Amnesty International has strongly criticized the economic model of the Internet giants Facebook and Google that is "based on monitoring", calling it a "systemic threat to human rights."
The NGO argued in a report that by making their free online services indispensable to billions of people, and by using the collected personal data for targeted advertising, these groups threaten freedom of opinion and expression.
"Their insidious control of our digital lives undermines the very foundation of privacy and it is one of the major challenges of our time in terms of human rights," Amnesty’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said in a communication.
"Google and Facebook have gradually chipped away at the respect of our privacy. Today we are trapped. Either we submit to this vast monitoring machine — where our data is easily used to manipulate and influence us — or we give up the benefits of a digital world,” he added.
The Brussels Times
