Monday 4 March 2013

Big brother.

David and I have not attended many lectures on this cruise....Very little has appealed since Roger McGuin left the ship. This morning though one did take our attention. It was about terrorists! We have encountered several Americans with real hatred of Muslims and were interested as to how it was going to be treated.

The lecturer was British which was a surprise...and he was very interesting. He talked us through several serious air crashes and talked about the security checking measures in place not just in airports but everywhere, including here on board the Queen Elizabeth.

Apparently we all have our public profiles which contain our flying history as well as our cruising history. What we buy, how we spend our time, they are all collected and kept as records which can be seen at the flick of a switch...

I think it was meant to reassure us but it actually had the reverse effect...is nothing sacred ?

Every cocktail, every piece of jewelry , every small purchase I have made on every cruise, it's all logged on my profile! This is not reassuring at all, but I suppose it lessens the likelihood of getting a terrorist attack from within!

This mornings speaker was excellent and told us some good jokes. But he also opened up some interesting debates.....is Big Brother alive and well and living in a large overseeing computer! There is a picture coming together in my mind of a large brain, unsupported by any body, which knows everything about us all....it's not a comfortable vision!

1 comment:

UKViewer said...

I believe that this doesn't only happen on travel. Business (and government) are closely allied in seeking to protect the nation, but also to gather information on everyone and everything to further commercial interests, to second guess consumer trends and to predict where you or I will be spending.

Just look at Amazon. They keep a history of everywhere you go on their site, what you search for and than build you a personal page, where they can make suggestions of things that you might be interested in.

I object to this and clear my history, but unsurprisingly, they still manage to predict with accuracy things that I might be looking for.

Google is probably the biggest culprit, but so is Apple and many others. They say that they don't share private information with each other (probably to protect their commercial interest) but they are obliged by the punitive laws in the USA to share them with government, who no doubt share with each other in defence of our homelands.

The only way to get around this is to always pay cash in shops, because any use of cards is tracked to the hilt.