Like many, I find conspiracy theories fascinating. There’s something compelling about the idea that what we see isn’t what’s really there, what we’re told isn’t really true, and what we know is just plain wrong. Maybe it’s the result of too many movies and video games and TV shows telling us that the real world is dull and only when there are secret plots and villains can life be interesting. For those of us who find the routines of adulthood stifling and are overwhelmed by the guarantee that most people will get a job, build an average life, die an average death, and disappear into endless nothingness, conspiracies and paranoia are a way of placing ourselves in the midst of something big, serious, and important.

In all likelihood, there are far fewer conspiracies than many would like to believe. Sure, there is undoubtedly some messed up stuff going on, but such is the nature of government. The security and freedom that we enjoy in the US require sacrifice, most likely the sacrifice of my own privacy, and that is something I think we all need to accept.

But then there is the control of our lives that we as individuals have given up in the name of convenience; namely, the trust we heap upon the corporations who control our banking records, our emails, our schedules, our most personal details and darkest secrets. This topic is the nexus of conspiracy theorist rambling and rational examination of risk, and it is something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

I followed LulzSec breathlessly. The whimsical irreverence with which they seemingly popped into networks that should have been secure, walked off with information that should have been secure, and then published said information in plainly insecure, naked text made a profound statement: your trust is misplaced, everything is up for grabs, trust nothing. Sony’s PSN hack was more evidence. Bank of America was hacked in March. It goes on and on, and those are the ones we know about, so just imagine how many major institutions are compromised right now by people who won’t pull the plug and make anyone aware until they have a good reason to do so? Fuck, in April of 2010, an estimated 15% of all web traffic was routed through China and all unencrypted data could have been monitored and modified. Read about it here.

This past year has shown more than ever that the institutions that we think of as organized, smart, and safe are not necessarily any of those things. Major corporations want us to think that they know what’s going on. That’s how they sell shit, that’s how they increase their stock value, that’s how the entire world keeps running. The more I see, the more I realize that most people don’t fully understand the technology that they’re using, but when this is the case with big companies who have big PR budgets, that means that they pay a lot of talented people a lot of money to give the impression of competence when really, there might not be much behind the scenes.

I am afraid of Google and Facebook because they make their money off of the collection and sale of personal information. Their businesses exist to keep records on individuals browsing habits, buying habits, search histories, likes, and dislikes. They have put whatever privacy policies online that they like but when all is said and done, nobody knows exactly what they have or how to make them get rid of it. One can only wonder if Google would even be able to purge their system of everything pertaining to an individual.

More than that, though, I am afraid of the lack of thought that goes into giving away control of my entire life to these corporations. The punk rocker in me is dying. If I got that Crass tattoo I always wanted, it would be burning itself off my skin this very moment. Google and Facebook exude confidence in their abilities to be smarter than everyone else, stay ahead of the curve, and keep our information secure… until they fuck up. And they will fuck up, sooner or later. It’s like something out of some terrible sci-fi movie. “The Day Google Became Self-Aware.” Someone will find a backdoor, something will come out that someone was working with some government or some corrupt entity that wanted to do something wild with our information. This is not paranoia, this is fact: nothing works perfectly forever; the larger an entity becomes, the more incompetence becomes reality; scandal and selfishness and negativity are coded in our DNA.

My points, one last time, one at a time…

The corporations we trust with our lives do not have our best interests at heart, they have their own interests at heart. For now, the individual’s interests and the corporation’s interests converge. Google NEEDS to protect us because when they fuck up, it is game over, so they have no choice but to stay on their toes… but they can’t forever and the more information they have, the harder they will fall.

The corporations we trust with our lives very often invest more in presenting an image of competence and ability than they actually possess. We assumed that Sony knew what they were doing when it came to protecting their PSN and we were wrong. I’m not even going to say anything about HBGary since that link says it all.

Overall, I’m disgusted. As someone whose entire life runs around Google services, I am actively searching for a replacement for my email and calendar and I think Zimbra hosted on my own server might be it. I plan on using Facebook as little more than a social networking tool for music and my recording business. I need to do more reading about anonymizing my online footprint. I realize this all sounds paranoid, even comical since the worst crime I commit is smoking negligible amounts of pot to alleviate the paralyzing effects of a back injury and anxiety. On the other hand, not having something to hide is not a valid reason to relinquish all control of my personal information. This is an issue of personal responsibility and reevaluating the trust that I as an individual and we as a society have placed in corporations that are, frankly, undeserving of our trust.