The latest Apple Watch has a feature that records and transcribes conversations around the wearer, allowing them to rewind up to 15 seconds into the past to review what was said. I don’t want this.
Meta has been selling Ray Ban glasses for a couple of years now that are equipped with front-facing cameras that allow the wearer to record the environment around them. Only a little green light warns passers by that they are being recorded. These have already earned the nickname “Perv Glasses“. I don’t want this.
Humane, a now defunct startup (acquired for parts by HP) was developing a ‘pin’ that the wearer would wear on their body that would have a variety of AI functions, including ambient recording. I don’t want this.
It is rumoured that Apple’s next Airpods Pro will have cameras in them – yes, cameras – to capture the enviornment surrounding the wearer, for the purpose of providing some kind if AI spatial awareness feature. No doubt Apple won’t call them “cameras” but “visual sensors” or some other marketing nonsense… but they could be capturing the world around the wearer at all times. At least with the Meta glasses I can tell that you’re wearing them and ask you to take them off. But when headphones have cameras… who can know?
I don’t want this.
All of this modern surveillance technology is entering the mainstream at remarkable speed, accelerated (and in the eyes of the tech companies, justified) by the capabilities of AI to make sense of this massive amount of data. Privacy and annonymity are already under threat online, and increasingly in the real world too.
And how much of this “contextual awareness” flows straight back to the tech companies for training and improving their models?
Nearly all the online meetings I attend are recorded and transcribed these days… and working for a distributed global organisation in the post-Covid world, that means nearly all my meetings. Having the feeling that you are being constantly recorded and transcribed feels like a substantial energy drain. Knowing that whatever you said in that meeting can be tracked, someone can pull it out down the line… it’s stressful. It’s like a feeling of being constantly watched by people who are not even in the room.
The rule in business used to be, “be careful what you put in writing”. Now you need to be careful what you say, at all times and in all places.
Having more devices out there that are constantly listening, watching, whether I like it or not, is a scary thought indeed.
I’m grateful that Europe has some of the most advanced privacy laws in the world. Mass surveillance of private citizens is not supported by the law. Recording somebody without their consent can be a criminal offence in Germany.
I’m curious to see how this new onslaught of privacy-destroying tech devices meet the EU’s tech regulation.
But in the meantime, if you want to talk to me with your Meta glasses on, I’ll ask you to take them off.
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