“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being
watched at any given moment. . . . But at any rate, they could
plug into your wire whenever they wanted to.” Stop me when this
sounds familiar. Workers leave their daily-grind jobs and plod
home. They fall into chairs and watch the programs on their wall
viewing screens. Simultaneously, the screens are looking back,
watching the people at home. If you guessed that scene and the
quote above were from George Orwell’s 1984, you are correct. If
you guessed they are from your home A/V zones, you are also
correct. We accept, more or less, that companies are monitoring
us while we surf the Net, click on ads, check Facebook, or do a
Google search. But did you know that your flat-screen TV,
computer, and phone have all become other windows into your
life? Without any serious public discussion or outcry, we’ve all
become data points. Any number of institutions can access our
communications data while we unwittingly participate. For
example, your iPhone keeps