Telephone Part 2
Telephone Part 2
Hello, darlings, previously I talked about the invention of the telephone, it’s brief history and even touched on the smartphone. We discussed texting, for example. Well, today I am going to attempt to clear up some confusion I have seen expressed concerning the smartphone, the “public eye,” and the increasing lack of face to face conversation.
The realm of the smartphone device is fairly new technology, and as such, there don’t seem to be any rules pertaining to its use. Or are there? As I stated before, when considering new technology, we must bear in mind what it is designed to replace? In this instance, the smartphone replaces the calling card, the butler, the telegram, and the mailbox. It is also our newspaper, magazine-of-the-day, television, solitaire (video games being a replacement for solitaire or board games). The cell phone or tablet replaces our cameras, even Polaroids, as well as our photo album and scrapbook, it has become the mailbox and even our librarian, our bookshelf, our radio and our daily calendar and planner, and our diary. In short, it carries far more than a purse or briefcase ever dreamed of carrying. Since it spans such a wide variety of tasks, it behooves us to consider a few other rules, and even some legal issues involved. We will even address a currently popular meme going around about privacy considerations in relationships. So, grab your coffee, tea, water, smoothie, or whatever blows your hair back and let’s get started, shall we?
Since this device has become so much a part of our lives, it can at times be difficult to control. First off it is imperative to remember that, like everything else, it is a device and can never replace real human interaction, whether it makes life easier or not. In fact, it only works (or interferes) if you turn it on. So what about the most important thing: Privacy? I have seen memes going around social media with things like “If we date you can have access to my phone password, my texts, answer my phone I have nothing to hide. Type yes if you agree.” I say foolish. Not only have you allowed someone access to your information you’ve allowed them access to all the information in your contacts list. And what happens if you break-up? To that last point, I’ve heard it answered, well, what if you’re married? Shouldn’t your spouse have access to everything? Some say yes, some say no. Some are ambivalent. Some say it keeps spouses accountable to each other.
To dive a bit deeper first, let us examine a recent Supreme Court decision on cell phones and passwords. In a decision in 2014 The Supreme Court determined that police can not obtain information from your phone or access it without a search warrant and this also pertained to the “cloud” as we now use the cloud to store our personal information and as such falls under the 4th amendment as a right to protect yourself from unlawful searches and seizures of property. The mere fact that all of this can be on our phone or in the cloud and we can access that through our electronic device does mean that while not directly in our home, it is still our property. This was illustrated in the Supreme Court decision Riley v California and you can read the entire case here: https://www.scotusblog.com/2014/06/symposium-in-riley-v-california-a-unanimous-supreme-court-sets-out-fourth-amendment-for-digital-age/
In a nutshell, since cell phones contain more information than most of our home and even safe deposit boxes at banks as well as information stored in the cloud this is merely an extension of the contents of our home. Therefore, searches without a warrant violated the 4th Amendment right that belongs to each and everyone of us. Now I am not going to wax poetical about law and what is right or wrong about it, what I am going to do is address privacy and what I think decent etiquette should be concerning the smartphone. I am not an expert on law, but this only appears to need a fair dose of common sense.
Now with that in mind, let us revisit the meme about handing over your phone to someone you are dating. Essentially, this feels a bit like handing over your keys and letting them move right in, but in this case, they not only have access to your private space but all personal information and contacts, financial records, they have information of businesses, meeting calendars as well as co-workers. They have access to your friends and families and secrets that you may not want your current boyfriend to know about. Then there is the consideration of your friends and family to take into account. Things they shared with you in confidence, but your “SO” (Significant Other) can now access through conversation history and read freely without their consent, accessing things you were trusted to keep secret. This also goes without saying in committed relationships and marriages. For example, many businesses work on sensitive topics and projects and they do not want everyone gaining access to that sensitive material. The smartphone can access information in these private clouds with the touch of an icon, where many people keep their information. Letting someone have that type of access to business files, and sensitive information is dangerous for companies, employees, and could jeopardize or violate other privacy acts that many firms must maintain for their clientele or for compliance purposes. I know this is a more serious tone than many of my readers are accustomed to, but it is a serious subject. You may have nothing to hide, and that is sweet, but your best friend may have something to hide, and if he/she thinks that your “SO” might have access to information he/she may no longer come and confide in you, you might inadvertently make you that with loose lips sink ships as it were EVEN if you never said a word. Who wants to become the proverbial gossip, even though you kept silent?
Now some will advise differently regarding transparency in marriages, but remember that we do have the right to privacy. We have a right to close our bathroom doors to do our business, we keep diaries, and we tell our pals things and they tell us things that it is best to keep some matters private. Again the matter of how our phones are also tied to business accounts, etc my snooping around my husband’s cell phone that gives me access to his emails where his colleagues are working on a private information sensitive information could jeopardize his career.
Some people say well in a relationship there should be no secrets and we need to keep each other accountable. I ask myself “Why?” I am not my husband’s chaperone or his mother. He should have a group of male friends that keep him accountable, as I should have friends that do the same. It is not my job to be his mom or his chaperone, and I really do not have permission to have access to all of that other information as I stated before.
Letting a Significant Other have access to my information, my family’s skeletons in the closet and my friends’ private conversations with me is inviting disaster. After all, THOSE people never gave you permission to allow third-party access to their conversations. It’s bad enough that some social media sites let the third-party have access to information without our permission. Do we need to add another person access to their private lives? No, I don’t think so. Finally, by password protecting your phone and not handing out information prevents law enforcement to have access to all of that information without a search warrant, if for any reason you get pulled over and they want to see what is in your phone. They can’t without your permission. If you gave your permission to your spouse or significant other, they may be convinced to give over that information. We all have a right to some privacy married, dating, or single.
At this point, dears, it seems reasonable to step down from my podium for now. There just might need to be a Part 3 to this subject. As it is, I still didn’t get around to talking about the etiquette concerning cell phones as I see it, or how we need to stop going around pointing fingers at what people do with their time while on them! Stay tuned!
