Something nagged, yet I just can’t figure out what it is.
It’s like a faint, recurring ache, somewhere in my body.
Or a man at the window … Was he the same one that was staring at me in the store?
Or a dark dot moving toward my bed but now vanished. A black widow?
Then the man sitting on my couch smiles. He has a great smile and that counts for a lot.
“How about some coffee?” I ask, walking towards the small kitchen.
“Sure”, he says. “Did you get your Mother’s Day parcel today?”
I smile at him. Then stop. How did he know that I was getting a Mother’s Day parcel? I didn’t tell him. With a jolt, I now know what’s been bothering me, and it has nothing to do with the man at the store. How many facts has he found out about my life? I only knew about it because my daughter sent me an email …
Discussion
The internet is about as safe as a convenience store in the worst part of town on a Saturday night.
How much are we putting out there about ourselves? Are you posting pictures of your children? Have you shown all the world the lovely art collection in your house? Have you tagged yourself at exotic locations with the ones you love?
And before you think the worst is what you put out there all the time, there is, of course, no way of knowing if you are being watched at any given moment. How often have you got spam calls after walking past a shop with your cell location off? And those emails from sites ‘similar’ to others that you clicked on?
How often, and on what system, are the “Thought Police” plugged into any given wire? It’s guesswork! It is even conceivable that they watch everybody all the time. (adapted from George Orwell, 1984)
“The privacy and dignity of our citizens [are] being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen – a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a [person’s] life. – Supreme Court Justice Willian O. Douglas.
Be sure to keep an eye on your identity. If you don’t … there are people who will.
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