LIVE TV
India
Recommended Stories
Let me, for a change, start with a joke – and a scary one at that. Given the speed and frequency at which WhatsApp forwards move these days, it is possible many of you have already read it. But still, I could not resist the temptation to share it because it succinctly sums up the point I am about to make. So, here it goes:
“Hello! Is this Gordon's Pizza?”
“No sir, it's Google's Pizza”.
“Did I dial the wrong number?”
“No sir, Google bought the pizza store.”
“Oh, alright - then I’d like to place an order please.”
“Okay sir, do you want the usual?”
“The usual? You know what my usual is?
“According to the caller ID, the last 15 times you’ve ordered a 12-slice with double-cheese, sausage, and thick crust.”
“Okay - that’s what I want this time too.”
“May I suggest that this time you order an 8-slice with ricotta, arugula, and tomato instead?”
“No, I hate vegetables.”
“But your cholesterol is not good.”
How do you know?
“Through the subscribers guide, we have the results of your blood tests for the last 7 years.”
“Maybe so, but I don’t want the pizza you suggest – I already take medicine for high cholesterol.”
“But you haven’t taken the medicine regularly. Four months ago, you purchased from Drugsale Network a box of only 30 tablets.”
“I bought more from another drugstore.”
“It's not showing on your credit card sir.”
“I paid in cash.”
“But according to your bank statement you did not withdraw that much cash.”
“I have another source of cash.”
“This is not showing on your last tax form, unless you got it from an undeclared income source.”
“To HELL With Ur Pizza..!! ENOUGH!! I'm sick of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. I'm going to an island without internet, where there’s no cell phone line, and no one to spy on me”
“I understand sir, but you’ll need to renew your PASSPORT ... it expired 5 weeks ago!”
That the story is apocryphal goes without saying. But it gives a fair idea about the extent to which we are all being watched by Big Brother: in this case Google.
I had never heard of ‘Siri’, ‘Alexa’ or even Google Assistant, the most recent entrant into the world of ‘assistants’ or known what they can do for you till recently. Listening to my daughter talking to someone on her newly acquired Pixel II one day, I was intrigued by course of the conversation. Since she had put the phone on loudspeaker mode, I could make out the person on the other side was not a human. Once she hung up, I asked her who she was talking to. And the rather longish answer she gave opened my eyes to the hitherto unknown world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it has come to occupy our mind space and keeps tabs on everything we do – and even think. Google Assistant and its elder cousins Siri (iPhone) and Alexa (Amazon), I gathered, can do things for you that were unimaginable even a couple of years ago. With just a voice command, this hands-free option can make a call or send a text on your mobile, answer any question which you would have otherwise Googled for, book a cab for you, switch the geyser on, show you pictures from a trip you made in the past – you name it.
Technologically challenged that I am, I must confess I was awestruck by the range of services on offer. But what raised by hackles was the extent to which it snoops on you. My daughter recounted a recent experience of hers where a malfunctioning spindle had left her apartment in Bangalore flooded. The next thing she found was a mail in her inbox guiding her to all the ‘water proofing solutions’ on offer. And she hadn’t even called Google Assistant! The ubiquitous assistant had apparently picked up her conversation with her roommate – which took place in Odia!! It is even programmed to beep out swear words in Odia, Hindi or other Indian languages!!
The revelation got me thinking. I wondered how is it that at a time when there is so much outrage all over the country over the alleged intrusion into privacy by the Union government’s insistence on linking every service to Aadhaar, there is not even a whimper against the 24X7 surveillance mounted by these internet giants. Keeping tabs on our online footprints – monitoring every email we send, every site we visit, every photo we send – is clearly old hat. The ‘assistants’ keep tabs on your every activity without any accountability or guarantee that such information would not be misused for commercial gains – and without the government or any other authority coming into the picture at all. It really is a scary situation that we must wake up to. If we can’t trust our own government, how come we have no problems putting up with such round-the-clock surveillance?
Unknown to us, we are fast becoming the targets of unwarranted and unmonitored surveillance by global online giants sitting thousands of miles away without being physically present anywhere near us.
It is time for someone filed an intervening petition asking for expanding the scope of the ongoing hearing into the invasion of privacy through Aadhaar by the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court to include private players that snoop on us all the time and can be far more dangerous than a duly elected government!
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV's charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
