People are not insects

There’s probably a rule in the columnist’s guidebook somewhere that says you’re not supposed to connect two wildly different pieces of information in the same column.

Luckily for me, I don’t have a copy of that guidebook.

So, let’s talk Brood X, and then, tracking software.

Brood X is the nickname scientists have given to a particular cycle of cicadas that are set to hatch in the next few weeks across a big chunk of the northeastern United States and beyond — in fact, as far west as Kansas and Nebraska. Billions will come out of the ground, noisily make their mating calls, and then die off after laying the groundwork for the next Brood X, which will arrive in 2038.

You’re bound to hear a lot about Brood X, especially when things start to get noisy and when as many as 1.5 million cicadas an acre make their appearance.

For an insect that only comes up out of the ground to breed every 17 years, cicadas get a lot of attention. Brood X has been diligently tracked through computer modelling — in fact, there are 23 different broods that scientists track, both for geographic location and appearance, some of them showing up on 17year cycles, others on 13-year cycles.

Not only the cicadas are tracked — so are the predators of the suddenly abundant bugs, predators that include everything from birds to small mammals. Heck, even the proclivity of some species to have reproductive booms as a result of a sudden easy food source is being carefully tracked through the carefully calibrated arrival of Brood X, which will surface about the time soil temperatures reach 64 degrees F, or 18 C. There’s plenty to track. But then again, there’s plenty that shouldn’t be tracked.

This week, CBC News reported on an Alberta school custodian who refused to download tracking software onto her personal cellphone. The software loosely tracked her location, letting her employer know when she arrived and left from her job at a school in Darwell. She was later fired, with her refusal to download the tracking software noted in her dismissal letter.

The software is part of something that’s become more popular for work-from-home employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the boss can’t see you working at your desk, “tattleware” lets your employer know if, say, your computer mouse is being used as much as usual.

You can understand why the concept might be popular for employers, especially for employers who can’t go to worksites to see what’s being done thoroughly, who’s on the job, and how long they are there.

But it sure means that there are different standards for different people.

Where, for example, are the bosses who are monitoring their employees through tracking apps? Are they working from home? Are they also being remotely tracked? Would they be offended if they were?

And what about personal privacy? It’s all well and good for an employer to say that it’s only a high-tech time clock, but if it’s installed on your own personal phone, what protections do you have from security breaches or deliberate misuse by not only your employer, but through a hack as well?

Anyone who turns on location services on their phone knows that they’re being tracked geographically, just like the cicada swarms are and will be through the next couple of months of cicada cacophony.

But you can turn off the location system on your phone. Can you turn off your boss’s spy software eye from the sky? Good question.

One last thought. Cicadas are insects and are often treated that way.

People shouldn’t be.