The world was up in arms when Russia says it’s blocking Facebook in alarming new censorship push. Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg then tweeted in response to the move, saying “Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information…and silenced from speaking out,” The Verge reported. Yet, how long has the tech cabal been censoring people and posts that are not in lockstep with what they deem appropriate, or do not conform to their agendas?

 

Meanwhile, we’re witnessing The creeping authoritarianism of facial recognition that’s being adopted more and more. “The same technology that Russia uses to keep its people in line has come to America,” Spectator World reported. Of course, it’s all in the name of  lowering crime rates, but note to self, More States Than Ever Passing Laws For No Cash Bail and Pretrial Detention, including New York, where the NYPD provide(d) hard proof that no-bail law is causing a crime spike. Said the New York Post, “Since Jan. 1, 482 suspects busted for serious felonies were released without bail only to commit another 846 new crimes. Over a third were arrested for one of the seven most serious crimes: murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto.”

As Matthew Feeney of the CATO Institute (warned) in an email, “Absent tight controls, facial recognition can be used to conduct mass surveillance, leading to infringements on privacy and the stifling of First Amendment-protected activities.”

Still believe that all your privacy is gone and what’s the difference at this point? This just in: Google’s New Tech Can Read Your Body Language—Without Cameras. The company’s ATAP research team is using radar to help computers respond to your movements, like turning off a TV if it senses you’ve dozed off. “What if your TV saw you leave the couch to answer the front door and paused Netflix automatically, then resumed playback when you sat back down? What if our computers took more social cues from our movements and learned to be more considerate companions?,” Wired queried.

 

Do remember that if they’re monitoring for signs, they’re always monitoring, and who knows for what other information. Not unlike Alexa, which is always listening for the wake word, which means that it’s always listening.

 

It’s all just a bit too Big Brother for our tastes

Although we do love how the media always spins a potentially invasive new technology through the lens of the softer side of Seers (sic), pun intended.

 

Researchers Steer Cyborg Mice Through Maze with Brain Stimulation  The video shows a cyborg mouse ignoring sex and food as it obeys humans’ navigation commands. Considering the advent of Elon Musk’s neuralinks, we seem to be barreling towards a transhuman world at lightning speeds, no matter that Elon Musk’s ‘Brain Chip’ Could Be Suicide of the Mind, Says Scientist.

 

It’s important to consider Musk’s track record. Teslas have been on the market for how long now? And they’re continuously running into problems and have had more than their fair share of accidents due in no small part to design faults. What to speak of the fact that a 19-year-old claim(ed) he hacked into over 25 Teslas in 13 countries. That Tesla’s Zero-click Vulnerabilities Allowed its Car to be Hacked Remotely Using Drones, and that NHTSA (has opened a) safety probe into 416,000 Teslas for ‘phantom braking’.

Considering that security has never been top of mind for much of the tech sector, neural implants would take the critical importance of such measures several levels of magnitude greater. How far off are neuralinks from being introduced into actual humans? Note to self: Elon Musk’s Neuralink is hiring a clinical trial director as it moves towards testing chip implants in humans.

 

At this point in technology, we’ve grown accustomed to downloading the latest updates no matter how buggy they prove to be; to seizing on the next shiny new thing; and to embracing the misconception that tech already has all of our personal information and nothing more to see here, so what’s the difference and we have nothing to hide, anyway – so Big Tech keeps raising the ante.

 

As for privacy/personal information, it’s never gone until it’s completely and irrevocably gone, so it’s always important to be vigilant and concerned. In the words of Mike Campbell in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” re his money troubles when he was asked how he went bankrupt:

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

And that’s how it happens, so take heed as we go onward and forward.