One of the most famous scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 1968 sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey involves astronaut Dave Bowman’s attempt to convince an increasingly paranoid computer named HAL 9000 to open up the mothership’s docking bay so Dave can land a smaller craft inside. Here’s a snippet of the increasingly tense exchange between them:
Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL, do you read me? Do you read me HAL?
HAL 9000: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave: Where the h‑‑‑ did you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
In 1968, the idea of a self-aware computer sneakily trying to protect itself and its mission was still very much in the realm of science fiction. After all, the computers of the day lived in warehouse-sized rooms and ran on cardboard punch cards.
Not quite 50 years later, the threat of a rogue HAL 9000 doesn’t seem so far-fetched. In fact, a distant digital cousin of his might already be lurking in your new smart TV. Once upon a time, you see, we watched TV. Now, TV is watching us.
In his recent salon.com article “I’m Terrified of My New TV: Why I’m Scared to Turn This Thing On—And You’d Be Too,” writer Michael Price detailed some of the information-gathering capabilities built into his new smart television (the brand of which he does not mention). He begins by saying the privacy policy manual for his latest entertainment appliance is a whopping 46 pages. Then he summarizes what those undoubtedly small-print disclaimers actually say about the information they’re gathering on users.
The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.
Price, however, is just getting warmed up. Perhaps even more disturbing than just tracking the content flickering on its screen, the TV also has a camera and a microphone … to watch and listen to its users.
It also has a built-in camera—with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. … More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that? Don’t say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV. You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening.
And, just like HAL 9000, the TV manufacturer’s mission is likely different than your own. Whereas you may think of your high-tech, high-def wonder primarily as a portal to television and Internet content, its maker knows that tracking your every move yields lucrative information about you that can be sold for a pretty penny. Or, perhaps a Bitcoin.
Price goes on to say that current privacy laws do not, for the most part, preclude such data gathering. And trying to disable privacy features more often than not disables desirable functionality too. In HAL 9000-speak, “This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.”
Increasingly, we’re living a world in which more and more devices are tracking and delivering more and more data to marketers (and who knows who else) about the multitude of mundane choices we make every day. It’s no longer science fiction. It’s what’s sitting on the shelf at Best Buy and in Amazon’s warehouses, waiting for us to eagerly install it … and perhaps hoping we don’t read the accompany privacy policy disclaimers too closely.
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