Not so long ago I talked about how our relationship to our devices had changed; that they were collecting information we probably hadn’t knowingly consented to; what we chose to share had become an afterthought.
I should have expected Meta to overstep the mark and release its new pervert glasses, which record at all times and upload everything to its servers. Apparently they learned nothing from Microsoft installing a key logger on everyone’s PCs under the guise of ‘CoPilot Recall’.
However, I did not expect Apple, the company who wants you to think that they care about your privacy, to introduce a feature to its new line of Apple Watches that record everything you and anyone near you says as part of its ‘audio intelligence’ features. Siri Recap and Live Rewind are features that should have never made it beyond the ‘ideas’ phase.
This goes beyond merely spying on the wearer of these devices.
This breaks the social contract entirely. This makes these devices a liability in the workplace and a nightmare for friends or even complete strangers.
I believe the fundamental problem here is that technology companies and the people working for them are so completely and utterly divorced from reality, or even what being a human being is like that they don’t see a problem with a catastrophic violation of everyone’s privacy.
You know, I keep getting this really uneasy feeling that maybe embracing technology the way we did in the 2000s was a colossal mistake.
Is it too late to turn back? I’m giving the idea of leaving the internet entirely some serious thought.
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