Invasion of Privacy: Google and My Mormon Underwear

Privacy is one of those words that will have a different meaning to the coming generation. Precisely because the coming generation will have none. To my surprise the ad at the top of my Gmail account this evening referred to "Mormon Underwear". Yes, I am a Mormon, and yes I wear underwear. In fact I wear Mormon underwear as many of you who are Mormon or know Mormons may understand. Mormons and their beliefs are a topic for another conversation. Regardless of your beliefs and whatever type of underwear you subscribe to, privacy is a right that is quickly disappearing. I've never sent an email about my Mormon underwear, I've never Googled Mormon underwear, in fact I don't think I've ever discussed my Mormon underwear with another human being. So how has Google tallied enough information about me to know about my Mormon underwear? When will Google quit reading my mail? I thought they only did that in oppressive or communist countries. And when will Google stop tallying my searches in an attempt to understand my most inner thoughts? I think the short answer is never. Maybe even more appalling, when are people going to care that this is happening? The short answer to that is likely...once it's too late to do anything about it. I gave a report on Google in a university English class several years ago, and for fun mentioned that if Google wanted to they could put together all your email transactions from Gmail, all your searches through their search engine, and every Youtube video you've ever watched and paint a picture of you that is terribly detailed, perhaps more detailed than most of us are comfortable with. I said it just to make a fun point to the class, but I honestly didn't really worry about it then, because I thought Google would never do such a thing. How naive I was and how quickly science fiction is coming true. Someone once told me that poor people in 3rd world countries aren't really so bad off, because they don't know anything different. It doesn't seem so bad to them. So maybe losing our right to privacy won't be so bad because in a generation of two most humans will never have known anything different either. Welcome to 1984, and yes, I know Blogger is in fact owned by Google too.

God's Economy

I never want to stand before God and know that He knows I was a coward or a traitor to what I knew. There's a lot of "knows" in that sentence. You might need to read it twice. That's a tough goal. Due diligence is a phrase commonly used in the legal and professional world. In the religious world I've often heard people discuss the idea of "God's economy". The usage often goes like this, "In God's economy you will not receive something through prayer that God has already provided you with the opportunity to have through a duty you failed to fulfill." You might need to read that one twice also. God's economy is maybe more easily understood in the concept of God's transactions with man. God dwells in the universe of laws. Likewise the devil or "old scratch" dwells in the universe between laws. Both God and old scratch transact with man. The universe of those transactions may be called an economy. Patterns of transaction based upon the wants, resources and rules of each arena are observable. In God's economy we are given opportunities. Those opportunities appear in ways much different than often we perceive opportunities in Man's economy because value in God's economy attaches to different phenomenon than in Man's economy. Very often in God's economy, opportunities are only available to those who have performed their due diligence. In doing the things you're "supposed" to do, are commanded to do, opportunities are hidden. In obedience to "conscience". In contrast, opportunities in the devils economy are not hidden but stare you in the face. They appear all around you. They require the breaking of laws or the movement between laws, however their benefit is very real and often substantial. Within the devils economy hides the devil's opportunity. It's in getting you to do what you are not supposed to do that he finds his opportunity, his benefit. In disobedience to "conscience" or even the elimination of it.