US political choices made identity ownership private while keeping GPS common

Evidence

And yet, astoundingly, our digital identity belongs neither to us nor to the state. Strewn across countless privately owned digital realms, it has many owners, none of whom is us: a private bank owns your ID codes and your entire purchasing record. Facebook is intimately familiar with whom – and what – you like. Twitter remembers every little thought that caught your attention, every opinion that you agreed with, that made you furious, that you lingered over idly before scrolling on. Apple and Google know better than you do what you watch, read, buy, whom you meet, when and where. Spotify owns a record of your musical preferences more complete than the one stored in your conscious memory. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 299 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Digital identity is privately owned by corporations, not by the person it identifies — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 299; Identity is a positional political choice, not an ascribed primordial given; The new enclosures privatize access to identity, as the old ones privatized land (+1 more)

Related

• Digital identity is privately owned by corporations, not by the person it identifies (similarity 0.87)
• Big Tech’s control of digital identity is a deliberate US government political choice (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Digital identity is privately owned by corporations, not by the person it identifies #complicates (0.95) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 299
• Identity is a positional political choice, not an ascribed primordial given #expands (0.90)