Could You Repeat That? My Jewelry Didn't Hear You

We live in the Age of Full Disclosure, whether we like it or not. Alexa is more than likely listening, even when no one actually said, "Alexa, divulge my personal history to everyone in the room," or something like that. Everyone has at least one story of making an offhand comment with their smartphone sitting on the bar or in their pocket, only to find an endless supply of ads related to their remarks when they get home. At this point, if you believe you are skating through the 21st century with any degree of anonymity, I've got some beachfront property in Utah County to sell you, right next to the NSA data center. 

Most of us have grudgingly come to accept the fact that Big Brother and all his little siblings are tapping into our lives at some point during the day. Even if you have a VPN, they are still slinking around corners cupping their ears. But what happens when you decide to go gently into that good night after all and not only embrace the surveillance but pay for it? 

Millions will have just that opportunity since Amazon is purchasing the Bee bracelet. If that doesn't ring a bell, the Bee Bracelet is a device that records everything you say, all day, every day. Theoretically, the transcription created by the bracelet will be super helpful in helping you create useful to-do lists and organize your day. My guess is that it will also be super helpful when internet data brokers want to market you the way they did with used cars and ShamWows on what was once known as late-night television. You think your spam folder is overloaded now? Wait until Bee gets hold of your conversations. 

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Nicole Nguyen noted:

I first saw the bracelet earlier this year on the arm of my colleague Joanna Stern. As we were about to get into some gossip, Joanna pointed at her wrist—and warned me Bee was listening.

Joanna was impressed at how useful it was, though she wasn’t sold on the privacy trade-offs. Rather than saving audio, Bee only keeps a transcription. Still, the creep factor is high.

The creep factor is high? High? Ms. Nguyen, you just won the Pulitzer Prize for Understatement of the Year. This is off-the-charts creepy. We're talking seismic proportions, here. If I had six figures to bet, I'd put my money on those transcriptions getting squirreled away in Amazon's database. That will make for some excellent target marketing, and someday, anything you say may be used against you in the court of public opinion, or some other courts, depending on who is in the White House. And it may become problematic when it comes to your insurance, medical care, or bank account. I'm not saying it will, but who wants to bet it won't? After all, look how far we have come in the last decade alone. Given the prevalence of road rage in my state, I bet Bee transcripts will have to come with parental warnings. 

Nguyen's statement is quite prescient. After all, Bee won't just record what the wearer is saying; it will pick up other people in the conversation, possibly in the room. Not everyone may be comfortable with that. How many transcripts will be peppered with "I was just joking" and "I really didn't mean that"? On a darker note, this could be a portent of how Big Tech manages to get us to censor ourselves. Then again, "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear," right? Right? 

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