#843 Dropping Eaves

The world continues to get smaller as more and more of us connect electronically. Its getting so we are like people crammed together in a cheap apartment house. And the walls between us are very thin.
This means, of course, we are more vulnerable than ever to eavesdropping. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the manufacturers of certain hardware devices are dropping eaves on us as we speak.
As we speak on our phones that is…
Suppose I told you evil Bill Gates could get a look into your computer from the heights of his new Vista? Suppose he didn’t like what he found. Maybe you were running some Mac software.
Suppose I told you he could kill those programs anytime he wants?
He wouldn’t have to fry your computer outright. He could just remotely disable any program he chose. Maybe he didn’t like your desktop screensaver because it had an unflattering picture of him.
When you connected to the internet, he was able to tunnel into the bowels of your code and see anything he wanted.
What if when you connected to cable, Comcast could fry your TV for running its shows through TiVo?
You’d be outraged, right? A violation of privacy. Harkening back to the days of AT&T’s monopoly over the phone system, when they wouldn’t even allow you to hook up a phone made by another company to their wires.
Well outrage away. Because that’s what the new iPhone has. A hidden kill switch. And it wasn’t the supposedly evil Bill Gates that installed it. Nope, it was good old Mr. nice guy, Steve Jobs.
Anytime Apple doesn’t like an app that you put on your iPhone, they can kill it remotely. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to connect your computer to the internet and have Microsoft search your computer for updates, viruses and worms.
But your iPhone?
Whenever you call someone, the Apple bunch can tap in and search your phone for apps it wants to kill.
This means every time you call, someone is listening...
Evil big brother?
Or, well, doing it for our own protection?
America, ya gotta love it.