Opinion | Don't like being watched? Keep technology at arm's length

Traffic on the flyover passing my office window has an unobstructed view of all inside. Several times I've answered my phone to be informed that I've just been observed picking my nose. Working late after dark, lit up like a showroom dummy, I'm only too aware of my privacy. But that's not the worst of it: technology means that everything I say and do, regardless of where I am, is potentially being noted by someone, somewhere.

It's a sobering thought for those of us who value freedom, the right to an identity and alone time. Together they amount to privacy, which is essential for self-development. Take it away and our behaviour changes to the point that we act and think differently. Georgetown University law professor Julie E. Cohen put it best in a Harvard Law Review article: The less attention society pays to privacy and surveillance, the less fulfilled and happy it will be.

Yet we have been only too eager to embrace mobile devices and apps that let others know where we are and what we are doing. Internet search engines and cookies on our computers pass on our online activities to others for commercial and perhaps even private use.

With social media, we take it a step further by offering up slices of our personal life for all in our circle to see. It's not always done with our knowledge, but often, it is done willingly.

We don't mind security cameras in lifts, lobbies and on the street: where safety is involved, there are no quibbles. Yet, like the internet and mobile phones, the information they provide is available to government agencies, police and whoever else has authority. Whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency showed how intrusive and far-reaching surveillance can be. But the uproar has died down and the number of ways to infringe on personal freedoms and liberties is on the rise.

Shoes are available that contain GPS tracking devices; they are aimed at people with dementia and children, but the technology is adaptable to other items. Reading University cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick went a step further by suggesting that a microchip implanted under the skin of an arm would offer 24-hour protection. Jealous types have apps available that they can secretly put on mobile devices to enable them to check on their partners.