Big
Brother is watching us.
There
are cameras on the street. Satellite
dishes pointed at us. Our emails are
read, our phone calls listened to, and our credit card swipes monitored. We are probably observed more than we
realize, in ways we never imagined, thanks to technology, concerns over
terrorism and power-hungry politicians.
I wish the government would read my blog.
Imagine
how many more checks my blog would get if the spy nerds read it daily. Is that what it takes to get a blog to rise
in readership? Sign me up!
But
all joking aside, it creeps me out that the government or hackers are inside my
computer. As much as identity theft or
credit card fraud concerns me, that is not what I fear from those who break
into my computer. I am more concerned
that some profile is built of me, based on what I write. So much is written that goes unpublished but
its existence in my computer seems to count as being published by prying
eyes. And if they get into unpublished, unedited
works aren’t they a step removed from being in my thoughts?
What’s
worse – that these information pirates conclude correctly who I am and somehow
use it against me – or that they draw the wrong conclusion and use that data to
take action either against me or society?
Or
perhaps my data is not just being monitored, but manipulated. Maybe a digital profile of what I am is being
rearranged, the way an artist’s rendition of its subject serves as an
interpretation of the facts, but not a mirror image of them.
Perhaps
the government will start writing my blog for me. My smartphone suggests words to me as I begin
spelling them in an email. Maybe soon
it’ll just suggest words, ideas, or phrases that I didn’t even intend to
use. Technology can assist us or it can
lead us, and not always in the right direction.
Go
back and look at your unpublished works.
Have they been altered or rearranged in some way? Could you even tell if your tens of thousands
of words were ever so slightly changed?
Or worse. Maybe all these verses
are from the government, trying to erase our words and files of data. Maybe they are erasing our minds, digital bit
by digital bit.
I
honestly don’t know what to make of big data and the way corporations, hackers,
or governments may be using technology to control, exploit or harm us, but I do
know there are people or organizations that have been trying to take control of
our electronic lives for some time. It’s
not about being paranoid or about any specific proof that I possess. But it seems obvious that as long as
something exists, someone or something threatens it. It's criminal and military evolution. Technology is the latest battlefield or
frontier. The world lives in a box with
a screen, so that’s where those who seek to steal, fight a war, or win a race
compete.
I
hope the con artists, hackers, scammers, police, military, and overseas spies
enjoy my blog. They may have gotten to
read it before you did but don’t feel disadvantaged. You hold something that these other entities
don’t – a purposeful heart. Whereas we
live for words that offer power behind them, they live to limit and contain
their impact. For us, words are a
currency but for them they are a mere commodity, to be traded and used.
Is
the government really reading my blog, your files, or your unpublished
books? I don’t know, and I’d like to
think not, but it’s obvious they have the means and incentive to do so.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
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