Things You Should Know, As a Techno User

translated by Rose Chen

Whether you are a criminal, a terrorist, or just an ordinary people, living an ordinary life, with ordinary income from an ordinary job in an ordinary company, lets imagine these scenarios:

1. Your every phone conversation is recorded, filed, and accessible by someone, some organization, company, or the government, whenever they like.
2. All your emails, sent or received, or deleted, are neatly filed somewhere, accessible by someone, some organization, company, or the government, whenever they want.
3. All your chat history from your favorite chat applications, archived neatly somewhere, readily accessible by someone, some organization, company, or the government, any time they like.
4. Your each and every file in your smartphone, tablet, notebook, pc, be it your contact lists, photos, videos, audios or whatever it is, is accessible by someone, some organization, company, or the government, whenever they want.
5. Hardwares connected to your smartphone, tablet, notebook, pc, be it your camera, microphone, anything, is accessible by someone, or some organization, company, the government, wherever and whenever they want.
6. Unlimited scenarios too many to list here, including this one that I just have to mention, your history in social media.

Impossible?

You might like John Lennon's song "Imagine".

I wrote this not to prove those scenarios to you. I give you the opportunity to prove it yourself. What had happened, what is known, and what had been leaked out to public. you can find informations in cyber space, or if you have some logic, maybe, yes... maybe! One thing for sure, I don't want to have anything to do with intelligence agencies, or big bros', or all the small bros following the big bros' companies.

When you watch a prank video on patahtube, uh oh... the next day you are on patahtube, prank videos will show up offered to you. When you accidentally watch a talk show you don't like, the next day, similar videos from patahtube will show up for you.

Search a certain recipe in foofle search engine and open a certain website from the search result, lets say, Pots and Pans website. Next thing you know, whenever you search for something particular that by chance Pots and Pans has it, then undoubtedly, Pots and Pans will show up again and again as if it follows and sticks to you.

Sometimes you miss your friend, Blake. How come he is not on nosebook that much anymore? Then you visit his timeline on purpose. Ha! He just updated his nosebook! How come it doesn't appear on my newsfeed? Yes! Because your newsfeed is full of other people's statuses. People that are diagnosed by nosebook to be of more interest to you.

Those three stories represent how informations about you are taken, processed, and used well. Maybe for targeted advertising, or maybe you need a fresh cash injection? Someone will give an offer. Maybe your child is just entering school age. You should get an insurance for his future! In the end, those big bros shape and determine what and who you are. Congratulations!

It's the year 2015, folks! Technologies are so slow. Do I have to wait until I am all gray, have two teeth left, or dead till that happens? ...that thing I call 'zero privacy'? Yes, mathematically speaking, technology is inversely proportional with privacy. We seem to be naked in front of them! When? I have no idea! But reading today's trend, and projecting it into the future, that time will come and it will come soon.

What can we do to protect our privacy? Or how should we react?

As for me, there are four scenarios to opt from:

1. Speed it up - speed the process to zero privacy, because we are impatiently curious to see how or what is going to happen.
2. Slow it down - use all means to protect your privacy.
3. Fake it all - literally... mislead. Fake names, fake identities, fake interests, you name it.
4. Disconnected.

Do you have other ideas?