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Back Door

This news about a back-doored home security camera and invasion of privacy is no surprise. Such events are a not a matter of if but when. Having the perimeter of your home watched 24/7 and having access to the cameras from just about anywhere is a huge convenience - and there is a proportionate risk as illustrated by this story. Our data is being constantly harvested by devices we allowed in our homes and it is sold to third parties who use it to build better, more complete profiles of us. There is a cradle to grave cycle of data collection in progress all aimed at pushing us to consume more. 

Advertising giant Google claims that 30 million students nationwide use its products in school. In many schools, students are required to use a Gmail account and Google products as part of their public school education. When we consider the impact of these programs, we must remember that Google is an advertising company. The maxim that “When something is free, you're the product” applies broadly in the digital age. 

Allowing our minor kids to become the fodder for advertising companies cannot be good and yet very little is being done to stop it. There are certain gravitational effects when it comes to movement of data and when a bulk of it is in one place (in this Google), the rest will follow there. It's very important for the vendor to get their foot in the door and create the momentum for data to move in their direction. The rest takes care of itself. So much harm can be done to our kids with their data. I would not be surprised to read about some back-door exploit that harmed a lot of them and with no recourse. 

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