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. | The Illusion of Privacy |
From Childhood Narcissism to Adult Reality
As children, we were subtly trained to see ourselves as the center of the universe.
Parents praised our every achievement, celebrated our uniqueness, and shielded us from uncomfortable truths.
In essence, they nurtured a mild form of narcissism — the belief that our story mattered more than anyone else’s.
Some of us eventually matured out of that illusion.
Others channeled it into careers where self-promotion is a survival skill — politics being a prime example.
The Myth of a Private Life
We like to believe our lives are both private and uniquely special, worthy of being guarded from public view.
Yet in the digital age, that belief is as outdated as the rotary phone.
With smartphones, wearables, smart speakers, GPS trackers, and our own voluntary broadcasts via Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, and countless other platforms, we have built a global stage where we are the star — whether we admit it or not.
Even If You Hide, You’re Seen
You can avoid posting, but your life still leaks online.
Family, friends, coworkers, and public surveillance systems will share your image, location, and activities — intentionally or not.
The result?
A patchwork of personal data stitched together into a remarkably accurate portrait — available to advertisers, employers, governments, and anyone with curiosity and a search bar.
An Experiment Worth Trying
If you doubt it, conduct this exercise:
Ask GPT-5 (or any AI with access to public data) to answer three questions about you:
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What do you know for sure about me?
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What do you think you know about me?
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What would you like to know about me?
The Curtain Is Gone
The answers may surprise you — or unsettle you.
In the theater of modern life, privacy is no longer a curtain; it’s a thin veil.
And we are the ones lifting it, day after day, click after click.
You are spot on. The only thing surprising to me is that some folks are still struggling to protect their privacy, believing that they may succeed. Their efforts should instead be redirected to take advantage of this lack of privacy for their own advantage. I do this almost every day as I ask GPT-5 for advice based, in part, on its knowledge of me.
ReplyDeleteOf course, one should take steps to protect important personal data such as financial data via strong, frequently, changed passwords. The good news in this regard is that systems are moving to biometric security and two-factor authentication.