Is Big Brother really watching?

"And maybe it is not just the government. Maybe it is hackers who can record you and sell it in the deep web."

By now we have all heard about the latest Wikileaks "leak". It is alleged Wikileaks tapped into the CIA (really?). Once they were in, they stole some secrets. Like secrets on how the CIA can turn different electronic gadgets in your home into snoopers. What do I think? When I recently penned an article about Real ID, my main point was we have not seen anything yet. It is going to get much more invasive proving you are you. The same for Big Brother snooping on us. We have not seen anything as yet.

My intent on this article was not to get into the why or where of the legality. Of course it is not legal. It is not Constitutional. The government cannot come into your house and snoop around without probable cause. Or can they? These days I really wonder if the beast can stay caged. 

I recently saw a movie about the war in the Middle East. In the movie, a drone was used for spying on the enemy. That worked fine until the subject they were spying on went inside a building. The allied forces were able to get an agent close to the building. He then took a robotic fly out of a container, used a guidance system in his cell phone, and then guided the fly inside the building. Once inside the building, the fly landed on a rafter in the ceiling. The miniature camera within the fly was then able to snoop on the enemy inside.

In the future, cameras will become even smaller - as will recording devices. I just saw a commercial for a cell phone charger you can plug into an outlet. Innocent enough. That is until you realize it also contained a hidden camera. Plus, not too long ago I read in a tech blog the DOD is very close to having camera small enough to put into a robotic mosquito. Yes, in the battlefield, we could unleash dozens of these fake insects and the enemy would never know they were being snooped on. 

A while back I teased my son-in-law because he had put some tape over the camera hole on his laptop. He was worried about Big Brother snooping on him. I am not teasing him now. If the Wikileaks story was true, Big Brother can use our TV sets, laptops, cellphones, tablets, or whatever to snoop on us. And maybe it is not just the government. Maybe it is hackers who can record you and then sell it in the deep web. Like shower time or intimate time. The thought of living in a bubble sends shivers up my spine.

Not to conflate sayings from different dystopian books, but we are entering a brave new world with Big Brother. All I can say is get used to it, as I don't see anyway to get far enough off the grid to protect yourself.