Privacy On the Slopes?

I'm sorry, Dave...

I'm taking a break from working in the Diggins to watch the Noon News. I multitask, so I took a look at my Twitter feed. KFBK, Sacramento's blowtorch AM News/Talk Station has a story that I find a little disturbing. 

Now, I do love me some gadgets, and I do play Social Networks online, but I draw the line at these Position Reporting Apps. I know it's not as fun, but just leave the front door wide open when you're out and about, or out of the country on vacation, or even out for some first tracks on a Powder Day. Give the burglars a leg up and broadcast your security vulnerabilities without bogging down your handheld devices!

I listened to the report (it's available at the link), skiers can have the tracking info sent to their Facebook page, or Tweet it to their Twitter Followers. The data is posted to the App's website in real time. When did "Look at me!" become the leading motivator in our society? I think this is just vanity wrapped in unrealistic desires to "be famous"...must we all live on stage at Andy Warhol's 15 Minute Theater? I wonder how many kids on the net even give any thought to their privacy, let alone their physical security!

Now, I may be dating myself, or worse...outing myself as a grownup teenaged SciFi Nerd, but I read enough sci fi novels set in the dystopian future where your every move is watched, cataloged, and entered into Big Brother's mighty all-seeing computer network database, to know that avoiding that possible future is one of my Prime Directives.

That being said, I'm not a bookish paranoid who sees Stanley Kubrick's evil HAL9000 hiding behind every potted ficus, but given any chance to play into the clutches of the nebulous "Evil Overlords" as feared by basement-dwelling Boomerang 30-Somethings, I don't plan on buying in...ever.

I certainly am not a humorless scold, but I do understand the Slippery Slope Theory, and it's way more than just a theory. It's bad enough that our government has mandated that all our cell phones be "GPS Enabled". This little bit of tech makes it possible to track the cell phone user to be tracked in real time, ala the Will Smith movie, "Enemy of the State".

We can't opt out of these regulations our bureaucrats have enacted "for our protection" but we can opt not to fly mothlike into the flame of these privacy killing Apps.

I for one don't want to be famous...even for all of "my" 15 minutes. I want to be left alone to live my life freely, and without notoriety...call me Al Nonamus. Someone more interesting and attractive is welcome to have my 15 minutes...I don't plan on using 'em.

Mr DeVille, find someone else for my closeup!