Question the Magic (QTM): Em-Sense Watch

Question the magic.

It just came to me.  It’s a new way of thinking that needs to start happening and it needs to start happening *yesterday*.  After the invention of the television, humanity started shutting off our brains.  It was ‘magic’ how that visual image came through thin air into their homes.

It was ‘magic’ how the cell phones connect us to the world wherever we go.

It was ‘magic’ how the computer turns on and connects to the whole world.

It was ‘magic’ how the phone in my pocket started connecting to the whole world.

It was ‘magic’ how gmail started showing advertisements for stuff I was actually thinking about shopping for…. before I started shopping.

It was ‘magic’ how ads on google search engines started feeling very, very, very relevant to what I was searching.

It was ‘magic’ how my mobile phone just connected and synchronized photos with my computer.

It was ‘magic’ how the fob on my keychain lets me into my elevator, my front door, the amenity room, yet keeps others out.

It was ‘magic’ how if I lock my keys out of my car I was able to have some friendly folks open them remotely.

All of this and more was so ‘magic’….

Except….

It wasn’t magic at all.  None of it.  Not one bit of it.
It was all planned, in advance, by people behind closed doors.

And none of them told you about the risks this ‘magic’ brings to your life.  Just like black magic, there is a price to pay for allowing someone else control of your life.

It’s time to question the magic.

For the first episode of QTM, allow me to introduce to you, the Em-Sense Watch.

the magic

This watch can sense pretty much anything you are touching.  When it senses what you are touching, it can react accordingly (smart) and do stuff that makes your life blissful and trendy.

the risk

Do you have the source code for this?  If you touch an object, does it report back to the mothership?  For the IHNTH (I-Have-Nothing-to-Hide) folks, who always say ‘It doesn’t matter, IHNTH”, how about this simple question: is there anything, or anyone, that your hand has touched in the last little while that you would not want someone knowing anything about?  Are you sure you have *nothing* to hide?  And even if you truly don’t, which is great, by putting something like this on, you are are a walking RFID reader and transmitter.  Everything you touch.  Everything you are near.  All of it.  Tracked.  Or potentially tracked.  Final note: just having the name ‘Disney’ on this should be your biggest red flag *ever*.  Run for the hills on this device, people.

the solution

This will probably always be the solution but in order for this technology to be of any value without being a serious risk to everyone’s privacy, it would necessitate open source software (ie. ubuntu snappy) and the ability to authorize *every* attempt to connect to anything outside of the watch itself.  It would also need a feature where, if stolen, you could initiate a full remote memory wash.