"It's an old hat" is the first reaction when you tell someone about this lecture. I thought the same first too. But then I realized that the following facts can not be repeated often enough.

Here is a brief summary of the lecture

What are the business figures and what data are collected?

Facebook

• $7,000,000,000 revenue (third quarter 2016, according to media reports)
• $2,100,000,000 profit (third quarter 2016, according to media reports)
• $1,790,000,000 active users
• Full monetization of all content
• Automated face detection of images
• Full upload of contact informations via WhatsApp
• The value of a single personal contact is approximately $1.7 (taken from the lecture)

Google/Alphabet

• $6,400,000,000 revenue (third quarter 2016, according to media reports)
• $2,100,000,000 profit (third quarter 2016, according to media reports)
• Collection of personal data by search, maps, android mobile phone, etc.
• Manipulation of the search results for their own benefit
• The value of a single personal contact is approximately $44 (taken from the lecture)

Uber

• $1,300,000,000 loss (at mid-year 2016, according to media reports)
• Saves all user data and trips in its central data warehouse
• Use of special algorithms to analyze data. For example they can recognize with a very high accuracy, who was on a one night stand / escapade.

By using free services, mostly you as the user is the product which generates money.

So what? Is this important to me?

Yes, it is important because the following things will be done with your data:

• You have no control over the collected data
• You have no influence on who will have this data in the future
• You do not know for what purposes your data will be used
• Data quality and content of Facebook, Google and Co. are much better than the collected data of secret services (PRISM, etc.)
• Database systems like XKeystore link the different data sources to enable grid-tracing, that can make you suspect. For example:
  • Using of an unusual language for a region
  • Using Encryption
  • Suspicious web searches / search words
  • Visiting observed places

Are there alternatives?

Only if you abstain from comfort!
Here is a short extract:

• Anonymization of internet activity
• Use of alternative search engines for the initial search (DuckDuckGo, Ixquick, ...)
• WhatsApp alternatives (Threema, etc.)

Lecture:

'Denn sie wissen, was Du tust...', 11/16/2016 Würzburg, Germany

Speaker
Marcus Bender, Distinguished Sales Consultant und Oracle Fellow der Strategic Technical Unit von Oracle Deutschland in Hamburg

Organizer
Regionalgruppe Würzburg, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI)
German Chapter of the ACM

I am looking forward to getting your feedback, further informations and hints for alternatives.

Steem On!