Anyone who knows me knows that I loooove me some Google. I use Google services, applications, and products at every feasible opportunity I find. Their applications and products play well with others (unlike Apple) and the ecosystem that Google has built allows for things like real-time information right when I need it. I’m talking about the kinds of things that are actually useful like arrival/departure information for mass transit, based on the stations nearest to me at any given time.
All of that convenience comes at a cost that I am very aware of, however. The features that make me love Google are the same features that make me pause once in a while to think, “This is so convenient… It’s kinda creepy…” The conversation usually goes something like this:
Me: *looks at phone while heading towards subway station* “Oh wow, the next train is arriving in 3 minutes, I better pick up the pace.”
Me to me: “That’s helpful, but a little too ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ meme-y. Google is stalking us…”
Me: “That’s just how tech is nowadays. I’ll take a little bit of location tracking if it saves me time and hassle. And there is no ‘us’, only me, because I am talking to myself. Us is me, because I am you and… why am I arguing with myself…”
Me to me: “You say that now, but think of all that information about you; where you go, how long you stay there, how you get there… And let’s not forget about the Google searches, and the phone’s mic always listening for the launch phrase… Always listening…”
Me: “That data is stored in encrypted environments, and besides, anyone who wanted to know that could get that from my transit card usage data, or bank transaction data, or any one of a myriad of data collection points we ALL pass through. At least Google is making my life easier as a result… And stop saying ‘you’. I AM you.”
Me to me: “Look Jordan, you’re missing the point: you are giving away identifying and behavioral information for free. What if someone plants something on you like in ‘Enemy of the State’? Signals intelligence would have a field day: all the government would have to do is wait for you at Potbelly’s…”
I’ve always belonged to the camp that doesn’t make a distinction between government and corporate tracking/surveillance, for the simple fact that if the government needs information obtained by a company, they will get it. We are far beyond the point of crying foul over privacy breaches; this is a reality of our own making, so we might as well get as much gainful use from it as we can.
There are a lot of professionals whose lives literally rely on being anonymous and untraceable, and there lies the only valid argument to be made for fighting to protect privacy. My point is that the fight is futile. A powerful example of this is that the intelligence community shifted several years ago to account for one simple fact: any assumed cover will be blown. That’s a when, not if, and the best possible position you can have, is one of control over when that happens and where you are when it does. So if the folks who make a living from concealing their identity from adversaries and their associated governments (most of whom don’t have the resources or wealth of data that the US does), that doesn’t exactly bode very well for the guy with the tin hat and faraday cage.
When it’s all said and done, I love the services that Google and other corporations give me. Do I love the requisite invasion of privacy, the geocaching, the tracking, and the perpetual microphone listening? Absolutely not. But I don’t have very much control over the environment and state of technology outside of my home. It’s out there regardless of my feelings, so I can either take advantage of it, or live in the digital Stone Age.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my phone is telling me I need to leave now, to make it to Potbelly’s before the afternoon rush.