Convenience beats privacy

They know what we are up to. Every step is watched. Every action is recorded. Yet, despite feeling some fear and discomfort, we still go ahead and serve a fresh meal to the data monster every time.

Why?

Simply, we love convenience.

When something is easier, we choose that. Humans are lazy by nature. If we can save time, we will. Nobody likes to spend hours dusting their house if they can do it in under 10 minutes by asking Alexa to send off their robot hoover and then spend only 10 minutes to clean it.

Meanwhile Alexa recorded your cleaning routines. Your swear words and how much you don't like the hoover as the bloody thing never cleans the dirty corners of your kids room. Oh, by the way, your kid's name, bad habits and how many haribos were consumed are all assigned to the hoover o'clock data segment.

Well, fair enough I would not know exactly how every piece of data our devices capture and save. I could only assume what I know is possible with the current tech. This doesn't help worried minds and I know that! It possibly is a lot worse if you care about privacy. Depressed much?

Wherever we go we are recorded. Train journeys, coffee orders, driving routes etc...

My take?

I try not to share too much if I can control in a convenient way. I know that data becomes a lot more meaningful when the nodes are interconnected. When a piece joins another one to tell a story, data can drive scary results or wonders, depending on who controls it.

I like convenience. Just as the dietary advice we get - don't eat too much of anything and you will be fine- if we can control the level of privacy, I think there is no harm in choosing convenience to help make our lives easier.