Read Online The Outer Circle (The Counterpoint Trilogy Book 3) by D. R. Bell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: D. R. Bell
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secure router, making it very difficult to determine the location of the caller or the recipient.”
“How did you come up with all this?” Oleg’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“It was partly TV that gave me this idea,” Alejandro turned the TV on, a projection appeared on the wall and a seductive if slightly robotic female voice started praising wonderful deals in the neighborhood while images of stores and restaurants in the vicinity were flashing on the screen.
“This is an older model,” explained Alejandro. “The new, immersive ones have image and voice recognition built in so they will tailor the programming and advertising to whoever is in the room. A couple of years ago it totally spooked me when I went to visit a friend and the damn TV started addressing me by name and offering me a special at a gym club. They even added that the gym had two hundred seventy four unattached blonde female members between ages of 18 and 25.”
“So they knew you like them young and blonde?” laughed Maggie.
“I do prefer blondes,” Alejandro lowered his head in her direction and Maggie blushed, “but it was the fact that they tracked exactly where I was and what I like. And that’s where I got my business idea. That, and the identity change that Javier did for you two years ago. This data is all supposed to be private, but do you really trust it to be? There was a well-publicized disclosure where the law enforcement gained real-time access to this supposedly marketing data to ‘track terrorists and enforce the law’.”
TV advertising stopped and was replaced with images of AeroCars racing furiously above and between buildings, engines roaring. “Fast and Furious 17,” said the caption.
“So what was your business idea?”
“I am oversimplifying, but let’s say we provide privacy and ‘identity protection’ services. Help people ‘drop out.’”
“Drop out?”
“Yeah, it’s the term we use. Although ‘opt out’ might be more appropriate. You see, some people just don’t want their appliances spying on them, that’s more of an ‘opt out’ thing. Others try to ‘get off the grid’ completely, to minimize their data footprint. We help.”
“How?”
“Take me, for example. I made sure there are no image and voice recognition devices in any of my places. I do a daily electronic sweep for suspicious gadgets. I use wearable devices only when I am sure they are not transmitting my location data out. License plates on all my cars are shielded to give video cameras distorted readings. My glasses, hats, shirts all have miniature devices that detect the presence of camera sensors and direct a pulsing light back at them, distorting any imagery. And I carry an electronic voice changer with me for other eventualities. I surf the internet anonymously, using browsers with TOR-3A built-in. All my voice and e-mail communication is encrypted using long-length codes that change daily. My kitchen robot Cumba has been modified to not store or send any household information out.”
“Even your robot?”
“Yes, absolutely. We let robots into our homes, they work for us, and we think they are ours. But they have their ‘eyes,’ they have their ‘ears,’ and people who built them can see what they see, can hear what they hear. And if their makers have the information, it means the government also has access. I allow diagnostic data to go back, but nothing else.”
“Isn’t this a lot of daily work?” wondered Maggie.
“Not really, once we set people up with secure apps, much of this happens automatically. The trick is that we do it for them once and then we are on call, to help as needed. When people download or search for privacy apps or devices themselves, the government knows about it and potentially starts tracking them. We do the setup off-net. And people themselves are now getting smarter about avoiding devices that spy on them. A year ago, the Feds tried to convict someone using data captured
“How did you come up with all this?” Oleg’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“It was partly TV that gave me this idea,” Alejandro turned the TV on, a projection appeared on the wall and a seductive if slightly robotic female voice started praising wonderful deals in the neighborhood while images of stores and restaurants in the vicinity were flashing on the screen.
“This is an older model,” explained Alejandro. “The new, immersive ones have image and voice recognition built in so they will tailor the programming and advertising to whoever is in the room. A couple of years ago it totally spooked me when I went to visit a friend and the damn TV started addressing me by name and offering me a special at a gym club. They even added that the gym had two hundred seventy four unattached blonde female members between ages of 18 and 25.”
“So they knew you like them young and blonde?” laughed Maggie.
“I do prefer blondes,” Alejandro lowered his head in her direction and Maggie blushed, “but it was the fact that they tracked exactly where I was and what I like. And that’s where I got my business idea. That, and the identity change that Javier did for you two years ago. This data is all supposed to be private, but do you really trust it to be? There was a well-publicized disclosure where the law enforcement gained real-time access to this supposedly marketing data to ‘track terrorists and enforce the law’.”
TV advertising stopped and was replaced with images of AeroCars racing furiously above and between buildings, engines roaring. “Fast and Furious 17,” said the caption.
“So what was your business idea?”
“I am oversimplifying, but let’s say we provide privacy and ‘identity protection’ services. Help people ‘drop out.’”
“Drop out?”
“Yeah, it’s the term we use. Although ‘opt out’ might be more appropriate. You see, some people just don’t want their appliances spying on them, that’s more of an ‘opt out’ thing. Others try to ‘get off the grid’ completely, to minimize their data footprint. We help.”
“How?”
“Take me, for example. I made sure there are no image and voice recognition devices in any of my places. I do a daily electronic sweep for suspicious gadgets. I use wearable devices only when I am sure they are not transmitting my location data out. License plates on all my cars are shielded to give video cameras distorted readings. My glasses, hats, shirts all have miniature devices that detect the presence of camera sensors and direct a pulsing light back at them, distorting any imagery. And I carry an electronic voice changer with me for other eventualities. I surf the internet anonymously, using browsers with TOR-3A built-in. All my voice and e-mail communication is encrypted using long-length codes that change daily. My kitchen robot Cumba has been modified to not store or send any household information out.”
“Even your robot?”
“Yes, absolutely. We let robots into our homes, they work for us, and we think they are ours. But they have their ‘eyes,’ they have their ‘ears,’ and people who built them can see what they see, can hear what they hear. And if their makers have the information, it means the government also has access. I allow diagnostic data to go back, but nothing else.”
“Isn’t this a lot of daily work?” wondered Maggie.
“Not really, once we set people up with secure apps, much of this happens automatically. The trick is that we do it for them once and then we are on call, to help as needed. When people download or search for privacy apps or devices themselves, the government knows about it and potentially starts tracking them. We do the setup off-net. And people themselves are now getting smarter about avoiding devices that spy on them. A year ago, the Feds tried to convict someone using data captured
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