The Day we Lost our Privacy

For the sake of smart homes and smart lives, the truth of the matter is quite unbelievable — we are literally selling our privacy. With the biggest lie told on the Internet long having been “I have read and understand the terms and conditions,” it is actually quite scary that more people haven’t taken opposition to this growing nightmare. Recently, Microsoft president Brad Smith mentioned that this technology has the power of actually turning the world into a surveillance state and it does seem that a world without privacy looks like this.

Here are some creepy, and others downright horrific, examples to show you what is happening before your very eyes. Special glasses, closed-circuit television and drones are just some of the technology that is slowly but surely encroaching on our privacy. As private citizens, most of us have not chosen a career or life unlike that of the Kardashians or another celebrity or public profile, who sell their privacy for money. So why then do we private citizens going about their daily business are watched in real time? An individual may visit a store, a local swimming pool or a park and have not only their presence acknowledged, but a whole range of other data too including their name, where they live and who they bank with. No doubt we are told that this data is secured, but I am wondering whether a few handshakes and an impressive quote could result in it being sold to another party. What if its stolen?

So who has an interest in spying on us and knowing all that private data? Firstly, there is the expected answer. We have law enforcement departments and policing units across Australia already getting involved. They are here to ensure the safety of citizens, but when did we agree to sell our souls to ensure this happens? The tool that is currently in testing phase and introductory use is facial recognition. What is this and why is it of such concern? Already facial recognition is being used to tag people in facebook photos. Sometimes it gets it wrong and instead of your husband, your teenage nephew is tagged and everyone has a giggle. The problem is simply fixed with a manual untag. But now we are talking about algorithms determining the trajectory of someone’s life. That’s right — law enforcement agencies are using facial recognition systems to help identify suspects. Apparently, the County Sheriff’s office in Oregon can use this technology to identify a suspect in just seconds. But, research has shown that these tools are not always reliable and often mistake dark skinned individuals in particular.

In Japan, the demand for facial recognition in law enforcement is also apparent, and facial recognition glasses are being created. These allow wearers to identify a suspect’s face from a 20 km distance, and even determine a match from a series of photos. Glasses like these were already used at the Florida Superbowl in 2000 to determine individuals in the crowd with a criminal record.

Aside from facial recognition for law enforcement reasons, who else has an interest? Apparently in China, this technology is oddly being used in school classrooms of all places.

Chinese students’ faces were being monitored for their reaction during a lesson, every 30 seconds, and as well as their facial expression, also recording what behaviour a student is participating in (options are writing, raising a hand, talking, reading and, humorously, sleeping at their desk). Apparently, this data is to give to their parents and guardians, who may be interested in the behaviour in their child at school during lessons.

According to the report, the software is used to recognise students’ identity when they collect their lunch from the canteen and also when they borrow a library book. Are parents and any member of the school community concerned about privacy issues? Apparently not, as they have been reassured that all personal recognition results are not saved, and besides, data is stored on local infrastructure, rather than the cloud. Personally, I would really rather data was not created on myself and especially not my child at all. They say its all secure now, but what happens when it resurfaces years later, when the child (now an adult) is being interviewed for a job or even in court defending a charge? Data from when this person was eight years old at school, sleeping at their desk, would really not be helpful when interviewing for a job as traffic air controller.

Once this data is collected by drone or closed circuit cameras strategically placed on streets we frequent, there is no telling where it ends up. Any organisation, private or public, would simply need to justify that it is important for them to have access to this type of data, and personal details, as well as our whereabouts, becomes their property. Genuinely forgetting our whereabouts on a particular day two years ago could result in a relationship break-down, loss of a job or career, or even jail time. Our word goes up against that of a drone, and we all know that the impressive and fail-proof technology always wins.

Naturally, we want to be safe, but why then do we get the feeling that big brother is watching our ever move? One of the reasons that even I, as a designer who lives from the fruit of emerging technology, am unhappy about tools that compromise my privacy is because it compromises my freedom of choice. Having had the fortune of living in Australia, I believed I could live the way I like for no other reason than it feels right to me. Now suddenly it looks like my behaviour in my personal time may compromise other unrelated parts of my life. A closed circuit camera may have seen me walking into a garden centre and emerge with a pot plant, but that’s not an invitation for ‘home and garden’ magazines to target me as their perfect customer. Just because I may have had the epiphany that a nice green plant in our new larger studio may enhance our creativity, this doesn’t mean I am the ideal customer to market to. I hardly have time to read my business magazines and thought leader books, let alone flick through home and garden magazines.

With our privacy unravelling fast, we need to become more educated in what the future looks like in a life void of privacy. The reality is that there are some truly important advantages, but we are in charge of it, not the other way around, so lets collectively ask more questions and demand better, more informative, answers.