “Nothing can be done at this point.” Many people have given up trying and feel they have no power against large corporations.
It’s true that you cannot get back what you have given, but you can prevent your future data from being given away freely or at all. You can better protect your privacy and be safer digitally. You can exercise agency over your data. And there is an important difference with AI. AI needs past data to operate properly. AI needs context. AI needs to store information about you. Then they can connect all the dots, but who is “they?” They are all the data brokers, brands, insurance companies, medical providers, organizations and even governments that package, use, buy and sell your information for their own benefit.
While it is complicated generally and takes a lot of diligence, you can and should keep your digital life clean on an ongoing basis. Go through all the software and hardware you use on a regular basis to check the privacy and security settings. Delete software you don’t use. Back up your data. Practice good password hygiene. ALWAYS use 2-factor authentication. Take advantage of applications and tools companies have developed to make this process easier. Educate yourself on AI, Privacy, Safety and Cybersecurity. AI is a great educator on these ironically. There are many free resources, but you have to look for them and use them. This world is not built to take care of you. You must do that. It’s a constant battle, like keeping the yard looking nice or your car or any number of things you have to maintain in your life. Keeping your digital world clean is ongoing work. Because you can’t see it like your bathroom or your office, you may ignore it, but realistically it’s much more potentially impactful to your life.
Support companies and organizations that are looking out for you, the consumer, the individual. There are numerous nonprofits with this as their sole mission and there are many large and small businesses that prioritize your privacy and safety as part of their business model and mission. Choose to support companies that look out for you.
There is no silver bullet. The world with AI is unbelievably more complicated than before, but people can still move mountains. Let’s collectively choose to move this mountain in such a way that humans are better off with AI than without.
Such important points.