Well if you have nothing to worry about then you have nothing to worry about...otherwise...why worry about whos watching or listening? LOL
It is a matter of principle. Anything I say in the privacy of my own home should not be stored somewhere on a server farm by some private corporation or even the federal government. The whole, "if you did nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" argument is a false one. Information is the currency and weapon of the age.
I keep telling my niece and nephews that they have to be very careful about ANYTHING that they post to facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube, or even what they say around their friends - because the internet is FOREVER. 6 years from now, when they get out of college and they are looking for a job, potential employers are going to know EVERYTHING about them that they or their friends put on the internet. If any of it is even moderately controversial, they aren't going to get that job.
It is only going to get worse...
Just wait until the next generation of cable boxes become a mandatory think if you want cable. I was reading the patent application for these - Advertising you see on your TV will be based upon CONVERSATION going on in the room. The technology will be able to determine how many people are in the room, their gender, and approximate ages. Just image arguing with your wife and then having commercials for divorce lawyers showing up on the TV. It is pretty creepy and borderline Orwellian. And yes - conversations will be recorded by the cable providers.
Too much of anything is a bad thing. Too much technology and too much invasion of privacy is definitely a bad thing. Sure, there are tons of people out there who will give away any and all information because we are BEING conditioned to answer any and all questions asked of us online.
If you ever watched them movie "Minority Report", that is where advertising is heading. Retailers are experimenting with all kinds of surveillance gear - cameras in the shelves to watch your eye movement so they can see what it is your are looking at specifically and for how long. They monitor MAC addresses in phones to monitor where you are in the store and how long you stay in one place - they are doing all kinds of data mining and for the most part, people are unaware exactly how much. The moment I walk into a store and I am greeted by name after an eyescan is the last time I ever do business with that company.
Web Beacons are another great one - They get put on web pages and inserted into emails. They are 1x1 transparent images that act as cookies. When used in emails, they will tell the sender of the email what time you opened up the email, and the ip address of the computer, and the approximate location you currently are.
And, I think one of the more disturbing things was a webpage at Comcast that tells your the address of customers based upon IP address. I don't recall it listing your name or anything, but it did list physical address. Word to the wise - if you use Comcast and do things like argue with trolls on sites that log IP addresses, if the troll happens to have access to that information, he also can easily find out where you live just by IP address.
The sad truth about Orwell's "1984" is that the government could never force a "Telescreen" into everyones home. But, we carry one with us everywhere we go - willingly. Unless you take out the battery or remove the simcard, those phones can be powered on remotely, as can the cameras and microphones.
I don't like my privacy being violated.
