Truly scary - electronic surveillance in your home and neighborhood over which you have no control

 

Bruce Wilds points out that the state and big business have made so many inroads into our personal freedoms that we have very little privacy left.  Basically, we've freely handed over to them the knowledge they're going to use to manipulate us.

Many people claim they have nothing to hide and use that as the reason they don't object to the expanding web of surveillance being weaved over them. These people ignore the fact we are surrendering our right to freedom when we as a society go down this path. The reality is that when someone knows all about you and your deepest thought they gain tremendous power over you. This is directly linked to the ability to control you.

. . .

This has drastically increased the fear of speaking out, which, was at one time considered a mainstay of a free society. The more I know and learn, the more appalled I have become concerning the direction society is taking mankind. Rather than making us freer, modern society is slowly squeezing and tamping down our right to go about life unimpeded and with a minimum of barriers blocking our ability to, shall we say, "freely move about the cabin."

This has gone to the point where our government thinks it should supply the poor and indigent with free computers and the internet to level the playing field. This in turn forces the rest of us to move in the direction of being "connected" or becoming irrelevant. Of course, being connected means it becomes easier for big brother to watch your every move and allows those in power to exert more control over those under their watchful eye.

. . .

Mainstream media continues to condition people to accept public surveillance and a Big Brother state under the umbrella of COVID or the greater good. Tax money has and continues to be diverted from more important venues to fund spying on the innocent and taking attention away from the guilty. This has created a scenario in which the noose will only continue to tighten around the neck of mankind.

There's more at the link.

Mr. Wilds cites as an example this video on how devices such as Amazon's Echo "smart speakers", Ring "smart doorbells" and similar products from other companies are invading our privacy.  The excerpt I've embedded below (from 12m. 35sec. to 15m. 44sec. if you watch the video in native mode on YouTube) is just over 3 minutes long.  It's truly scary in its implications for our privacy.  Please take 3 minutes to watch it, and think about what this means for you and "Big Brother".

Makes you think, doesn't it?  Literally everything you say and do around your home is being recorded on central computers over which you have no control.  Can you imagine a more perfect foundation for a "social credit score" such as China is implementing?  If anyone wants to know what sort of person you are, or what your political or cultural or religious opinions are, all they have to do is gain access to that central database - and you may never know that they have.

Even worse, similar capabilities are now being built into devices such as television sets, which record your channel and programming preferences, what you're doing while you watch TV (and while you're not watching), and so on.  It all gets sent to a central computer system that analyzes your behavior, then sells that information to marketers trying to figure out how best to manipulate you into buying their products.

That's why I will never allow such systems into my home:  and, if I ever have to use a TV or other system with such capabilities, it'll be permanently blocked from accessing the Internet.  If it can't function without such access, I'll do without it.

Peter