Caring or eavesdropping

Only the other day I was reading a news item about Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) feature in smart TVs. It reminded me of a recurring irritant feature of my Android smartphone. As has been my habit since my childhood days – when the day in our Kanpur home used to start with Radio Ceylon playing in the background on a grand radio set – the first thing I do in the morning is to click on the online radio app and start listening old Hindi film songs through a Bluetooth speaker. But I would notice that all of a sudden, the audio volume went several notches down. My smartphone would show a notification telling “You are listening to high volume audio. The volume has been lowered to protect your hearing.”; with an option to restore the volume (thank God for small mercies). I, of course, would turn audio volume up again. At another level I also thought how caring my smartphone is about my well-being. Several decades ago, when my siblings and I were young, we had a Philips turntable at home with Hi-Fi external speakers. My elder brother and I liked to play vinyl records at somewhat louder volume, something that was frowned upon by our mother. Years later, my smartphone was playing a similar parental role. As they say, life comes full circle!

But yesterday, the notification accompanying automatically turned down volume was different. It said “Volume Lowered. You have listened to high volume audio for a total of 20 hours. The volume has been lowered to protect your hearing.”

Effectively, not only my smartphone is keeping an eye on audio volume, it has been keeping a track of it over a period of time. Though it did not specify over what period it noticed those 20 hours of high volume, my estimation based on my daily online radio usage tells me that it must be over four days. But is it monitoring audio volume only? What stops it also to eavesdrop on the kind of music I am listening, or which particular songs I turn on the volume whenever they play? In an essence, preparing a dossier based on my listening history? Who knows that very shortly I start getting merchandise suggestions based on AI-analytics of those songs?

But my real worry is not that. I am dreading the times when my smartphone on its own will change the Chori Chori film song ‘Aa ja sanam madhur chandni mein hum’ to, say, a Taylor Swift song because the algorithm determines that is the kind of music I ought to listen to. Technological smartness Orwellian-style?

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