In a world where more and more devices are “connected”, we’re having to give up more of our privacy in order to feed the Big Data Monster.
This recent article from MIT Technology Review highlights an example where the popular Roomba robot vacuum was collecting information from users as it went along its path cleaning the floor. It was indexing the home and creating a virtual understanding of the layout and items in the home. Imagine what might be exposed in your home if something was crawling along the floor taking pictures and videos and listening to conversations.
In some cases it might be your location. In others it may be what you buy or consume. And in others it’s more personal, perhaps even more intimate: photos, videos, conversations, info about friends and family members, including minors.
In one particularly revealing shot, a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sits on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.
NOTE: I’m not picking on the fine folks at iRobot and their great Roomba products. The article states that these were not commercially-available products and all the beta users signed agreements to having their information potentially shared. I’m not sure they knew exactly what that might entail but I’m sure the warning was comprehensive. The issue is far more reaching than just iRobot. It gets down to your phones, your cars, your digital assistants (Alexa, Google, etc.)
And that’s sort of the idea here. How far are we willing to go to share information or to gain some type of entertainment or efficiency or status? We all probably have that friend who is a habitual “over sharer”, meaning they check-in on Facebook every time they go to a restaurant or a concert or the airport. They share candid photos of their friends and families (and others?) without consent. We just allow it from one another. We’ll do anything for “likes” and “shares”.
Often we’ve given our approval to allow this by clicking OK when downloading the app or by using the device. It’s very much a new pay-to-play world where the currency is information about who we are, what we do, where we go, what we buy, what we like/dislike, and who we do it with.
Even so much as to allow photos and videos of us in the act of doing it.
It’s a brave new world, folks. You have to be courageous just to stay at home these days let alone go outside. And the crazy thing is that we’ve done it to ourselves. We’ve invited the monster into our homes. Into our lives. We WANT it in our lives. And the price we pay is being an open book to the world.