In our new brave world, technology is spreading everywhere. We use things we don’t understand how it work; it work so easily that we don’t have and try to understand how it work. We use it and that’s it. The problem is that if a thing become to ease to use, we low down our awareness and tend to think that it’s not dangerous because it seem simple. Some times, it’s true, other times it’s not. It’s not because a thing is easy to use that it’s not dangerous. I don’t learn you anything by saying this but we tend to forget these things, me the first.

One example can be your neighbourhood. It’s not because nothing happened the time you lived there that nothing can happen. It’s not because you never do a car accident and that car seem simple and are easy to use that a car isn’t dangerous and that a car accident can’t kill you.

Another interesting example that I thought of, and that leaded the write of this post, is the use of cordless phones or baby monitors. They are easy to use, not expensive and everybody use one in their houses and apartments. We can use it at 10, 20 or 30 foot of the base. Wow, thank God for these tools. Yeah, it’s true that they are really interesting and useful. The thing that you need to ask yourself is: if I’m using a cordless phone at 30 foot of the base and that I can have a conversation, do another person can? The answer is yes. Must of cordless phone don’t use encryption. They seem simple, but they are not. They use different technologies: analog, digital, DSS, Etc; they have all different levels of security. If you buy a product that seems to have integrated security, be aware. Don’t believe everything that a constructor can say in his publicities. By example, the Motorola Secure Clear system in 1990 was not really secure at all. It was only using speech inversion as “encryption”. A scanner with a little gadget of 5$ was able to “decrypt” the whole thing. It’s the same thing with the baby monitor. Depending of the technology you are using, you can have a better security. By example forget the analog technology, anybody can listen at it. However, if you are using a digital cordless phone using the DSS technology, you’ll get rid of many problems. If you buy a baby monitor, be aware; use it only when you really listen at your baby. Don’t forget that they are in reality small radio emitter/receiver.

One problem with these two technologies is probably the police. I know that in some states it was legal to eavesdrop conversations of cordless phones without any warrant. I don’t know if it’s always the case, but I don’t think the situation has changed. Changed or not, it don’t discard the case that everybody who wish to eavesdrop your conversation can without to many problems. It’s sure that it’s a felony in many countries, but they have the power to do it.

The only thing that I can say is to be vigilant toward the technologies you are using. In this post, I talked about some technologies that are threats to your privacy, but have in mind that other technologies can be threats to your physical security. Just be aware of what you are using; simple != safe to use. Simple in appearance is more and more not simplest in reality. It’s why it’s always important to inform yourself about technologies you are using.