In George Orwell's 1984 the TV screen in the corner also watches you. The PC or mobile that is the "extension to your mind" and your "window into world" is also the world's window into your mind, available for rent to any those will pay or who the government deems should have uncharged access. Surveys indicate that about a third of population is deeply suspicious - but not yet in a state of open revolt. The rest think "so what's new"?
Most of the enthusiasts today's have never heard of Time-sharing . They appear unaware that the on-line world already depends on a couple of dozen data processing and storage complexes adjacent to an equally small number of communications hubs: the result of thirty years of evolution and experience rather than a decade of innovation.
We tend to forget that the e-mails telling us we have won the Microsoft Lottery and phone calls telling us we have won a Caribbean cruise are merely the latest variations on scams which date back hundreds of years. Just before Christmas the National Fraud Authority published an extensive research report on the experiences of fraud victims. It makes chilling reading, to complement the weather outside if you are snowed in today. You will find the "story" in more succinct (equally bleak) form on www.thinkjessica.com (supported by SOCA and the NFA).
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