老大哥在看着你

Imagine a World where every step you take is monitored. A World where you can't secretly sneak out at midnight to meet your friends. Because secrecy does not exist, when there is a camera at every corner and policemen around each second corner. And if you lack the imagination needed. I'll happily take you by your hand to the beautiful country far away where secrecy is long dead. As we enter after getting our passports stamped you hear an ominous voice coming from the speakers, “你好 visitor's and welcome to China. I am Benji, I'll always be by your side during your visit in my motherland". After that introduction we walk out of the airport we take the shortest path, straight across the street, to get into our taxi. As you buckle up you hear Benji's now scolding voice from the cars speakers: “Dear visitors, I kindly remind you that j-walking is strictly prohibited in China. Please refrain from such activities from now on”. As you pull out your phone to check Instagram, “ERR_WEBPAGE_NOT_FOUND”, pops up on your screen. After you try to refresh your feed several times, a notification from the Benji companion app pops up. The app you had to download before you entered china. The Notification says: "Dear Visitor, this webpage is blocked to protect you from extensive tracking and behavior analytics". You get curious and click on the notification. As you read the article behind the pop-up you learn about all the ways Google, Meta and all the other tech giants surveille you. And how they are obligated to share these informations with the US government¹. You feel kinda lied to, even though you knew this for years. But the hypocracy of Benji trying to convince you that this surveillance is bad, while also recording every step you take.

Footnotes

1. Cloud Act ↩