The news was just posted today on Drudge Report and on Vigilant Citizen detailing the fact that Apple has put spying features in the iPhone. If you’re an iPhone owner, you should of course be angry about this intrusion of your privacy and betrayal of your trust and privacy as a loyal Apple customer.
But don’t complain hypocritically.
I have long seen people who would object to being spied upon doing something that makes no sense: self-informing. You might be doing the same thing.
Are you on Facebook? If so, check out how many times you’ve uploaded a photo or tagged yourself in a photo. Look at how many times you’ve willingly posted your whereabouts, your beliefs, your latest purchases, your thoughts, and the details of your family’s lives. You might not have thought about it at the time, but you don’t just share Facebook data with your “friends” – you share it with the owners of Facebook, the workers at Facebook, the financial backers of Facebook…and whoever else has been given access to Facebook’s data. Do you know who that might be? Probably not, and you’d probably be horrified if you knew the extent of “private” data dissemination.
Are you on Twitter? If so, your tweets amount to informing on yourself. In days past, communist dictatorships paid good money for citizen spies to report on their friends and neighbors. Today, otherwise sensible people do it willingly (and for free).
My point is this: if you value your own privacy, don’t give out your information.
And it probably doesn’t need to be stated, but don’t use any “smart”phone.
Update 4-22-11: Today it comes out that Google’s Android phones do the same thing – track users a few times each hour, and upload the location data to Google. There is no privacy if you carry one. Still going to keep your smartphone?
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