In today’s fast-paced hi-tech world, society is constantly sacrificing individual privacy for the sake of convenience. But who takes away our privacy? A vast partisan of “Little Brothers” and private corporations are primarily responsible for our loss of privacy because through the use of smart home devices and our addiction to the internet we willingly sacrifice our society’s privacy. It is absolutely necessary to remember that when one purchases an always-on device (Echo, Google Home, etc) they are inviting mega-corporations to listen to and record their conversations.
Recently while police were investigating the murder of Victor Collins, they noticed an Echo on the counter of the prime suspect. The authorities then demanded that Amazon turn over all recordings that the Echo had collected in order to be used as evidence against the suspect.
An infamous Echo is equipped with seven microphones and can hear anything from up to twenty feet away. Not only do they hear and listen, they record. This means that every word a person utters within twenty feet of an Echo will be monitored and recorded. Many people think of always-on devices as just being smart home tools such as the Echo and Google Home. But, always devices include smartwatches such as the Apple Watch or Fitbit. Through advanced GPS software, these smart watches monitor and record how far you walk, where you go and how many steps you take. When Connie Debate was found dead in her Connecticut home in December of 2015, the police immediately questioned her husband, Richard. Richard claimed that a masked intruder broke into the house and brutally murdered his wife.
Next, the police checked her Fitbit and it showed that she had walked 1,217 feet one hour after Richard claimed she was murdered. Incidentally, these vile, snooping pranksters could be able to surveil every movement an individual makes throughout the day. In the early 1990s when the internet first became widely popular, the future looked bright, there was this new magical tool that could answer any question someone might have and even provide services. But not even the darkest nightmare could predict what the internet would turn into today. Tyler Clementi committed suicide because of an embarrassing video of him that was posted on the internet. When most people hear of a tragedy of this nature they stop for a second, think to themselves “that is awful” and move on with their lives like nothing ever happened. Tyler Clementi’s suicide was not an isolated event.
People such as himself become a fact, a statistic, what most people do not think about is how this 18 year old kid was robbed of his life because someone thought it would be funny. Most people do not think about him plummeting to his death from the roof of a building, his body contorted, belly ripped open and spilling out organs. Instances such as these are not numbers, they are lives, and when these vile “Little Brothers” roam free, no one is safe. In September of 2018, Twitch streamer and internet personality Guy Beahm (Dr. Disrespect) was performing his normal routine, playing games. When suddenly, multiple deafening gunshots could be heard coming from just outside his home.
With an astounding 2.5 million followers on Twitch alone, most people are aware of his celebrity status. When Guy Beahm is streaming at any given moment there could be 2.5 million complete strangers watching his every move. Since he has elevated himself to a celebrity status via the internet, his personal information like his date of birth, full name, age, address, income, and much more are extremely accessible to anyone with a computer. It is plain to see that a vast cohort of pranksters and well meaning companies are primarily responsible for stripping away the general public’s privacy. Perhaps it is time to begin to consider what we sacrifice for the sake of luxury.
