The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

Microsoft just came out to advocate FOR government regulations on the unfettered use of facial recognition. I know, I had to reread the article’s headline twice too. After all, Microsoft is developing the software for the government, big contracts on the line, money to be made … but they’re warning us what they’re doing is pretty creepy and maybe folks ought to stop a nano-second to consider the implications. It’s like a serial killer warning the school he plans to shoot up that the gun he’s holding maybe should be regulated. You know, before it’s too late.

And if anyone would know, these guys do. What they know is how pervasive and insidious the use of this kind of surveillance will be once they get it up and operational. Cameras mounted on rooftops and every possible nook and cranny, all interconnected to police or government computers, nobody could go anywhere potentially without being tracked. Course, in the digital world, that’s pretty much the case now. Mostly just friendly corporations, you understand, monitoring your computer usage, your Facebook links, your child pornography interests. Like the guy who called me last night, he’s recording our conversation to protect me. From what? I ask, but we both know it’s him. Trouble is, I don’t know who he is. But he knows who I am.

Sure, I could blame Zuckerberg and Bezos, Amazon and Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, but we’re the ones who let the guy on the phone record us, we’re the yahoos who buy the technology that controls our house now and asks us with a human sounding voice how it can help us. My computer wants to interface with me no matter how many times I tell it not to bother. Too late, too late, the spy is in the house of love.

But if Microsoft thinks alarm bells are sounding, who am I to hit the Snooze button? They know they’ll make a zillion bucks anyway, but even they know the world they’re creating is creepy and Orwellian. When Big Brother starts warning you to put restraints on him, I think we ought to listen.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2018 at 4:46 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.