Big Brother is Here

He’s a little later than expected, and he’s not exactly the way that George Orwell envisioned in his famous novel, 1984, but make no mistake, Big Brother has arrived. Now before you write me off as a conspiracy theorist, or a head case, you should understand that I’m not saying that this is all bad. I’m not going to get into whether or not any of these Big Brother-esque developments are for the good of society at large or not. But I will point out how big brother has been in my life today – and it’s not even 8:30 in the morning. I am, however, going to say that Big Brother is NOT just the government. It’s a combination of government and big business that seek to know about every little thing we do.

When I got up this morning, I checked the weather on my computer. I’ve got the site on my favorites, and the site is configured to know my local weather by zip code. I could conceivably personalize the page even more, so that when the page loads it greets me by name, tells me whether or not to play golf, go camping or whatever other activity I would choose where weather is a factor. Why? Because they want my business. They want me to visit that page often and click on their spiffy little advertisements, which make them money. That’s why they want to know as much about me as possible.

On the way to work, I passed through a traffic intersection with cameras. Ostensibly, the cameras are mounted for “safety.” When people know there’s a camera tracking their movement, they’ll be less likely to speed, run red lights, and so forth. Heck, the cops can even take a picture of a car running through a red light and mail the ticket to the vehicle owner. It’s not an issue of safety. It’s an issue of more money for the city. I guarantee** you that one of the first questions asked by the city when they considered these cameras was “How long until these cameras are paid for?” And I can guarantee** you that the answer out of the sales dude’s mouth was “They’ll pay for themselves in revenue from traffic tickets and lowered risk of lawsuit. Hell, if you buy now, I’ll even throw in a free set of Ginsu knives – a $49.99 value – absolutely free!”

And when I got to work today, I had to swipe my little magnetic badge against a card reader, so that I could get into the building. When it was installed, we were told that it was for our safety. Without it, someone could get into the building and go postal on us. Of course, with it, our company can now track exactly when we enter the building, and how many times we enter and leave throughout the course of the day. Other companies can track exactly where you are in the building at any given point throughout the day. Spending too much time on the toilet? Big brother will know.

Again, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. Maybe a little crazy, but I’m no head case. I realize that there are pros and cons to every one of these developments I mentioned. With the web site, I get more personalized service. With the traffic light, the intersection is a little safer. Monitoring employee activity (to some extent) increases productivity. So these things in and of themselves are not nefarious in nature. They’re just a couple of examples of how our privacy is quickly being whittled away by the advancement of technology. Is it a good thing? I’m not sure. Is it a bad thing? We’ll just have to wait and see. One thing’s for sure though, it not something that will change anytime soon.

(**NOT a real guarantee!)