The death of privacy

When I tried to explain to my grandchildren that, as I was growing up, black-and-white television was the norm, they simply could not believe it. After all they live in a world of high definition.

          We, of a certain age, have witnessed so much change in the last few years that it is difficult to explain it all to a younger generation. For one thing, I really don’t know how we lived before ATMs, but somehow we did. We all remember a time when we had to go to our own branch to get money. Amazingly today we can access our bank accounts from basically anywhere in the world. And it is difficult now to imagine a time when personal computers and the Internet were unheard of. Add to that today’s wireless technology that belonged to the realm of sci-fi not so long ago, and we can truly say we’ve come a long way, baby.

          If you spend enough time surfing the Internet, there is no information you can’t find. It can be very useful and helpful. But the Web is also a huge trash dumpster for everything from pornography to information on making bombs. I don’t think we should be ashamed to discuss the less-than-perfect aspects of technology with our impressionable grandchildren because you never know on what site they might end up.

          Today, personal mobile devices can do almost anything except perhaps make dinner. For a techno-deficient person like myself it can be overwhelming as privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. You could be anywhere talking to someone while another person could be taking your picture, taping your conversation and posting it all online in a matter of seconds for the world to see, something the famous and the infamous are finding out daily.

          With all the technology that keeps on marching at a mind-dizzying pace, the future of privacy is looming ever less assured, and I think it should worry all of us. Not only is Big Brother watching with listening devices and cameras everywhere, but so is our neighbor, our colleague, our competitor. I don’t think I’d like to go back to the time of black-and-white television, but since nothing is ever perfect in this world, we should all pay a lot more attention to what is being loss through the advent of greater and greater technology to make sure the slope does not get more slippery than sadly it already is.