Has technology got its digital eye on all of us?
IT has long been suspected that computers can spy on their owners through their in-built cameras. Leaders of technology and the FBI put sticky tape over the lens just in case. Smart T Vs, mobile phones and almost any device with Artificial Intelligence can be used, experts say, to track movements, house occupancy, conversations and relationships.
America is threatening to ban the products of Chinese telecommunications company Huawei because they claim their capabilities for spying could be a threat to national security, and a Moscow based software company has been accused of planting spyware along with its antivirus security system.
Now voice assistants, such as Alexa, Siri and Cortana, are said to be a threat to privacy.
Professor Ashwin Machanavajjhala, a former US Government data adviser who has banned such devices from his home, warns: “Smart T Vs and voice assistants can pick up living room chatter, some of which may be shared with third parties. We need to know what is being collected about us, whether or not we have anything to hide.”
Future generations
could roll about laughing at us in home scenes we thought
were private.
We used to boast that the welfare state protected us from the cradle to the grave but it now appears the journey is also being recorded by web services, phones, social media and the T V remote control you now tell to change channels.
This information might or might not be tapped by spy networks, hackers or even private detectives. “Alexa, who was that lady you saw him with last night?”
Or, in 100 years and after a statute of limitations for broadcasting copyright laws, it could all become a wonderful – if complex – record of everyday life that could spawn retrospective reality T V shows.
We could become stars of endless series of All Our Yesterdays Gogglebox.
Future generations could roll about laughing at us in home scenes we thought were private, at our flatulent worst, walking around naked, ranting about life, revealing prejudice, picking our nose, being human. All from a retrospective viewpoint.
Sounds like a hit, to me.