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talkpolitics2019-04-15 09:42 pm
airiefairie) wrote in talkpolitics2019-04-15 09:42 pm
Entry tags:
Orwell would be proud
If you ask Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant, "Are you a spy?", she will answer, "No. The safety of your personal data is important to me".
Just how important it is exactly, we did learn these days when it transpired that Amazon was spying thousands of conversations without their clients' consent. The company has already admitted to it:
Here's how the Alexa spying scandal could become Amazon's worst nightmare
Of course, Amazon's excuse is that they are trying to improve their customer service. Except, if that is really the case, then their customer service is more important than the protection of their customers' privacy. Because it is not just official queries starting with a vocal address to Alexa that have been eavesdropped. Bloomberg reports that the spying was indiscriminate: from singing in the shower to children's cries for help, to supposed sexual assault.
Turns out Amazon has no genuinse sense of guilt here, even if they have clearly violated a ton of laws in a handbag full of countries, many of their constitutions explicitly guaranteeing the right of privacy of personal communications. Customer service trumps it all, apparently. And that is just one half of the problem.
The other half is the reactions. Only a few people seem to consider this scandalous, most have shrugged it off either helplessly or nonchalantly. It seems the convenience of conducting online communication verbally rather than in writing, is more important to many people than the concern about their own privacy.
And this culture, this attitude has been shaped up for decades now. For years, the boundary between personal and public has been gradually blurred. We are gradually approaching a society where the personal domain would remain all but a memory. We reveal all sorts of personal data and intimate details about ourselves through the social networks - and we do that voluntarily. So when the personal data we have so generously given up to the public space, gets linked to the "cloud" and suddenly something pops up to the public eye that we would rather it remain unseen, we are suddenly shocked! Cambridge Analytica was not so far ago. Remember how they constructed detailed profiles of thousands of Facebook users based on the things they shared and posted? This is just a glimpse of what is to come.
I know, many have already bought the story that this is all normal, it's all right, there is nothing to worry about if you haven't done anything wrong. Right? Well, I am not so sure.
China is one good example how limiting the personal domain, along with the use of Big Data, could lead to a total surveillance state. China has introduced a social credit system, which allows the rulers to evaluate their own citizens with points and marks. There are good, worse, and worst citizens as per that system. And the latter are being punished in a real way: if you cross the street at a red traffic light, or if you speak up against the Communist party, you could end up either with a ban from using certain types of transport, or to send your children to certain schools and universities.
It may be difficult to believe that these Orwellian methods would reach Europe and North America, and yet it is imperative that we are more careful about our personal data. Because, as is evident from the Alexa case, we never know who is listening to what. We also know now that "she" is lying through her teeth when she is ensuring us with her nice smooth voice that the protection of our personal life is very important to her and her makers. Because it really isn't.
Just how important it is exactly, we did learn these days when it transpired that Amazon was spying thousands of conversations without their clients' consent. The company has already admitted to it:
Here's how the Alexa spying scandal could become Amazon's worst nightmare
Of course, Amazon's excuse is that they are trying to improve their customer service. Except, if that is really the case, then their customer service is more important than the protection of their customers' privacy. Because it is not just official queries starting with a vocal address to Alexa that have been eavesdropped. Bloomberg reports that the spying was indiscriminate: from singing in the shower to children's cries for help, to supposed sexual assault.
Turns out Amazon has no genuinse sense of guilt here, even if they have clearly violated a ton of laws in a handbag full of countries, many of their constitutions explicitly guaranteeing the right of privacy of personal communications. Customer service trumps it all, apparently. And that is just one half of the problem.
The other half is the reactions. Only a few people seem to consider this scandalous, most have shrugged it off either helplessly or nonchalantly. It seems the convenience of conducting online communication verbally rather than in writing, is more important to many people than the concern about their own privacy.
And this culture, this attitude has been shaped up for decades now. For years, the boundary between personal and public has been gradually blurred. We are gradually approaching a society where the personal domain would remain all but a memory. We reveal all sorts of personal data and intimate details about ourselves through the social networks - and we do that voluntarily. So when the personal data we have so generously given up to the public space, gets linked to the "cloud" and suddenly something pops up to the public eye that we would rather it remain unseen, we are suddenly shocked! Cambridge Analytica was not so far ago. Remember how they constructed detailed profiles of thousands of Facebook users based on the things they shared and posted? This is just a glimpse of what is to come.
I know, many have already bought the story that this is all normal, it's all right, there is nothing to worry about if you haven't done anything wrong. Right? Well, I am not so sure.
China is one good example how limiting the personal domain, along with the use of Big Data, could lead to a total surveillance state. China has introduced a social credit system, which allows the rulers to evaluate their own citizens with points and marks. There are good, worse, and worst citizens as per that system. And the latter are being punished in a real way: if you cross the street at a red traffic light, or if you speak up against the Communist party, you could end up either with a ban from using certain types of transport, or to send your children to certain schools and universities.
It may be difficult to believe that these Orwellian methods would reach Europe and North America, and yet it is imperative that we are more careful about our personal data. Because, as is evident from the Alexa case, we never know who is listening to what. We also know now that "she" is lying through her teeth when she is ensuring us with her nice smooth voice that the protection of our personal life is very important to her and her makers. Because it really isn't.