Thread · 4 tweets · 11 Jan 2022

I don't know that it's about high-profile so much as high-power. The threat from one company with pervasive monitoring is much, much worse than the threat from a bunch of smaller companies each with this or that aspect.

One way to think about it is to look at what is being captured: • Browsing history • Location • Who you're emailing • Purchase receipts • Search history Think health. Individually, these can be bad. Together, they say almost everything.

Yes, it's worrying that companies we've never heard of are listening. But, pace @baekdal, any company that is in a position to put together that overall picture is a much bigger problem.

I would add: one thing that is rarely covered and that matches neither of your categories is who is *using* that data. Publishers get all the flak for the trackers in ads, but the brands and agencies that put it there in the first place walk free.