Big Brother is Watching Your Underwear

Yesterday, my wife went to Big Bazaar, which as you know, is a chain of department stores catering to middleclass Indians. This particular outlet in Hosur is fairly large, spread over four floors; it has separate sections for men’s clothing, women’s attires, household goods, and so on. My wife visited several sections of the store around one in the afternoon. (Please note. The time is relevant to my story.) Just before checking out, she stopped in front of a rack and picked up two vests for me. However, on second thoughts, she decided not to buy them and naturally, forgot all about them by the time she reached home.

Fortunately, these days it is not easy to forget something if someone wants to sell it to you. Around 6 PM, when my other half checked her smartphone, she found a series of adverts by Amazon for men’s vests. Could it be because she had earlier searched for men’s vests on the Net? No. She vows never to have done so.

I am sure Amazon offered those ads with the altruistic motive to make me wear freshly minted undergarments, but was it mere coincidence? Have you experienced anything similar?

People who know how the world is run today tell me this was not a coincidence.

If I have understood them correctly, the targeted ads came because my spending half’s phone was on, and her location was accessible to Google and Amazon, which app she has on her phone. One or both of them knew – and this is scary – the exact steps she had traced, including her tryst with a rack of men’s vests. Either Google sold this information to Amazon or Amazon themselves tracked her.

Then it gets even creepier. Somewhere, at some place on earth, someone is running an AI (artificial intelligence) programme. This information was possibly matched with two more pieces: (A) my wife has a husband, (B) the said husband has never bought underwear from Amazon and so, he must be desperately in need of a few pieces.

And voila! Amazon decides to offer her a set of three vests at a discount. All this within five short hours.

[Statutory Disclaimer: I find it difficult to believe that commercial surveillance has intruded our private life to this extent already. But frankly, I cannot think of a better explanation. If you can, please tell me.]

*

Last year, on the Diwali night, our home near Hosur was burgled when we were not there. The thieves – there were clearly more than one person – broke open a window, got in, and spent at least an hour ransacking the house, looking for valuables. They threw every book on to the floor, removed everything from the cupboards, upturned every mattress, and even emptied dustbins hoping we would be smart enough to hide some jewellery therein. I guess they did all that with the help of the torch(es) on their mobile phone(s).

Later, my son told me, very likely, the burglars used Android phones, possibly several of them, when they converged on our house.

If they did, Google knows who they were, their age, address, their fathers' names, and possibly their zodiac signs too.

Google knows!

*

A significant novel of the twentieth century, George Orwell’s 1984 predicted a dystopian future for humankind where the world would be shared by three monstrously huge super-states and one of which would have a society split into three clear categories: inner party, ordinary party workers, and the rest called proles, who were nonentities. You possibly know the story, but please let me give the background in a few words.

The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith is an ordinary party worker whose every move is monitored by the state. There is a two-way telescreen in every living room which could never be turned off. So, the state can check what Winston and others are doing 24 X 7. He has no private moment, no private thoughts. Writing a diary is an offence punishable by imprisonment and unimaginable torture. There are huge cut-outs on roads showing just one face; you also see the same chilling visage everywhere else, in offices, in your apartment’s landings, and so on. The country is under the constant gaze of one man referred to as the Big Brother, who may not even be alive. But people live with an inexorable fear: “Big Brother is watching!”

Orwell could not have imagined there would be a time when everyone – from an ordinary woman to a professional burglar – will be under the constant, unblinking scrutiny of a Commercial Big Brother.

My blood freezes!

Friday, 02 August 2019

PS *** 

After reading this story, a young friend who is an expert in the field has to say this. (I am not giving his name in deference to his wishes.)

"All your conjectures might be true. You should be aware that India has poor data protection laws, practically no conflict of interest laws, and legislatures still don't understand things like identity theft, profiling, etc. So Google and Amazon cannot do most of the stuff in US, UK and Germany, which they can do in India. Moreover anything related to tech companies has God [like] status in India. Tech companies cannot be touched or questioned."


It is a new perspective for me and I must share this with you, Dear Reader. ***