We all know that the
internet has its dark underbelly but today this has really given me the creeps.
Big Brother is definitely watching us, even though you might think he has
better things to do.
See if you can explain
this, pop kids: I do Little Brother’s online shopping once a week, in his flat
from his laptop, at his address with his email account and bank account and
internet provider. He is a creature of habit and likes the supermarket
beginning with T…
I prefer to see what I’m
buying, tend to shop locally where possible, and use a different supermarket for
a big shop. I have never ordered groceries online or had anything more than a local veg box delivered to our home
address.
Simon shops our local T…
every few days but he tends to pay cash and hates being a number not a free man so
he doesn’t use a loyalty card.
However – when I went
to do Nick’s online shop this afternoon, the “usual purchases” suggested alongside his habitual order were
exactly what Simon had last bought at our local shop. Beer, rizlas, pizza and green
apples for the lad, soya yoghurt for me, and a different newspaper than the one Nick reads. How on earth were they appearing on Nick's laptop?
Were we sure we didn’t
want to order these favourites again today, asked the prompt as I tried to check out.
I don't understand how this
is possible.
Simon, by the way, had
not seen Nick since buying those things, but the only thing I can think of is
that it’s our phones. There is no directly shared information but when we’re in
Nick’s flat with our phones, the phones must all be having little chats with
each other and exchanging our secrets. To the point that Simon and his phone
would not even need to be anywhere near Nick but information would somehow
transmit to Nick’s laptop. No, surely not, it doesn’t make sense.
I asked our millennial
son and he just shrugged – he’s just so used to Big Brother hovering, he
doesn’t even question it. It’s really given me the heebie jeebies, though.
When I think of
algorhythms, I like to imagine a Cab Calloway style jazz swing artist, Big Al
and his go-go rhythm orchestra, all wide grins and trumpets and baggy suits on
a podium. The reality is nothing like as cuddly.
But tell me this – how is it
that the internet knows all these things about our consumer habits but sharing
actual useful information so that carers acting on behalf of a loved one don’t have to start from scratch and
go through extensive security checks every single time they call, say, the
local authority?
It would be so useful
if (once a basic security clearance had been given, of course) we didn’t continually have
to jump through all these hoops; the GP has me down as Nick’s primary carer and
first point of contact for instance but although the district nurses have had
the same information, it keeps falling off their system so I have sometimes
found notes from them “To whom it may concern” with a prescription to pick up
meds that the GP knows nothing about, from a pharmacy that we don’t use for any
of his other medications. The different departments of the local authority,
likewise.
Of course you need some basic security checks so that people aren't taken advantage of, but when you have to do it again and again and again it becomes very wearing.
If only they could take a leaf from Tesco’s book!
Would that give me the
heebie jeebies too, though, would it be too much?
Forget it, cause it’s
not going to happen any time soon. The very thought is enough to short-circuit
every appliance in a five mile radius.
