The internet is a surveillance state. Regardless of whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to.
Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter, who wishes to remain anonymous, used a tool called Collusion in 2013 to track who was tracking him: 105 companies tracked his internet use during one 36-hour period.
Increasingly, what we do on the Internet is being combined with other data about us. Everything we do now -- from ordering food to submitting assignments -- involves computers, and computers produce output data as a natural by-product.
Everything is now being saved and correlated, and many big-data companies make money by building up intimate profiles of our lives from a variety of sources.
We’re now in the early stages of the so-called “Internet of Things.” Companies are rushing to install sensors and transmitters in all manners of consumer and industrial goods. These network-connected “things” will be able to beam reports on our behaviour to corporate databases.
We won’t be tracked just by our smartphones. We’ll be tracked by our cars, our homes, our clothes, our appliances along with the machines and tools we use in our jobs.
We’re beginning to see the extent of the surveillance the Internet of Things will entail. Thermostats and smoke detectors sold by Nest, a unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, collect information on a home’s temperature, humidity and lighting as well as the movements of people in rooms.
Amazon’s Echo, a voice-activated home automation device, records conversations and stores them in Amazon’s cloud.
The cars built by Tesla contain sensors that track and transmit a vehicle’s location and its owner’s driving habits. Vicks sells a rectal thermometer with a Bluetooth transmitter and an accompanying smartphone app.
Under Armour has announced plans to put biometric sensors in the garments it makes.
As businesses learn even more about our habits and desires, they’ll be able to mold our behaviour to fit their own interests.
All this information is fed back, via the Internet, to their respective manufacturers. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere that companies won’t go to collect information about us.
As consumers, we’ve always divulged information about ourselves in the course of buying products and services. If you want to get a comfortable pair of hiking boots at a local shoe store, you’re going to need to let the clerk measure your feet.
If you want to build a new house that suits your lifestyle, you’re going to have to share with an architect details about how you and your family live.
Technology companies would argue that the new network-connected goods fit this well-established pattern. Collecting information about us allows them to deliver more personalised products.
Can’t we trace this phenomenon back to its roots? In the past, exchanges of information were limited to particular purchases.
The shoe clerk and the architect didn’t collaborate in preparing a detailed profile of you that they could then share with or sell to other companies. And they certainly didn’t keep tabs on you as you went through your day.
So how did this start? Have we actually sacrificed our private lives for better products?
Ever since Internet firms started tracking us online, we’ve worried about the loss of privacy. Knowing that we’re always under watch can erode our sense of autonomy and circumscribe our freedom of thought and action.
The Internet of Things brings an added danger. As businesses learn even more about our habits and desires, they’ll be able to mold our behaviour to fit their own interests. The networked devices that surround us won’t just collect information about us. They’ll also start telling us what to do.
Surely, we can take measures to prevent companies from intruding into our personal lives. Or can we? Mass production, as essential as it is, requires near infinite data in order to be accurate.
We’re basically stuck in a scenario where it’s our privacy versus our comfort. Fixing this will require strong government will, but they are just as blood-thirsty for data as the producers, in hopes of being able to track down suspects and prevent crimes from happening.
Consequently, privacy is not being given as much importance as previously hoped.
So, it appears that privacy advocates are on the losing side of the battle. I welcome you to a world where Google knows exactly what kind of information you search for.
I welcome you to a world where your cell phone company knows exactly where you are all the time. Say hello to the end of private conversations, because progressively, your conversations are being carried out via e-mail, text, or social networking sites where they are not safe from the prying eyes of corporations.
And I welcome you to a world where all of this, and everything that you do or is done by the computer is saved, correlated, analysed, and passed around from company to company without your knowledge or consent; where the government can access it without a warrant.
A world where ubiquitous surveillance is integrated, and it’s efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.
Welcome to the world of Internet without privacy, and we’ve ended up here with hardly a fight.
