The Digital Shadow

[Intro] [Electronic pulses, sound of a hard drive spinning up] [Digital glitches and scanner sounds] (Data stream active. Identity confirmed.) [Verse 1] A thumbprint pressed on the cold, glass face They follow your pulse, they follow your pace The camera is watching, but you’ve ceased to care The net is wide open, a ghost in the air A "free" little service for your whole private life In a world that is sharp as a digital knife Every like, every search, every word that you say Is stored in the dark for a rainy day [Chorus] Your digital shadow follows you home It knows where you think, it knows where you roam A glass-made human in a silicon world As the flags of surveillance are slowly unfurled The algorithm writes your life in advance While you’re caught in a pre-programmed dance [Verse 2] They feed the cloud with your hunger and greed You’re not the customer, you are the breed A profile of zeros and ones on a screen A reflection of someone you’ve never even seen They rank you and rate you, they put you in line Based on the data you’ve left by design Total transparency sold as a gain While they harvest the secrets inside of your brain [Chorus] Your digital shadow follows you home It knows where you think, it knows where you roam A glass-made human in a silicon world As the flags of surveillance are slowly unfurled The algorithm writes your life in advance While you’re caught in a pre-programmed dance [Instrumental Break] [High-speed techno sequence, aggressive synth stabs, glitchy percussion] [Verse 3] Pull the plug before you are lost in the stream Before you become just a part of the machine Anonymity is a treasure, a prize But it’s hard to stay hidden from a thousand eyes Leave no trail behind, slip into the night Step out from the glow of the artificial light They can measure your moves, but they can’t feel your soul Take back the pieces they tried to control [Bridge] [Distorted, robotic voice] Connection established... Synchronization complete... Profile updated... You are... predictable. (No!) [Instrumental Solo] [Dark, driving synthesizer solo, building to a peak and then crashing] [Outro] [Sound of a computer shutting down] Data deleted? (A shadow always remains.) Offline. [End]