Gary Kovacs Quotes

It's not Big Brother that we now have to be afraid of, but Big Browser.

Everything we do in the digital realm - from surfing the Web to sending an e-mail to conducting a credit card transaction to, yes, making a phone call - creates a data trail. And if that trail exists, chances are someone is using it - or will be soon enough.

Ultimately there's a dirty secret about the Internet, which is nothing disappears. All these companies have all your information. They have your search history.

[Behavioral tracking] is an area today that has very few regulations and even fewer rules.

Your computer monitor is a kind a one-way mirror, reflecting your own interests while algorithmic observers watch what you click.

Call it a hunch, but I sense that many of us are not entirely comfortable with a world in which every single thing we buy creates a cloud of data. I'd like to have an option to not have a record of how much I tipped, or what I bought at 1:08 A.M. at a corner market in New York City.

When I know the data that's being shared and I'm asked explicitly for my consent, I want some sites to understand my habits. It helps them suggest books for me to read or movies for my family to watch or friends for us to connect with.

I want to talk about privacy, the quality of the information you receive, whether it's neutral or commercial or pointed, bringing consciousness to the lack of neutrality in the algorithms.

Facebook is not your friend, it is a surveillance engine.

What's really going on is, on your iPhone, you have 200 apps, and they're all collecting a little data on you. Twitter knows a certain thing, Foursquare knows something else, my Fitbit app knows something else, my Waze app knows something else.

Google, Facebook, and other consumer web companies violate our privacy. But that's only because they have an ad-based business model. They can only make money by selling your data - and degrading the product experience with ads.

Facebook mistreats its users. Facebook is not your friend; it is a surveillance engine. For instance, if you browse the Web and you see a 'like' button in some page or some other site that has been displayed from Facebook. Therefore, Facebook knows that your machine visited that page.

You can have Google or you can have privacy but you can’t have both.

Internet privacy is dwindling. Every purchase you make, flight you take, website you view, file you download, person you call, and e-mail you send is tracked. … and then stored indefinitely and often sold to the highest bidder—whoever that may be. Personal data, long thought to be confidential simply isn’t anymore.

I log on and there are so many cookies embedded in my computer - it's like they know what I need before I do.

Often when I'm talking about something, we could be talking about cats, and then I'll get adverts on my phone about cat food.

There is no need for neighborhood informants and paper dossiers if the government can see citizens' every Web site visit, e-mail and text message.

A little-appreciated downside of the technology revolution is that, mainly without thinking about it, we have given up 'locational privacy.'

Our movements and feelings are constantly monitored, because surveillance is the business model of the digital age.

Choosing providers is not a choice between surveillance/not; it's just choosing which feudal lord gets to spy on you.

People are starting to be very skeptical of the Facebook algorithm and all kinds of data surveillance.

Google won't break into your home. You'll invite them in.

Facebook has long been part of surveillance programs, long before it acquired WhatsApp.

The Internet gave us access to everything, but it also gave everything access to us.

Once upon a time there was a physicality to the business of investigating a serious crime. There were objects, pieces of paper, even good old-fashioned fingerprints. Today it's different. Because all of us are routinely and voluntarily giving the intimate details of our lives to all kinds of people whether we realize it or not.