Privacy, Security, Convenience

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Recent studies show that the typical American has the attention span of about 2 seconds – goldfish apparently exceed that attention span by about 3 more seconds.

We are in a world of immediate gratification – and sometimes that is even too long. We are accustomed to having whatever we want, whenever we want, and anything over 2 days for shipping is an eternity.

Our communication has gone from long, carefully crafted and considered letters to a single letter response of “k” via text message. Even in communications, a response that takes more than 24 hours is extremely late.

I remember cell phones slowly becoming an every day item and I remember that horrible sound of AOL dial-up, and I remember the concern that happened for the “Y2K” bug and how saving everything to a floppy disk would be the saving grace. Fascinating how the “Y2K” bug came and went without an issue and how concerned everyone was of losing everything they had on the internet and their computers…..and look how much more we rely on our electronics today by comparison.

Things changed though, after 9/11/2001.

The words of Benjamin Franklin became reality shortly thereafter….”They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.”

The Patriot Act and other laws passed made it permissible for the government to look at all of our information. The exposure of what the government has on us was brought to light by Edward Snowden.

Your cell phone, laptop, Alexa/Google home assistant, your smart TV….they all spy on us and we give our information willingly to gain convenience or gain some kind of social status. The capability for the cameras and the microphones on our laptops and cell phones to be activated for listening in on conversations or watching activity by users without the users knowledge is possible (called cell surveillance) , but of course we must remember – it is for our protection.

Even National Geographic had an article on how we are under constant 24/7 surveillance – and this is just what was done in London in February 2018! Imagine what they have added to their capabilities since then!

Our entire lives are basically digital. Schools teach kids to type and very little focus is on teaching them to write with a pen/cil, if at all. Beyond this, we also provide almost every detail of our lives to our social media accounts – where we are, who our friends are, what food we eat, what we buy….and then we wonder how they know so much about our “private” lives.

Consider if you will…..the internet and all computing is no longer possible due to an EMP. Do you have the knowledge, skills, and other things necessary to survive for the rest of your life?

Don’t get me wrong, Google and the internet are certainly amazing things, but considering the vulnerability of our power grid and just the general threat to our privacy with the daily, constant surveillance, do you have hard copy backups? Do you have hard copy books or “how-to” notes on how to do things should Google searches not be an option?

You can be tracked and a profile can be created on you just for your purchasing patterns and habits. They know who your credit cards are with, who you bank with, how much money you have, where you spend your money, what you buy…..it’s all tied to your digital money formats of debit cards, credit cards, Apple/Samsung Pay accounts, etc. The more that is connected (of course for your convenience in this busy world), the more information they collect and the more they can build your profile.

In one year, how much stuff do you buy with cash? Do you have any cash on hand that you can access now without going to the bank?

How much personal information do you give away freely on social media or anywhere else for a “game” or some other “free giveaway”? How much of your life is truly private?

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