Who can’t wait for the next cool gadget to come out that makes life supposedly easier? In electronics, it is often about hyping the next big technology that might improve your life. Consumer technology, built and designed by private industry, is increasingly being strategized as valuable surveillance technology. Let’s take a step back and examine what is already happening with the current technology out there. Who owns and uses smart home technology or wears an Apple Watch? Probably a lot of you – you snowflakes.
On December 15th, 2019, a Jewish man, Sean Sammit, stated that he was attacked and stabbed as he left a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. However, he made up the entire story! Police discovered this Jewish man lied thanks to the information on his Apple Watch. Now, this leaves an individual to wonder how the police could determine, with just a watch, as to whether or not someone is lying. It is simple really.
The police investigated Sammit’s heart rate information at the period of “attack” – the data depicted higher heart rates before the “attack,” not during. This wearable technology allowed the police to discover that this wacko stabbed himself on purpose to get attention. As a side note, this case, which is similar to the Jessee Smollett case, speaks volumes about the sad state of American culture thanks to mainstream and social media. Similarly, as the Apple Watch records your health information and where you are, Ring has taken it to the next level by creating a network to keep an “eye” on you.
In the spring of 2018, the doorbell/camera company, Ring – a subsidiary of Amazon, began forging video-sharing partnerships with police departments. By August 2019, Ring had formed partnerships with more than 400 police departments across the United States. These alliances permit police to request recorded video from homeowners’ cameras within a specific time and area. In turn, this allows officers to see recordings from the company’s millions of internet-connected cameras in the United States. However, homeowners can decline a recording request if they choose. While this partnership has sprung from perhaps good intentions, it provides a slippery slope perfect for the police to have widespread surveillance at their fingertips. This is due, in part, to Ring’s ambition of having “eyes” everywhere and the increasingly close relationship between corporate entities and law enforcement.
By tapping into consumer fears about crime and security, Ring has found a clever way to develop a new surveillance network that would, otherwise, be highly frowned upon if the government or police were directly behind it. While Ring surveils outside the home, Alexa controls and surveils (on command) the home from the inside. Alexa has already been used, at least, three times in homicide cases. Incidentally, when Alexa has been used in a court of law thus far, no additional evidence has been provided to the cases, yet.
Nowadays, you can get fridges, washing machines, and even ovens and stoves all with cameras and connected to the internet. Alexa, or another virtual assistant artificial intelligence, is at the center of smart networks. Homes with these smart networks and items are a treasure trove of evidence for any court case having to do with a domicile crime. On the whole, this is surely just the beginning of the argument as to whether our freedoms are being encroached upon by exploiting consumer technology. In addition, anyone with these devices and smart networks installed in their home have opened themselves to an incredible breach of privacy.
In the future, as technology continues to improve by gathering more and more data, the evidence available, via smart home technologies, to court cases will only become increasingly more valuable in these domestic cases. Wearable technology is also in its infancy and we will see a massive explosion in its development these coming years. How might this new technology improve our lives versus impede it? Depending on what nation you live in, the government will abuse and hack this informative consumer data. If you would like to see first-hand how a government could abuse this information and put virtual shackles on its citizens, look no further than the Chinese social credit system to be instated later this year.
-By Gaius Octavius Thurinus
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
Every time I see one of those Alexa things in somebody’s house I tell them “its always listening, how else can it know when you’re talking to it?” this leads into my tirade on the rest of “smart tech” like fridges, door cams even your laptop! Alexa, Siri, Cortana, etc are all spies. And don’t forget that damnable tracking device you never leave home without! I’m not much fun at parties.
It seems the safer a people are the more fearful they become.
Of course, its all moot if you’re updating your facebook status every 5 minutes anyway.
I just assume someone is listening and plan accordingly.
Good article!
As OPSEC man I approve of this article.