If 9/11 can be said to have changed the landscape for domestic surveillance, I think it’s safe to say the technological explosion of the Internet, “smart” phones and cheap consumer electronics has made the entire field of surveillance a lot easier, and not just for CIA, NSA, FBI and whatever other alphabet-soup agency you want to throw into the mix.
It’s not enough, apparently, to have “smart” speakers which constantly listen to every word spoken within their range; “Smart” phones which can pin your location down to within a few hundred feet; “Smart” TV’s which can not only send your entire viewing history (and, in the case of camera-equipped sets, images of you and the room you’re in) to who knows where; Video doorbells which the device manufacturer or the cops can tap into without a warrant any time they feel like it.
No, it looks like Amazon has decided to up the game with their new ‘Astro’ robot. This self-driving cat-frightener is equipped with camera, microphones, wireless networking (I’d bet on a speech synthesizer, too) and enough computing smarts to handle it all.
It can, according to Amazon, literally “learn” the normal appearance of your home and its rooms, along with the people and pets in them, and report anything it thinks is ‘out of the ordinary.’ Here's where I found the original article.
Yes, the world of “connected” things can offer great convenience and, admittedly, some peace-of-mind. But at what cost? When is it “enough?” Where do you draw the line?
Would you want to plop down a grand (Amazon’s list on the Astro is said to be $999) to, effectively, bug most of your house with audio, video and internal mapping, when you have absolutely no idea who might be given access to that data or for what purpose?
What I find really laughable is ‘Astro’ isn’t available for general purchase as yet. You can only buy one if Amazon invites you to do so.
Is it just me, or does this mobile coat rack seem more like a “solution” in search of a problem?