I vividly remember
a prank that my brother and his-in-cahoots wife played on unsuspecting us in a
log cabin at Lake George, USA. The panic attack that I experienced at that time
was matched only by my ensuing embarrassment for not having guessed their plan!
The game was simple, we would all ask questions to this online intelligent
entity (www.peteranswers.com) who
would answer our every question, but the catch that we missed was that my brat
of a brother would be the privileged one to type in the questions; turns out he
keyed in the answers under our collective noses! And there were three other very
intelligent ones in that very room, I might add!
The feeling
that there was this invisible phantom following us around was the spookiest
feeling I ever got! But guess what?! It’s been following me around again- this
time while browsing the internet!
Sometime back
I compiled a wish list on a prominent Ecommerce website, of all the games and toys
that I would like to order for my children when time and resources permit. And
lo behold! Suddenly every website I now visited had got wind of my ‘private’ wish
list. They pester me everywhere I go like a whining child who has learnt of my
intentions of buying him a gift!
Something
that reminds me of a presumptuous Search Engine that very helpfully offers to
correct the spelling of my search, even though I may be completely confident of
the content!
Or that
officious auto correction feature on my android OS phone that interferes every
time I key in a basic Hindi message. A ‘Kya’ becomes a ‘Kay’ and ‘ka’ turns
into ‘is’! After some diligent training my previously anglicised android phone
is now semi- literate in Hindi!
Or the spell checker in every word document program that prods you to spell the word 'behaviour' as 'behavior', lest we deteriorate into British English from American English!
This over-the-shoulder AI trend is quite disturbing. Consider cookies stalking your every
movement, piecing together bits of an individual ‘you’, all to facilitate the
work of canny marketers - that should make Edward Snowdens out of most of us who
value our privacy above everything else! Not for us the sneeze and change FB status
lifestyle! Neither the ubiquitous selfie clicked on any given opportunity!
As
everything else there is a flip side to this. One could argue that tracking
consumer behaviour on the internet has led to the most benefits for the
customer herself. Before we appreciate that nebulous need
completely, the internet cookies have done that thinking for us. Isn’t that
allowing for a better, easier consumer experience?
In an
increasingly materialistic and consumerist society- Yes.
But speak
for yourself- I would probably run away and take refuge like the famous Bengali
actress- Suchitra ‘recluse’ Sen!
