Thursday, March 1, 2012

privacy anyone?

Through a friend of a friend I know somebody who Google’s everyone. How does that translate? Well basically, if during conversation, a happenstance reference to someone should arise and said acquaintance had not attended the mentioned persons wedding --that will likely trigger a search engine. And while I find it altogether humorous, it scares me as well.

And so I decided to Google myself. To my amazement, there is an abundance of me. And we all do the same stuff. We blog, we link, we network, and we post bad pictures of ourselves. In an instant I learned as much about strangers as I know about my loud colleague in the office next door.

I suppose that to many people, especially those heavy into IT, this is business as usual. No big deal. And though I could probably make that point too, I fear that I would miss the big picture in the process of my attempt.

Coinciding with Google’s announcement to streamline their privacy practices today and amid questions about how much Apple knew before it was reported in The New York Times that users of Apple’s mobile devices may have allowed apps on their iPhones, iPads or iPods that can gain access to their contact lists, without clear permission, or access their pictures, without a clear disclosure, a good deal of criticism has been publicized regarding privacy issues. And not just here, but also abroad, Fox News and various outlets are reporting an uproar over the handling of search results, the compilation of data and even concerns about Street View mapping. What will become of this is hard to say, but Google and Apple are big targets.

Lost under the radar, however, is the already in place disregard to our daily privacy that we have grown accustomed to and either brush off or accept.

As for me, sometimes I pose or smile into security cameras that I pass by on a daily basis, especially when their locations are meant to be deceptive or they are hidden behind tinted glass. And even though I have the GPS locator on my phone set to 911 only, I am quite confident that I’m tracked regularly by my bread crumb of activities and triangulation. Employers track us, marketers track us, parents, spouses, plus hackers and creeps can track us too. And I presume that eavesdropping will occur on most unsecured wireless networks. I suppose the only tools left at my disposal are my settings, changing of passwords and my attention to at risk pathways.

But the allure of technology is a magic potion and we are easily lulled into a stupor by its utility. We hardly ever miss a call. We connect across networks, communities, countries and continents in an instant. We can do it from our homes, offices, café’s, or the front seat of our cars before heading into Dunkin Donuts. We download books in a flash. We play multiple games with multiple players. We text, we share, we post, we comment, we search, we plan, we bank and we rely on our gadgets.

Our gadgets though only have a vested interest in efficiency. And that is why I cringe when we don’t pay attention to privacy. No one cares about your privacy if you don’t—it’s lost in a click.

Yet I am continuously reminded that evidently we don’t care and so maybe Google, Apple or anyone else can have at the taking. On any given day, and particularly last Tuesday, I can overhear a railroad passenger’s conversation with a registrar office well enough to plainly know his name, D.O.B., Social Security number, cell number and home address. And I didn’t flinch when, while making a call, I asked a business associate ‘how are you?’ and the reply was, ‘good, I’m taking a s#!+’ (and obviously taking pride in always being connected). Akin to that, while using the men’s room at a conference center, it wasn’t the first time I began to wonder if the person sidling next to me at the urinal was holding his Smartphone at an odd angle because he forgot his reading glasses or if he was playing around in camera mode.

The big picture beckoned is that there is someone scarier than a Facebook addict who wants to Google everyone. And that is a lost-his-own-privacy executive who may one day be standing next to me, PDA in one hand, taking a pee with the other and perhaps gets an idea to do more than just Google everyone, if you know what I mean.

© 2012 Christopher’s Views

14 comments:

  1. I love it! And I agree! Good to see your post, Christopher. Hope you have a good weekend!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're spot on, as usual! I never allow location services and try to be very careful indeed with my privacy - but as you say, I'm no doubt tracked and trackable anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great job Chris! The GREAT LIE is that all of this makes us safer and provides us with services that we cannot live without. Let's not kid ourselves. Even at this very moment, we are not reading the Internet, the Internet is reading us. We are not connected, we are monitored. THEY don't want to make life more convenient, THEY want to sell us stuff. Orwell has wrestled Huxley to the ground. Big Brother has wired up the Brave New World!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The last two paragraphs make me so glad women's bathrooms have private stalls!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so glad women get all-stall action in public restrooms :)

    Seriously, though, privacy (no matter how hard we guard it) is at the point of being non-existent. It seems to be something that is totally devalued and with this whole fame game that so many like to play, it's made it almost anti-human not to participate. It's like we invited a Peeping Tom right into every part of our lives.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am always envious at how well you can express your thoughts and opinions with words. This is an excellent post! It is all appalling.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Privacy? What's that?

    But holding a phone while you're peeing? Surely that's just not on. At all.
    Do men do everything one-handed?

    ReplyDelete
  8. thoughtful, Mr. Orwell LOL!


    Sorry to have been absent; you popped into my mind and then commented at my place. thank you Christopher


    Aloha from Waikiki
    Comfort Spiral

    >< } } ( ° >

    How To Remove Word Verification if you want to make it easier for commentors:


    1) Make sure you are in the old Blogger interface. If you're on the new Blogger Interface, click the cog-like icon in the upper right corner of your blog settings screens. Select "Old Blogger Interface."

    2) Go into your settings.

    3) Select "Comments."

    4) Under "Who Can Comment?" I would suggest either "Anyone" or "Registered Users (this one keeps anonymous posters from commenting if you so desire).

    5) Under "Comment Form Placement" I would suggest "Full Page" or "Pop-up" since some folks are having a tough time viewing and commenting on embedded forms.

    6) Scroll down the page a bit and look for "Comment Moderation." You might want to allow moderation on posts older than 14 days because very old posts sometimes seem to be spam magnets. Include your email address if you want notifications of comments left on you blog posts which are older than 14 days, if you selected the above option.

    7) Under "Show Word Verification for Comments?" Please select NO.

    8) Save these changes to your settings.

    9) Return to the new Blogger interface, if you wish by clicking on your Dashboard and clicking "Try the updated Blogger interface."

    ReplyDelete
  9. I Google myself and get bored

    I don't really know how I feel about privacy or lack of it due to technology
    I do know I hate that no one appears to ever tune out anymore, they're all endlessly wired into their devices

    ReplyDelete
  10. Big brother is everywhere these days.. but at the urinal. That's creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah, the pee photo is pretty weird. More than that, actually, The more we are offered ways to 'share' the less judgment we seem to have about it. The pendulum has swung so far in the other direction from respect for privacy and the space of others that I can only think it will eventually behave as pendulums as wont to do. We can always hope. Excellent piece, Christopher.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Chris, I so agree with you! This generation has no idea what privacy is anymore and many of us have lost our desire for it or are tired of fighting for it! With the launch of the US opening up the airways for unmanned drones right here in our own country it is about to get even scarier! With this electronic, continually connected world it even makes me cautious about what say on this blog or anywhere else because it is now written here forever!!!!!! What if I change my mind or my point of view? With these written words someone can always find them and hold them up to my face and challenge me to defend them! Yet...the desire to connect, to be heard and to communicate is so strong, and I like it that my words can be written for others to read and I don't need a newspaper or a publisher to approve them!

    ReplyDelete