We are all under surveillance, more so than at any other
time in human history. The CCTV camera is ubiquitous, in trains and buses, pubs
and shops and in the street. There can be few places in urban areas where one
can avoid being on camera, but in the home we are safe from observation; or at
least we think we are. Last week BBC's Breakfast programme featured news that a
Russian website was streaming live footage from cameras in shops and
alarmingly, in people's homes, including from children's bedrooms. The site has
hacked into cameras that are linked to the internet and features over 10,000
feeds worldwide, including over 600 in Britain. The hackers are able to do so
because although these cameras have password protection, many users do not
bother to change from the default password supplied by the manufacturer, and
these are readily available on the internet.
Information
Commissioner Christopher Graham, interviewed on the Breakfast programme, has
said that getting the site closed down will take some time since it is
domiciled in Russia. He was asked if he could contact the owners of webcams
which had been hacked to make them aware and for them to be able to secure
their cameras, and the irony is that because of the terms of the Data
Protection Act, he is unable to do so. If ever there was a case of a law having
unintended consequences!
The interconnectivity of devices, including machines which
hitherto we would never have considered as being internet enabled, is
spreading. The so called "Internet of Things" includes the connection
of appliances like fridges, whose software can enable them to monitor levels of
produce and their fitness to eat by their sell by date and theoretically place
an online order with a supermarket to ensure that you never run out of milk. Hypothetically
a hacker could intercept these messages and start spamming you about your diet,
or perhaps your fridge could grass you up to the Department of Health if you
aren't eating your five a day. Even George Orwell's Big Brother drew the line at snooping on the contents of Winston
Smith's fridge.
Not having any cameras at home that could have been hacked
(apart from the one on my laptop), I very much doubt that I am being observed
in anyway, and even if I were an image of me pecking away at the keyboard would
be of no interest to anybody, so I am scarcely concerned about the possibility.
That said, there have been occasions, some of which pre-date the widespread
availability of the internet, when I have seen or heard something on television
or radio and thought to myself that the writer or performer must have
eavesdropped on me to come up with a particular line or situation. It got to
the point where I almost considered searching the house for hidden cameras and
microphones. Was I part of some social experiment that I knew nothing about, or
a piece of reality TV a la The Truman
Show, I wondered?
On reflection however it appears that I am neither as
original nor clever as perhaps I may think I am and the line that I have heard is
actually a more famous one that I have picked up subliminally somewhere and
repeated in the belief that it is of my own invention. It is only nowadays, by
tapping such a phrase into a search engine that I find to my chagrin, that I
have been unwittingly plagiarising Oscar Wilde or Charles Dickens.
But recently there have been two instances when Val and I
have heard something and at one another looked in astonishment as an incident
from our lives is enacted in front of us. We have been lucky enough to get
tickets for a number of BBC radio recordings over the last year or so, and
recently went to see recordings of a show called Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang Ups[1].
The premise is that Tom, a Yorkshireman living in London, rings his parents in
Sheffield every week and then he riffs about the conversations. Well, at one
recording Tom's father (played in the show to absolute perfection by Paul
Copley), tells Tom that the family are coming to London for the Ideal Home
Exhibition, because the dishwasher they bought there 21 years before has gone wrong.
 |
| Tom Wrigglesworth. Picture: The Guardian |
Cue sense of déjà vu in Val and me since last year we had cause to return a
food processor to the Ideal Home Show (Exhibition as was), because it was
faulty. Of course simply returning a faulty item is not funny of itself, the
humour in Tom Wrigglesworth's show was that his parents travelled from
Sheffield to London by air...via Amsterdam. Obviously actually returning the
item to Earls Court and fusing the electrics in the exhibition hall was
considered to be too implausible.[2]
 |
| That machine again. |
Now once could be happenstance. Twice, well twice I suppose
is coincidence, because at another recording, it happened again. Tom's parents
were considering the replacement of an item of furniture. They had apparently
hummed and harred about this for some time because after all, as Tom's father
said," less than four years and it's an impulse buy." The audience
roared with laughter, as did Val and I, but again with the exchange of knowing
looks, because it took us seven years to buy a new sofa. We'd had it in mind to
replace our aging sofa for some time, but everywhere we looked we could not
find what we wanted; every one we looked at had some defect or another. Finally
when we did identify one which met almost all of our criteria, we worked out
that seven years had elapsed since we first went sofa hunting. Oh well, you
know what they say about buying in haste and repenting at leisure.
 |
| The old conservatory before it |
Our next planned expedition into furniture buying involves a
sourcing a couple of chairs and a table for our newly renovated conservatory.
The old one, single glazed, wooden framed windows with Perspex roof, would
surely not have lasted another winter of strong winds. Even last year some of
the roof panels came adrift and we were concerned that a heavy fall of snow
could be catastrophic, so we had it replaced with one with double glazed uPVC
windows. Just as well considering how easily the old windows and roof were
dismantled. Anyway, we now need some new furniture and given our previous track
record there is a good chance the conservatory will need renovating again
before we buy some, so I was wondering, if Tom Wrigglesworth is listening,
perhaps he could answer this question. Do his parents have a conservatory, and
if so where did they get the furniture for it?
[1] If
you haven't heard it, seek it out on the BBC Radio iPlayer app, it is
hilarious.
[2]
See http://rulesfoolsandwisemen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-scariest-domestic-appliancein-world.html. The Scariest Domestic Appliance.....In The World!
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