Now we have a TV show, Person of Interest, with a similar premise - that someone is always watching - and it doesn't seem quite so unbelievable anymore.
When I first started shopping on line, I had a terrible time giving out my credit card information. How could it possibly be secure out there? Now, of course, we put almost everything out there. Financial data? Sure. Medical information? No problem. Social gatherings? Absolutely. Let have them on line.
But there was still the illusion that we were in control. If I entered my banking information on line, that was my choice. If I wanted to shop on line - knowing my purchases would be tracked and used for marketing purposes - well, that was up to me. If I purchased books for my e-reader, I knew those purchases were recorded in a file somewhere so someone could look up my reading preferences, see what I liked to read.
But how about the way I read? Could someone watch over my shoulder and see how fast I read a story? Where I stopped? What pages I re-read? If I skipped to the end of a mystery to see whodunit? I mean, once I purchased a book for my e-reader, what I did with it was no one's business but my own, right?
If you believe this is true, you need to read this story in the Wall Street Journal, WSJ: Your E-Book is Reading You .
Does anyone else find this just a bit terrifying? Or am I too old-school?
Funnies for Today:
Do you find Windows error messages annoying? How about these soothing Haiku alternatives?
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down
A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that.
With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
