Big Brother is still watching you…

In his book “Nineteen eighty-four” George Orwell had coined the term “Big Brother is watching you” basically to postulate a theory of state surveillance on citizens. Today, the ominous tone of the book may not be there but increasingly the internet has provided a flexible media to various commercial organizations to peep into our lives.

Last week I made an internet search for hotels in Amritsar while planning a visit. After browsing through some of the hotel sites I moved forward to other subjects. Imagine my surprise that in less than 24 hours I started observing advertisements of hotels in Amritsar whenever I opened any online newspaper or magazine pages; on social media sites, and even received emails promoting hotels in that city.

This was not an isolated case. The story repeated when I showed interest in shoes, blue-tooth headsets, coffee-makers, etc. Some unknown entity seems to be fully aware of all my interests. Not only that, now has it even known the locality I live in, because out pops up advertisements for stores near my house.

This should not have come as a surprise to me. In the early nineties when I entered the IT industry I had never sent an email nor knew what a “url” was. Increasingly we started hearing about the term “search engine”. Those were the early days when the now defunct Alta Vista and Netscape were glamorous brands. Our technical team started briefing us on terms like “web footprint”, neural networks, data mining, analytics, etc. We were told that the more we browse the internet the more it understands our behavior and likes and dislikes.

Today web technology is slowly trying to take over our homes with what is referred to as Internet of Things (IoT) where all our appliances are also networked. Every evening our maid gives me an inventory of vegetables in our fridge. Based on our requirement she cuts the vegetables for the next day’s meals. Imagine, soon that interaction is replaced by my refrigerator sending me messages that I have run out of ridge gourd, or beans, or pumpkin. Or, god forbid, the washing machine telling me that my golf trousers are so dirty that they need a longer cycle of wash.

Some decades back along with my sons I would watch a TV serial called “Knight Rider” where the driver would have a two-way conversation with his car. It is hard to say whether the American entrepreneurs were inspired by that serial but today they are already testing driver-less cars that take verbal orders over the net.

But now my favourite gadget at home is a voice activated speaker. Alexa obeys me implicitly and plays my favourite songs or the latest news any time of the day. But even she draws a line when I ask her awkward questions, particularly on politics or personalities. But she does regale me when I ask her to tell me a Rajnikanth joke.