#1199 Laptop Viewing

Recently the Supreme Court ruled that police and other organizations could not use infrared and ultrasonic technology to view inside a person’s house. Just because we have the technological ability to see through walls, they said, doesn’t mean it’s right.
They said it was a violation of our constitutional right of privacy. This from a very conservative Supreme Court.
Scientists using infrared imaging and computers can now detect the presence of a tiny planet orbiting a star tens of light years from here. Since light travels 186,000 miles a second, it goes a whole bunch of miles in a year. If they can resolve an image getting that old and fuzzy, imagine what they could do to you and your wife in your bedroom.
Privacy is definitely a technological issue these days. All of our GPS cellphones actually have two-way GPS. If someone stole your phone, it could be found this way. Or if you were on the run from your stalking ex-girlfriend or boyfriend.
Let’s hope when the Chinese invade they don’t stop at Verizon first.
But it’s our own people invading our privacy we have to worry about the most. Like this school in Pennsylvania. They sent spies into teenagers’ bedrooms. Spies, as in “free laptops”. The school issued laptops to teenagers and then activated their webcams remotely. One of the parents sued when a teacher warned a student about not doing his homework because he was screwing around at home, and then backed up his threat with a webcam still.
Strangely, many of the students issued laptops were in a class that was reading George Orwell’s Big Brother opus. Would that we had such advanced technology in 1984. All we got to watch was MTV, which, fortunately, didn’t watch us back.
Not long ago I got a new computer at work and it had one of those little webcam lenses on the monitor. I taped a penny over it. Amazing how a simple alloy of copper and zinc can make you feel comfortable.
Too bad the Pennsylvania teenagers didn’t realize pennies make sense in more ways than one.
America, ya gotta love it.