When you type a phrase into a search engine, are you seeking information, or is the search engine seeking information? Both right?
You see, if we compare the internet to a stereo system, it has recently become clear, web sites like Google are viewed as speakers, telling us all the information we want to know, however, in reality, web sites like Google are actually microphones, recording everything about you.
This is not news. It has always been true that typing phrases into search engines was akin to sharing your secrets with the world, and that world would use your secrets to sell you stuff you might need. For me, even though I found the data mining distasteful, it was so darn convenient that it was hard not to get involved. What helped me get over my concern of being recorded was the person doing the recording was just trying to do business. Provide me with services I want, and profit from it.
Now that has all changed. Now the microphone is being employed by the Government, to record the actions of it’s citizens, and probably has been all along. And that government is also trying to do it’s business, but that business is not a mutually beneficial exchange. The potential for social control through campaign shenanigans, opposition censorship and midnight disappearances is too great for comfort.
For decades, I have had friends sound very paranoid about their cellphones and laptops, concern over the cameras and microphones being used to record their activities always seemed somewhat paranoid if not plausible. Now it is known as a fact, proving once again that just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.
My third grade teacher, Mrs. Anoni, she was the first one to teach us about the evils of Soviet Russia. Of course, this was during the waning years of the cold war, so it was a hot topic to discuss how poorly their country was run and how well our country was run. I wonder how that plays in third grade classrooms now? Mrs. Anoni taught us about the failures of communism, the lines for toilet paper, the one color shoe selection, etc. But most of all, she taught us about the KGB, and how it surveiled it’s citizens, how it wasn’t safe to speak out against the government, how citizens were encouraged to turn in their family and friends for speaking out against the government, you know, like China now, and North Korea, and now, like the US.
The Land of the Free used to be just that. It was only a few years ago that I never really considered the government actually spying on it’s citizens. Now as I type this, I not only worry, but I know full well that somewhere in a dark office, some Bush/Obama crony is monitoring every keystroke. I loved The Land of the Free, I believed in The Land of the Free. I believe we can still get back there, but this administration is clearly not interested in the The Land of the Free, but more interested in The Home of the Slaves. Any person who tries to defend this administrations increasing intrusions on American’s birthright of freedoms is complicit with the police state and will only realize their folly once they realize the microphone is pointed at them too.
