Wait and See

"How's work going?" asked a friend of mine.

"Well, we had thousands of employees start working from home when the pandemic hit, and we set a record revenue in the same year," I told them.

"Everyone thinks working from home is a good thing," they said, "but what they don't realize is that they can never have a private conversation. Everything they say might be recorded."

I paused. "It's not that it might be recorded," I said, "it is being recorded."

I can neither confirm nor deny if your devices record your every word. Still, it's better to act as if that's the case since a microphone with an internet connection can turn any conversation into a "relevant" ad at best or lawsuit at worst.

We have a combined trillion-dollar market cap in tech companies pointing algorithms at our heads, enticing us to swipe, click, and show how right/righteous we are. When you open your favorite app, you're not on a level playing field, and it's time to start acting like it.

Take a step back and ask yourself, "Who's the CEO of Google, and what are they about?" You could ask the same for Amazon (hint: it's no longer Jeff Bezos), AT&T, the Federal Reserve, National Security Agency (NSA), or the Department of Justice (DOJ). All of these entities know much about us, but what do we know of them? Who's watching the watchers?

We can't answer these big questions unless you're a head of state or government official with adequate policy.

But what can we do? Wait and see. This is not a call for passiveness but a call to be alert. To be skeptical. To ask, "Why is this free? How is this company paying its bills?" As Tristan Harris explained, "if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product."

The "wait" in wait and see is more of a pause to collect yourself, your thoughts, and what you engage with by paying attention to the direction companies and entities steer you towards.

Trust someone as far as you can through them. In the physical world, I just started training Jujitsu and have quickly learned I can't throw people far. You and I both can't throw Facebook, Google, and Instagram an inch in the digital world because we can't grab them. They, however, have all the data and information to grab our attention and sell it to the highest bidder.

So while we wait, what can we do?

• We say nothing we wouldn't be okay with showing up as a quote on the front page of the New York Times
• No social media apps on our phones (include email if you're feeling risky)
• We stay out of the home feed
• We use search to find what we need
• We go a step further by checking our sources' sources when a piece of information hits a nerve