You can literally do far more harm with data than with automatic weapons.

Because that data gives you access to narrow-band propaganda. Instead of hope-for-the-best broad messaging you can target specific groups with content, signifiers, and emotional tone that is known to be effective for them, and encourage specific collective beliefs and behaviours.

It's not even persuasion any more in the ad tech sense. When it's done by hostile troll farms or state actors with a covert political agenda it's literally psychological warfare.

IMO the industry needs to take a long hard look at itself and start asking questions about whether this is really where it wants to go.

Hacker culture has a benign, goofy, on-the-spectrum, somewhat arrogant but mostly harmless reputation.

The reality couldn't be further from the truth. Data collection and social media systems are psychological weapons. They're absolutely hostile to rational informed choice and participative democracy.

And given the temptation to abuse that power in various ways, we should be having more of a conversation about this than we have so far.