Modern Technology Is Stalking You

I’m annoyed that my ‘smart’ phone and it’s best friend Facebook and Amazon keep trying to mean more to me than I want them to. I’m mostly interested in my phone for making and receiving calls - old fashioned I know. I’ll admit, it’s pretty cool that my phone is also a camera. That’s handy - and I have occasionally when I'm out of town gotten on the internet with my phone and I appreciate how technologically advanced that is……but overall, I’m not too pleased that my phone and its “friends” follow me to Penny’s and look at every pair of panties and bra I buy and then post advertising photos of them to every website I go to. If it were an actual person doing that I’d report them to law enforcement for stalking. Honestly it’s getting annoying now. I find that perfectly comfy pair of flip flops and then I see a photo advertisement for those flip flops over and over again on every website I go to.

Message to programmers at Samsung, Facebook, Amazon and all other modern smart technology guru’s……..you know who you are Google….. Apple….. I bought the flip flops. I don’t need to see a photo advertisement of the flip flops on every page I go to. I own them now, I don’t need for you to keep suggesting that I should buy them. Or show me what the other’s guys flip flops look like. You are over emphasizing how important that might be to me and I don’t like it.

This article is a warning to us all and I have a story to tell of snooping that should be a wake up call to everyone of us.

My first foray into online social networking was on a website called Newsvine. It was so much fun for a while but the site died a liberal political death. The original owners found a buyer for its cool and unique programming platform and that was the end of the original Newsvine……the new owner was a liberal megasite who kept the name “Newsvine” for one of its chat platforms but changed the format to something unrecognizable that was a turn off to many original members. Many of those members left, some devotees to the cause of debate remained, but overall Newsvine became a nanny state of liberal thought and killed off all its conservative users by banning them…...and then it died altogether..…of course.

My first day on Newsvine was memorable. I landed there by following a “discuss this” link on an MSN article. I made a comment of support for then President Bush and the liberal attackers came out of the woodwork to pounce. I remember wondering what sort of hateful place is this when a couple of good guys showed up to support me. That made me feel infinitely better to find out the entire site wasn’t just intolerant liberals. I discovered from my new found online friends that Newsvine had a friends list option and groups you could join and they invited me in and I became a community member.

The purpose in my mentioning Newsvine is to expose the truth of all websites because of an important lesson I learned there.

Newsvine became addictive, it was designed to be. Eventually you learn who’s who and what’s what on the website, join groups, engage in debates over topics of the day, make friends and frenemies and have fun. Probably at one time Newsvine had half a million to a million active community members on their site in daily discussions (probably why they were able to sell high). As fun as it could be it could also be an exercise in frustration. The moderators were liberal and tolerant only of their own kind. I witnessed one of the good guys who came to my rescue that first day I was there - get banned from the site for using the word “bigot” back to a liberal user who first used the word “bigot” but didn’t get banned. That was the beginning of the end of the Newsvine addiction for me. I truly hate unfairness.

Through the years of my membership I can’t count the number of times I was suspended and warned but never banned and it honestly felt like adult kindergarten. I guess the overall addictiveness is why I stayed to the site's end. I decided I wanted to end my relationship with Newsvine on my own terms so when I knew I was on the moderators radar I’d back off and not comment on conversation threads. I refused to go out on their terms.

Then one day on a discussion thread I caught one of the original Newsvine members saying something that changed my view of all websites, and an important warning to all of us online today.

He was in a discussion thread having a jolly good time discussing how important he was to the site’s main moderator when he revealed more than he intended to. He said moderators read the private group conversations of conservatives and then email their favorite liberal friends to tell them what those people are saying. Of course when I called him out on it he realized he’d blabbed too much and tried to walk it back but the secret was out.

This is the truth of all websites. They are reading all “private” conversations meaning nothing you say online is private - and then worse - telling “their friends” what you are saying. What if “their friends” means the highest paying customer like…..the government maybe? Or how about advertisers? Or more likely than not….Political parties with tons of cash to buy your private words and thoughts. And….on and on.....the possibilites are endless.

Newsvine doesn’t exist anymore - it’s liberal political turn was its demise - and the simple technology of those days are antiquated - now websites and programming are much more sophisticated using AI (artificial technology) and more.

I always praise technological advances in medicine. Modern medical procedures have saved many lives who would not have lived without new technologies. In my view artificial intelligence should only be used for advancements in medicine or infrastructure beneficial to society - but never in individual’s private conversations and political opinions unless that person wishes to express it openly. No programmer or program should be listening into or reading your personal conversations, thoughts or privacy and/or selling your data to the highest bidder without your knowledge.

The last frontier is being able to keep your thoughts, opinions, underwear shopping, flip flop purchases and political vote to yourself if you so wish.