Productivity Killed the Privacy Star

For years, Google has been reading every one of your emails. Twitter and Facebook track your location and webpages you view. There is even a tool so that I or anyone else could see your location based off your twitter. Even the pictures you take on your smartphone have the location built into the file, so anyone could see where it was taken. Instagram even has some little thing hidden in their privacy agreement that they can sell and use your pictures freely.

Sure we give those companies permission to do all that. I say privacy has been given up for a trade. We traded it for "productivity". Almost every productivity tool tracks you. Your phone, Smartwatch, Fitbit, car, or computer. Technology has sold off our secrets so that we can "work" more efficiently. The new Google Pixel phone as always listening microphones that tell you what song is playing, without you having to ever ask. Those same microphones are listening for you to say the trigger word, "ok Google.", but those mics are literally always on. So many apps, programs, and electronics ask for us to let them into our lives, for the sake of productivity. The new Google Home speaker and Amazon Echo can learn individual voices; so that if you as it your schedule it will tell you. Or if your brother, mom, wife, gf, etc. asks it the same question, it will tell them their schedule. Google literally has a database of voice samples from everyone. All in the name of productivity.

At this point we must ask ourselves, is this what we want? is this worth giving up our literal voices? Depends on who you ask. If you do not know how you feel, check out the google voice search history. You can literally go back years and listen to the recording it has of the first voice question you ever asked it. Or check your location history, which shows a day by day map of every place you've been. Sure google can tell you here the best food is around your most visited areas, but is it worth the loss of privacy?