Always On technologies, the use of wireless networks as an application platform linking sensors and data between you, your stuff and the Internet, can have powerful, positive impacts on our lives.
But it can also have negative implications. Always On can be misused to create a surveillance state, in which you are constantly a criminal suspect, where Big Brother is always watching, where freedom is just another word and control -- from business and government -- becomes absolute.
Unfortunately, that is the way it's being used today. AT&T, a company no one should trust with anything, let alone their security, is now selling businesses "remote monitoring" systems, from $350, which let businesses put customers and employees under constant surveillance.
While it's cool to do security monitoring using wireless networks, that's just one application space.
There are many others where the benefits are clear, where the privacy implications don't exist, and where there isn't enough being done:
- Always On chips can monitor your heart, your blood, or whatever else needs monitoring and alert doctors before a fatal attack.
- Always On RFID chips can help you find your keys or wallet when you lose track of them.
- Always On RFID chips and sensors can tell you what is in the refrigerator and what is going bad.
- Always On systems can help people with Alzheimer's and other dementia problems stay in their homes longer, where they can live instead of just wait to die.
These application spaces are not being developed because of the obsession with security, which is perceived as having fewer legal or regulatory hurdles. The negative perception of this technology which will result could kill other Always On application spaces in their tracks. What we're doing here is privatizing the war of terror, making everyone a suspect, raising our own levels of fear and suspicion against one another.
I'll say it again. Break up AT&T.
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