Serf's up!
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Some of us have pledged our allegiance to Google: We have Gmail accounts, we use Google Calendar and Google Docs, and we have Android phones. Others have pledged allegiance to Apple: We have Macintosh laptops, iPhones, and iPads; and we let iCloud automatically synchronize and back up everything. Still others of us let Microsoft do it all. Or we buy our music and e-books from Amazon, which keeps records of what we own and allows downloading to a Kindle, computer, or phone. Some of us have pretty much abandoned e-mail altogether … for Facebook. These vendors are becoming our feudal lords, and we are becoming their vassals. We might refuse to pledge allegiance to all of them -- or to a particular one we don't like. Or we can spread our allegiance around. But either way, it's becoming increasingly difficult to not pledge allegiance to at least one of them. |
This is coming about because in many internet-enabled devices (smartphones, tablets, e-readers and the like) the vendor has more control over the software and hardware than the user. In addition, many online services (GMail, Hotmail, Facebook, etc.) have taken over the hosting and maintenance of much of our data.
There's a plus side to fealty. Instead of having to worry about anti-virus software, backups, firewalls, system configuration and software updates we get convenience and, hopefully, some measure of security. But there's a downside too;
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Today's internet feudalism ... is
ad hoc and one-sided. We give companies our data and trust them with
our security, but we receive very few assurances of protection in
return, and those companies have very few restrictions on what they can
do.
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And as anyone who's read history, seen Monty Python or indulged in A Game of Thrones will tell you, serfs don't rate highly in the general scheme of things.
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Ultimately, they will always act
in their own self-interest, as companies do when they mine our data in
order to sell more advertising and make more money. These companies own
us, so they can sell us off -- again, like serfs -- to rival lords...or
turn us in to the authorities.
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