The last computer virus out there apparently triggers your computer camera and starts recording everything going on in front of that computer. God forbid you placed your laptop in your bedroom!
With the advent of webcams placed in real life in showers and other intimate places, usually for profit as in reality TV, it was not much of a stretch to go to the very next step which is to place the whole world on reality Web, willing or not. Of course with such a pool of forced volunteers why remunerate?
This kind of virus is beyond vaccination! It is no longer just "Uncle Sam is watching" we have to worry about but worse: pedophiles tracking our children in their own home from thousands of miles away!
Every day the media is replete of examples of internet intrusions or online-based tragedies. Two recent ones come to mind. One is the bizarre hoax surrounding Notre-Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o and this online girlfriend who does not seem to exist. We hear sobs on his voicemail; he sent her flowers. Is she dead? how could she if she does not even exist? This strangest of stories which preoccupied the nation for more than a week is courtesy of the internet mind you. Of course the media jumped all over it and transformed a bad joke into a HUGE hoax. Lots of ratings. Who knows maybe Katie Couric is behind the whole thing!
By now you probably heard of the match.com story whereby a woman alleges she was sexually assaulted while on a date with a man she met on that site. The woman is of course suing match.com
along with the man who assaulted her. It appeared after the fact that the man had been convicted of several counts of sexual battery. She could have googled him before the date or match.com could have. After all everybody is googling everybody these days before, after and during.
I don't know if Larry Page the co-founder of Google was on the same page of the Webster when he picked that name to resemble the word OGLE. The latter means "to look at amorously, flirtatiously or impertinently". The first two adverbs seem quite premonitial with regard to our stories above don't they? As to the last adverb, here are some synonyms that should get your blood boiling: fresh, insulting, brazen, insolent, rude and intrusive! Hmmm! so maybe Larry was on the right page after all and his goal all along was to be intrusive in our lives. He is damm well succeeding and we do not seem to care since Google's stock is through the roof.
With all our claims about privacy, we really are an exhibitionist extrovert society and the internet, its viruses and its googlers are feeding on that. No need to make a first impression just a "Google impression". Eric Schmidt ex-CEO is trying to sell the North Korean on this "intrusive" concept. I bet they will love it and we will have to worry about yet another dark corner of the world looking into our bedrooms and our kids'. It is one big worldwide (spider)web. It does facilitate knowledge but it also facilitate intrusion and crime. Wouldn't you rather go to the library instead like the good old days?
http:// WideWorldWatching. youreverymove. CON