Thoughts about the impact and future direction of proprietary software and technologies of surveillance and control.

tl;dr

Given the continued trends of proprietary software and surveillance technologies, what is strategically the best course of action for those of us who care -- not only from an individual perspective, but also in terms of the wider harmful effects of these technologies to the fabric and structure of our societies, from our relationships with nuclear family to extended family, friends, and our professional lives? Thoughts?

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The following is an attempt to put into words some questions and thoughts I've been mulling over for a while. I would be happy to hear the opinions of others here about them. As invasive proprietary technology makes further and further incursions into our lives in ways that give us less and less possibility to defend ourselves against, what are strategically the most meaningful positions to take? As has been mentioned in the past by Mr. Moglen, the surveillance society we live under, represents an ecological problem, so individual actions are not enough to change course (not unrelated nor so different from the unabashed corporate led destruction of the environment and depletion of resources for short-term narrow-minded objectives, that we are currently living through).

One good example of what I mean can be illustrated by my relationship with google. I have, for a long time, done my utmost to keep google out of my life and have done so successfully on all fronts except for Youtube, and whatever Analytics or other such surveillance are used on some of the websites I visit and where turning JS off renders the site unusable. Lately, I have noticed more and more of a trend in that wherever I visit there are more and more ubiquitous surveillance devices. There is one such product from google that looks like a cylinder speaker and records everything around it (not to mention devices from other corporations such as "smart" TV's, amazon's whatever it's called, etc.) . Now I see google has come up with a camera that people can mount anywhere and which will be on at all times examine an area using artificial intelligence to determine when to record photos and videos of "cute" moments. It is not difficult to see where this trend is headed and how in spite of all efforts to resist these abusive corporations, they will make every effort to encroach further and further into our private lives and they will succeed, largely with fanfares and praise from those they are abusing.

When will it reach the point where those of us opposed to this surveillance capitalism model will be completely ostracized and marginalized from society? When will the question become "google or me" and our loved ones choose google because they perceive can no longer (nor want to) live without it? These mega-corporations have managed to endear themselves into the minds of many adults in our societies in a way that I find truly alarming. Many people who are technologically completely ignorant but who have such strong feelings and views about these for profit corporations and technologies they do not understand and which mistreat and abuse them. With children it's even worse. I have met young kids who tell me they like to chat with google because she knows everything and she is so nice and funny. What will become of these kids and their relationships with these corporations when they become adults? How will they perceive these corporations and the ubiquitous control and surveillance? How will they interact with them and how will they in turn teach their children?

What to do in light of these continuing trends and the mostly complete lack of caring that people show about these issues -- even after Snowden's revelations, which I actually feel largely created a sense of "we're already doomed by surveillance so lets just embrace it all and cease the moment" in the mainstream consciousness? I realize there are many who are alarmed and even many who mount efforts to resist and counteract and that thanks to these efforts there is at least still a choice in the matter for some technologies and for those of us who care, but to what extent will that become less meaningful as we come to not even physically control the devices that are used to control and surveil us? I can already envisage situations where the "owners" of such devices (many times family and friends) will be offended by the request to turn them off when we're around, feeling that these requests are attempts to control how *they* choose live their lives and the technologies they choose in their own homes/environments. And, when that time comes, what should those of us who care do about it and what will those of us we care about choose when faced with such a choice?

On that subject one of the big questions is what does it mean to be a radical or a conservative? Are those who embrace the latest technologies blindly and allow giant undemocratic institutions and corporations to drastically alter social structures actually the radicals, and those who question the fundamental assumptions and are skeptical of embracing every new gadget, toy and technology as inherently positive actually the conservatives. Sometimes I feel as though we're living a mass induced psychotic break from reality and the few of us who try to question it are immediately labeled as intolerant luddites and paranoid conspiracy theorists.

For a long time I have questioned the strategic effect of those who obviously care and are actively trying to resist/mitigate/change the situation but who use platforms such as google or facebook or twitter, etc. to do so. For a long time I have wondered how useful this would be strategically and what other options are available besides this. Now as I see the current trend of these corporations becoming the "curators of reality" it becomes clear that the perceived short-term tactical gains may not have necessarily justified the long-term strategic loses of coming to depend on these corporations. I know that in the case of free software RMS has been very consistent in the long-term and as a result, the GNU and free software projects stand strong as a last stronghold for those of us who reject the control exercised through proprietary software. However, how useful will that continue to be in light of new evolving technologies and what -- if any -- thinking needs to be made moving forward.