Planet of the Smartphones

We are now living in the Planet of the Smartphones. The ubiquitous device has changed the way we live, mostly for the better, but not without the risk in the near future of human beings suffering from any of the unintended and unplanned consequences of this stupendous march of technology. As an aside, it is intriguing that in a recent British survey, about one in 10 of those surveyed admitted to using the smartphone during sex - so deeply is the device embedded in our daily lives.

As the fastest selling device in history, the smartphone is headed north, with predictions of five billion people and 100 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020. About half the adult population of the world has a smartphone now and by the end of the decade 80 per cent of adults can be expected to be brandishing this very personal device that takes precedence over any other gadget or gizmo like the laptop, now looking decidedly old fashioned except to the professionals, and the sleeker tablets that were all the rage for a few years.

The device landscape is changing so fast already and analysts are now predicting that the device might also shift from our pockets to overlays on the iris of our eye and, a concept that may have been more in keeping with science fiction fantasy, may be put into practice in the not so distant future with a smartphone chip as a brain implant you could connect to a wearable device.

The Google glasses are just a starting point for new technology that recognizes none of the frontiers of old, just as much as the 2007 release of the iPhone at which Steve jobs said – “This will change everything.”

Not a day goes by now without a bank offering us services on the mobile for transactions we would do only on laptops or iPads till now. Cash back offers as high as 7.5 per cent are being offered as incentive to switch users to digital money. The nagging question is how safe is the new tech going to be in preserving our identities, our personal information, our emails and our bank accounts.

It is bad enough to leave ourselves open to every kind of commercial offering on emails and devices. There is a way of dealing with junk mails and unwanted commercial offers on computers and smartphones. The priority should, however, be security.

We are not celebrities to have to fear our personal photos being hacked into or stolen from say Facebook and plastered all over the Internet. The John Doe’s real fear would be the safety and sanctity of his ID, his email and bank accounts.

If FB or Twitter puts us in the embarrassing position of having to explain our comments on politics or religion to the police or the cyber cell, we would have only ourselves to blame for getting consciously into an open and very public domain. Bank accounts are a different matter.

The fear of the state snooping on us is real as our smartphones and our devices are leaving some doors open for cybersleuths or intelligence agencies. There again, the innocent have little to fear.

But those who will be using such services as digital currency in electronic wallets or wearing a smartwatch and other devices that might be monitoring our fitness routines or our general health parameters must face up to the reality that they can be electronically hacked if data protection standards are not better than what they are today. The digital ethics that prevail worldwide are not exactly the kind to inspire confidence that we will not be the victims of hacking.

The minimum standard expected is encryption of data that flows into and out of our smartphones if the identities of users are to be preserved. Are the service providers ready to provide this soon or do we have to wait for the western world to lead us in this electronic war for privacy?

There is much room for thought even as we place greater trust today in our tablets and iPads to do bank transactions and account balance checks. Would you pick up your smartphone for these tasks?