Surveillance Capitalism is the operation manual of modern big tech. Shoshana Zuboff’s analysis of this phenomenon is quite accurate: it’s not that “you’re the product”, it’s worse: human experience is the raw material of the behavioral modification machinery.

OpenAI and Google are now adding ads to their chatbot products. The conversational interface is being colonized by the ravaging force of the advertising industry. Your most intimate queries, related to health, relationships or career decisions, will soon inform the ads you see.

Try to make yourself illegible to the algorithm. Four tips to do so:

  1. Use the most aggressive adblocker possible. uBlock Origin for Firefox, Brave, and/or a pi-hole for your entire network.

  2. Avoid apps with algorithmic feeds: drop to zero the chances that your attention gets driven by an algorithm.

  3. Disable JavaScript by default. Most of the web still works, and you’ll be surprised how much faster it loads.

  4. Run your own services. Email, calendar, notes, file sync: join the self-hosted movement.

Don’t let your attention be harvested and sold. Don’t let your way of thinking be shaped by algorithms rather than your own willpower.