How would you feel if someone walked into your room, stole your diary, and sold all the information inside? Then, when the police do nothing. And you never get the diary back. How would you feel?

 

What if I told you this happens to you every day? You may be thinking, I don't keep a diary? ​But with every click, swipe, like, scroll, message, save, tap, watch, share, favorite, or follow, you are writing each line of the pages that fill your diary. Thanks to online data, you have millions of diaries to your name, but they've all been stolen from you. 

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You may be asking, "How could they be stealing all this without me knowing?". The answer to that is online contracts. Every time you've clicked "I agree," "allow," "authorize," or "yes" on a website or an app, did you read what you were agreeing to? Probably not, as most people do not read the terms and conditions or policies before signing away. I don't blame you. They're often lengthy and hard to understand, full of legal jargon and confusing conclusions. The average social media contract takes over an hour to read, but that is just to read, not to comprehend. Most terms are nonsense without a law degree, and so this begs the question, "What's the point of contracts nobody understands?". Well, the answer to that is companies don't want you to know what you're agreeing to because you wouldn't agree if you did know. Through these contracts, companies legally steal all of your online data and learn everything about you so they can use it to control your behavior and what information you see. 

 

"How can you legally steal? Isn't that an oxymoron? How could the same system that is supposed to protect me be the same system that steals from me?". These questions then beg the final one, "Is the legal system set up in the interest of the people?". The answer to all these questions is that the legal system is set up to serve the interest of the elite, not the general public. We blindly follow a system the average person doesn't understand, yet we put much trust in it. We blindly agree to these contracts because we believe that there are forces out there that will protect us from mass exploitation, but online, there are few to none. We're on our own right now, but it doesn't have to be this way. I'm working on breaking down and dissecting these contracts, hoping to translate them into simple terms so people can understand what they are agreeing to. If we draw enough attention to the truth behind these contracts, the people will begin to demand accountability, action, and justice.