If someone was to point a camera straight into your living room, most people would be horrified, and rightly so. This is a clear breach of our personal space and privacy. Yet surprisingly this is Ok in the online world. I am unsure why we accept this double standard, other than, “This is how it is and it should be Ok”? It is not Ok. At the very least we should acknowledge the level of risk to our privacy. I will try to assess our risk, here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Telecommuncations have come a long way in a short period of time. Smart phones are near ubiquitous in society, and as common as a wallet or purse in public. How people have become addicted to carrying and using smart phones, I do not know, but in our quest for permanent and persistent connectivity, we inadvertently agree to give up some of our privacy. Scary it is, but the writing is on the wall and near inevitable unless governments step in to prevent this. Given that people are freely looking for phone connectivity, I do not believe that such tracking by stores or any other agencies is immoral. Shocking, yes, but not immoral. Each person has the ability and means to turn off their phone when walking around. If they do not then this is their personal choice.