My Fridge is Listening to me

I, Cringely

As a blogger, I maintain a web log – of links that interest me. And this is one I have to share. It’s not hard to understand, and you might get a chuckle out of it.

But underneath this is serious business – everything is spying on you. And when I say everything – mean just that – cameras and microphones are everywhere.

I was in an Internet center once when it was robbed – a guy walked in wearing a motorcycle helmet with the visor pulled down, and demanded everyone’s money. Right after he left, on his motorcycle – their security service showed up also on a motorcycle. But he was too late. They had a security camera, but it couldn’t show much – just a guy with motorcycle helmet.

To stop guys like that, you have to have an armed security guard standing there. And sometimes even that doesn’t work – a pharmacy I used to shop at had a security guard standing at the front door. But a car drove by and wasted him.

The only solution was to move out of San Jose – the central megalopolis that is crowded with people and crime. Which I did.

Otherwise, the solution, they seem to think, is more cameras. And sometimes they are right.

In the center of London, there is a camera on every traffic light that looks for licence plate numbers. If the car is not licensed to drive downtown – it gets a traffic ticket. Londoners are happy – downtown traffic, which used to be terrible, is under control – and the City gets income from licensing the right to drive downtown.

This won’t work in Latin America – or anywhere in the undeveloped world. They don’t have the infrastructure (or the political will) to support it.

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