I forget who I first saw saying that data is the new Empire, but yes. Data about is is the most important thing to corporations these days. It's why stores have begun collecting too much data. Target's data breach was in part because they were storing PINs, which have no legal use for them, but were of course very valuable to people to steal.
I recently had to politely refuse to share my phone number multiple times to complete an in person transaction in a brick and mortar store. I was assured they would not call me, but "needed" the info to complete my transaction. They did not need my phone number and I did complete my transaction. The phone number just helps them better cross reference me with other purchase data so they can attempt to market to me more specifically.
I have abandoned some social media platforms. Watched some destroyed, disappeared, or pivoted in a new direction that destroys all the things that used to make it interesting. And with the brief TikTok ban going into place in the US, we have another wave of people trying to gather up their followings, and find a new place to gather and reconnect.
TikTok still exists, of course. The US isn't even the first country to ban it. (Possibly first to unban it.) But I've been listening to Rebecca Nagle's By the Fire We Carry, and was reminded that while possibly with less active death, there is tons of precedent for this. Precedent for the US deciding it deserves things that others had. That other people were in the way of their stated goals. That people the US didn't much care for having a space to gather was a threat. That the rules the US itself had established, didn't have to apply when dealing with people in their way. That rasing the spector of scary brown people is justification for anything.
Sure, no one's being force marched through the snow. But as an alum of multiple online communities, there are people I've never found again. Who I likely never will.
I was only a lurker on TikTok, but I know people who were running their small businesses there. It is a loss for our freedoms to gather and speak where we wish. And it is a loss for people who's salaries were dependent on it.
I wish I believed my government cared about safeguarding my data, but the number of data breaches I've been notified of leads me to believe it is not a top priority.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the Lorax Musical Concept Album. Just the kind of fun weird nerdy stuff my little corner of TikTok was into.
*Note: I know TikTok is technically back now. But I deleted the app.