Archive: Opinions

Clearing up the mess on my pseudo-desk this week. As the Muse says, "Welcome to my little slice of chaos." Another way of seeing this week's column is trying to organize my news clippings into different piles, make comments, and then keep moving.

Meteorological note: this has been one gorgeous Ithaca summer, hasn't it?

Tech news seems a little more disturbing recently, and me admitting that should surprise no one. Try these notes on and see if you agree about 'disturbing'.

The Independent, a reliable British newspaper, reports that a gentleman was cooking bacon in his kitchen when his smoke alarm went off. That's happened to most of us, but in this instance, his smart phone also notified him. Seems that the Google Home smart speakers were on and apparently listening to what has been described as 'passive sounds' like popping bubble wrap, glass breaking, and other 'high pitched noises', such as a smoke alarm. I use quotation marks here because that is what the Google spokesperson actually said. Google went on to say that the feature was accidentally enabled through a recent software update that has 'been reversed'. That's why the alert was received on the complainant's phone: Google Home was listening, as many people have suspected for the past few years.

So the question is, have you read the privacy policy for various software programs (remember it's a feature, not a bug), and equipment attached to not only your home computer, but very probably other smart appliances in your home or nowadays, in your workplace.

How about the following: Joanna Stern, in the Personal Technology blog, reports that her curiosity about COVID-19 symptoms lead her to wearables. For three weeks, she wore an Oura ring (a what?), a Fitbit, a Garmin fitness band, and an Apple Watch, along with two high-tech skin patches packed with sensors. Says Stern, "They've sent hundreds of temperature readings, blood oxygen levels, heartbeats, and even cough counts to my phone. All to find out if I have COVID-19." She says she doesn't, and confirmed it with an old fashioned nasal swab.

According to James Park, the CEO of Fitbit, the company is working toward a system in which flagged users would be instructed to quarantine. Park said that a quarantine one to three days before actual symptoms occur could have a meaningful impact on the course of the disease, both individually and in a wider medical/social sense.

The system is not yet actually out of the testing stage – it will need regulatory approval.

Here's a few other gee whiz things going on in this brave new world of tracking. The Oura ring is $299 and is an activity and sleep tracker that records temperature readings. NBA players are currently using it as they live and play in isolation. It registers temps for a few weeks to get a baseline, then reports fluctuations in body temperature.

A TempTraq patch goes in your armpit. It sends your temperature to a smart phone app every ten seconds and records the history every four minutes.

A Kinsa smart thermometer is like the 'dumb' thermometer in your medicine cabinet, but sends the temp to your smart phone. The trouble is, body temperature is not a good indicator of infection, and with COVID-19, you're already infectious by the time your temperature rises, if it does at all.

Heart rate? The Garmin Vivosmart 4, the Fitbit Charge A, and the Apple Watch Series 5 are your go-tos. Again, not necessarily perfectly indicative of infection, but they are seen as tools in the potential wearable toolbelt. Somehow, 'toolbelt' and 'wearable' correspond nicely – that visual can be taken up by one of you budding cartoonists out there.

A pulse oximeter, a little finger clip that apparently is available at places like Walgreen's, measures blood oxygen and is reportedly one of the hot gadgets of the year. It's supposed to be a good indicator of health, and possibly an early warning of problems, including COVID-19 infection. The problem is that blood oxygen numbers are only helpful for people already diagnosed with COVID-19. They're not a warning gadget, they're an infection severity gadget. No panacea here.

Got a cough? A patch made by a laboratory at Northwestern University, placed at the base of your neck, monitors temperature, heart rate, body motion, and chest wall movements, as well as respiratory sounds for coughs. It's still in the testing stage, and researchers are hopeful. I imagine that, connected to a smart phone app, it might even warn you of impending couch potato-itis or nag you about that cigarette you just lit.

So high tech is on the case, as the detectives say, and it certainly seems good news. The first users, always an important subset in new technology, could be assessed for hypochondria. Talk about obsessively checking your Gmail every thirty seconds.

And just to end this tech jaunt on a dystopic note from another area of our lives and livelihoods, police are apparently using a unique type of warrant to monitor Google users' locations en masse. It's called a 'geofence warrant', which authorities use to scan geographic areas and time periods for suspects through user location history stored by tech companies. Google says the number of such warrant requests grew by 1,500% from 2017 to 2018, and an additional 500% from 2018 to 2019. Google has raised concerns, but normally fulfills the requests. Facebook has the same technology, but won't fulfill the warrant requests because its technology isn't as precise. Lyft says it might comply, with certain unspecified limitations. Garmin says it won't comply if presented with a warrant.

A high-profile case in San Francisco will help us understand how this technology is being used in law enforcement.

In February 2019, LaQuan Dawes, age 30, was arrested in connection with a home burglary. The warrant by the police authorized a search for Google users within a half block radius of the crime scene over a two-hour period. This 'search' helped pinpoint Dawes. If a puzzled look just crossed your face, join the club, but these location data are being used as evidence as well as in a civil suit alleging Fourth Amendment violations.

In Virginia, Okello Chatrie, age 25, has been accused of armed robbery of a bank in Richmond. The warrant requested information about devices that passed within one-hundred fifty meters of the bank during the hour preceding the robbery. Google provided authorities with every user who opted into the location history feature to narrow down suspects, resulting in a positive ID from the bank teller.

This location history feature (have you opted in?) is being used by one-third of Google users and the data are sent to a database called SensorVault. Google won't give specific details. Once again, you budding cartoonists (pundits) could have a field day with this one, assuming you're not scared witless.

Google built a special protocol to process warrant requests. They search SensorVault to determine which users passed through the area of the crime and at the specified hour or hours and provide this info to the authorities. After police decide which devices (not people) are of interest (remember, you have a suspect and their phone in custody), they can them compel Google to identify specific users. New York's Senate is trying to put a bill together to protect individuals from these invasions of privacy, but it apparently is stalled, like practically everything else in Albany.

Meanwhile, two suggestions: read your user privacy policy before adding an app, no matter how boring and lengthy, and remember that if you're not worried about Big Brother watching, maybe you should worry about one of Santa's new elves saying, "Hey Santa, now you can really keep a list of who's been naughty and who's been nice."

Take care of each other. Thanks for listening.