Are You Being Watched? (part 4)

Do you think your emails are private? Maybe your phone calls, or your texts? The NSA has archives of all this data, and they can access any of it. Of course, this is archived data and is unlikely to be perused unless the NSA decides you are a person of interest. Just how can you earn such an honor? It really depends on your internet habits and the combinations of words that you use in your digital communications. Our government is spying on us with PRISM, and a source for the Washington Post said, “They can quite literally watch your ideas form as you type.” I guess I should wave my hand to the government right now and say hello? With all the online research we've done to make Solar Echoes a realistic representation of our near future, it is likely that prying eyes have taken an interest. I've always believed science-fiction is an effective warning about the path we're headed down, and Solar Echoes touches on some modern day issues such as government spying.

Have you ever been slightly disconcerted to know that your computer or game console camera is on? What about the camera on your cell phone? Hackers are able to activate cameras remotely and watch whatever they are aimed at. Are you sharing your phone's photos online? Unless you have your GPS turned off (and have adjusted a few settings), all your photos are stamped with a geo-tag, which shows exactly where the phone was when the picture was taken, making it much easier to locate people in the picture. These days, it is almost considered weird or anti-social to want to maintain any amount of privacy with the current internet culture. Facebook, Twitter, and other internet sites are designed around the idea that everyone wants to share, and a new trend among PS4 video gamers is the livestreamed living-room reality show, where people broadcast themselves live to whoever would watch and comment. As a result of this new culture, cyber-crime is flourishing and growing exponentially. We are not only making ourselves vulnerable to criminal attack, but to monitoring by people with their own agendas. Spying has never been easier.