Paranoid Android

[samaranth]

I think I may have been watching too many episodes of ‘Spooks’, but sometimes I wonder just how much ‘They’ know about me, and how easy it would be to plot me on a grid somewhere. How much of a trail am I leaving behind me with each movement that I make?

It’s not as if I’m feeling watched, per se, in the ‘we have got you under surveillance’ kind

Comments

[shirebound]

the fact that I have created what is a substantial digital profile means that I have also created a significant digital legacy

That's an interesting way to look at it.

[samaranth]

It's not all scary. :)

The only thing is to make sure that the legacy is a good one!

[maewyn_2]

I looked up my name on Google. I had no idea how many other "me's" there are in the world! They include a judge, a doctor, a botanist, a minister of religion, even a "Lady", etc, etc. I found two instances of the real me. My Facebook account (I don't have any personal stuff worth looking at on there) and in a document on our Company website. I suppose I'm lucky there aren't any more than that.

As for the feeling of being followed, I most certainly am when I'm out on my morning walk. I use Runkeeper on my iPhone and it literally tracks me via GPS. It even shows when I deviate from my usual path. Scary!

[samaranth]

I know, it's strange isn't it. I would have thought I had a fairly unique name but there have been oodles of us! One was a spy herself.

All of those GPS services are collecting data about our every movement. I don't mean to sound alarmist but we don't realise just how extensive it has become. With smartphones ever more popular this is just going to go on and on and on...

[rosiethehobbit]

It is pretty scary how much information there is about us out there. Every time I log into Amazon it is rather scary how well they have me pegged. And the information Google has on me, from my search history to my Gmail account, is something I prefer not to think about. Every now and then I think it would be good to switch to cash only to limit the breadcrumbs I leave, but that is just so impractical. Never going to happen. Especially with my tendency to buy as much as I can online to save the time of running to the store. I keep my facebook locked and posts to a minimum. But yes, privacy is largely an illusion these days.

[samaranth]

That's true, Rosie. We're being actively (and very strongly) pushed in to doing everything online: banking, provision of government services. The degree of information about me being held by one or two megalithic organisations is quite terrifying - every search query and result, every click through. Either we accept it and adapt, or spend our lives being afraid. I do think the benefits outweigh the risks, as long as you can keep as much control as possible over what happens with your data.

I get very spooked at the way things I seem to just think about start appearing as ads on FB and in other places. I'd just begun to think 'must be time to have my hearing checked again'...I hadn't even committed it to an email or anything...and suddenly ads for hearing centres were popping up all over the place. How??? Who knows!