The Stranger
The following is an editorial written for Variable Magazine Vol. 8: Question. The views expressed within are entirely my own and may not represent the views of IBM.
It’s Thursday morning, I’m running late for work. I toss my keys to a man walking down the street, “lock the front door” I shout, as I sprint down the road towards the bus stop and hop on the 51. I grab a seat towards the back. I lean into the woman next to me, “I’m going to work, 1456 Federal Street. I’ll be there until 5pm, and then I’m going to happy hour at Marty’s with Alyssa. Turn on the light in my living room at 7pm so it looks like I’m home”.
At happy hour I split a bottle of wine with Alyssa. I tap a man at the end of the bar on the shoulder “Here’s my debit card, get $15 from my account so I can split the tab with Alyssa.” I walk out of the bar and march up to a Toyota Corolla idling in the street. “I live at 698 Orchard street, drive me home.”
Twenty minutes later I hop out of the Corolla in front of my house. “Come help me get ready for bed!” I shout at a man standing on the corner. He walks up to my door and unlocks it for me. “I like the temperature to be 68 degrees when I sleep” I say, as he lowers my thermostat. “I was running late today, wake me up a little earlier tomorrow. But do it gently — maybe by slowly turning on the lights and imitating bird songs” I say as I change into my pajamas. “Oh, and watch me while I sleep. Let me know if someone I don’t know is trying to get into the house.”
I’m being facetious. I don’t walk around talking to strangers about my personal life and preferences. That would be bizarre and dangerous. But I do share those same intimate details of my life with a handful of corporations everyday, and I think nothing of it.
Why?
The quest for convenience has dramatically reshaped the way in which we live our lives. The greater the amount of convenience a service has to offer, the easier it is for us to part with our privacy. I allow Amazon to listen to my personal conversations, so that I can make a shopping list without pulling out my notebook. I allow Google to track my location all day long so that I can sit in slightly less traffic. I willingly give samples of my DNA to 23 and Me, because I’m curious about how much of my lineage is German, and it’s easier than looking through old records.
I don’t even read the full terms of service.
We’ve evolved into a position where we no longer make decisions based purely on survival and self-preservation, but rather by what will save us effort. Time and effort, and their conservation have become two most important value propositions a service or product can offer. So I willingly diminish my own right to privacy, and trust the corporation whose primary motivator for offering these products and services is the money I pay them, to do the right thing and have my best interests at heart. Some corporations are better at this than others, sure, but it’s still like trusting a stranger on the street to not use the knowledge that I’m not home to rob me blind. Some strangers are nice, some strangers are not so nice.
But what does this mean for the future?
I grew up in the era of “stranger danger”. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t get into a car with a stranger. Don’t accept candy from strangers. If you do, you’ll end up on the side of a milk carton.
But what does it mean for our children, when the stranger is no longer a person idling in a car outside the local park, but is instead an invisible, omnipresent, entity collecting data from your every move? Do we need to make up a catchy rhyme about reading the privacy policy before you download? Or, do we maintain the status quo? The convenience is worth it, trust the corporation, dump your right to privacy.
What does that future look like?
Are we shifting to a world where my Uber rating dictates whether I qualify for access to safe and affordable transportation services? Where Google can lock me out of my home when I can’t afford the price increase of my subscription? A world where my 23 and Me report dictates whether I can afford health insurance, or whether I’m allowed to have children?
What should we do?
