We are in the digital age … get used to it

THE EDITOR, Madam:

FOR THOSE Jamaicans who are so staunchly opposed to NIDS (National Identification System) on the grounds of privacy concerns, let me bring you up to the age that you are already living in. I do so by illustration.

If you go to a supermarket or a drug store and give up your phone number or email address, ostensibly to make the transacting process more streamlined and seamless, you have unwittingly given permission to entities, both private and governmental, to potentially access your most private, oftentimes intimate, information.

Are you comfortable with that?

You wouldn’t give a supermarket/drugstore your phone number/email address, you say? Well, how about if you ordered those items online, then you’re in it.

You wouldn’t do any of that, you say? Well, how about responding to a promotional pitch offering a rebate or requiring a response coupon? You’re in it.

You’re going to use a landline to order your products, you say? Well, chances are you’re contacting a firm/entity that is solidly wired into the Internet, surveillance capitalism and smart marketing.

Get used to it folks, this is our world now.

Let’s go back to that first analogy: did you buy a box of tampons at the drugstore? Algorithms will predict that in all likelihood, you are currently on your period.

Did you buy some condoms and champagne? All likelihood is, you’re anticipating an impending romantic liaison.

All of a sudden on your Facebook or Instagram pages, you are getting bombarded by ads for ... let’s say... strawberries, or cigarettes or, curse the thought, edible panties?

Did you post some innocent photos of yourself and family on Facebook and/or Instagram? It’s not the photos per se that should be your concern; it’s the predictive signals that those photos represent.

You’ve just given Facebook and Instagram your digital photos, which it can, in turn, sell to ... wait for it ... GOVERNMENT!!

What, did you think that Facebook/Instagram were really free?

Well, you’re not gonna do any of that? Are you going to walk into that drugstore/supermarket and purchase the items yourself?

Well guess what, does the point-of-sale equipment at the checkout have a camera that can take your picture and crossreference it with the universal product code of your product?

STOP THE FOOLISHNESS

Isn’t it a matter of how sophisticated government chooses to be? Can Jamaica partner with say China or the United States to acquire these capabilities? Of course!!

We are in it, folks, this is the age in which we live. Of course, you can escape it – by giving up all modern communication amenities that we’ve become accustomed to and living completely off the grid, and forget about purchasing the goods and services that make our lives livable and comfortable.

This means no computers, definitely no smartphones, perhaps no phones, period, no smart TVs; perhaps no satellite-reliant TVs, period.

You must desist from using or purchasing anything that will leave behind your metadata footprint! Are you ready for that?

Stop the foolishness, Jamaicans, and give the Government your digital picture and your fingerprints so they can protect you so that you can walk the streets at night and lose those hideous, birdcage burglar bars.