There is a new laptop advertisement making the rounds.
The focal point of HP’s new Spectre laptop is the camera kill switch. Advertisements all it “a better way” and attempt to laugh at technology-users habit of covering webcams with stickers. What is striking however, is the blatant disregard of what may cause technology uses to have such a paranoia.
Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy and refers to the who can access what you display, store or provide on the internet1. In the most serious of cases, this involves personally identifying information, but it can also refer to smaller things like cookie profiling to provide individualised ads1.
As the public becomes more aware of the grey areas of the internet, many are becoming willing to giving up aspects of privacy in return for the convenience of technology. In turn, those who are more cautious are feeding the growing market of privacy protection tools such as VPNs, anti-virus software and apparently, camera kill switches2. This is understandable because the cost of giving up the internet to ensure privacy is extremely high and unworkable in most areas of today’s western culture2.
Internet privacy is feared and often misunderstood, and the truth is, for those who do cover their webcams with stickers, this new computer is likely not the solution.
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