The ominous specter of Big Tech surveillance of private citizens grows more threatening by the day.
To stem potential encroachment, tech giant Google said users of its Android 12 mobile operating system can now be alerted if someone is watching them or listening in on them.
Google, which developed the Android system, said a new feature on its latest upgrade informs users when the camera or microphone on their phone has been activated, the New York Post reported last month.
“The Google feature was added to phones in the latest Android 12 update,” the outlet said. “The new indicator appears in the top right corner of the screen.
“You’ll see a camera or microphone icon when an app attempts to access either. It prevents apps from surreptitiously listening in — or even watching through your camera.”
Urgent Google warning for millions of Android users – these symbols mean someone is watching https://t.co/5sRea4pjmA pic.twitter.com/YBnGGvzLi3
— New York Post (@nypost) December 6, 2021
While a photo-sharing app such as Instagram might have legitimate reasons to access your phone’s camera, if you notice that it’s being used by an unknown app, it could mean you’re being spied on.
“Cyber experts have uncovered countless apps that have inappropriate access to the camera on Android phones,” the Post reported.
It’s ironic that Google is rolling out privacy upgrades, considering the world’s largest search engine has been repeatedly accused of spying on its billions of users worldwide.
“Google has worked its way into virtually every aspect of your life, and the search giant’s network of interrelated apps and services capture, share, and rely on a great deal of personal information about you,” Business Insider reported in 2020.
“Google tracks your search history, for example, as well as your mobile device’s location, the ads you view, the videos you watch, and more.”
While the internet, cellphones and computers are useful technological advancements that have made our lives easier, Big Tech now has unchecked, unfettered powers over all our lives. We are spied on constantly and don’t even realize it.
Big Tech also has alarmingly wide-ranging powers to manipulate, amplify or censor public opinion on politics, pop culture and even “science,” as evidenced by the stream of contradictory “data” we’re flooded with concerning COVID-19.
Just think of all the prominent individuals who have been kicked off social media platforms run by leftists:
- Former President Donald Trump (while he was still in office);
- Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia;
- Dr. Robert Malone, co-inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, which is the basis of the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines.
Scientist Behind mRNA Lost His Platform After Twitter Censorship, But Days Later, Speaks in Front of Millions via @WestJournalism https://t.co/dgdhEqvAc7
— Elizabeth Ward (@ElizabethWard2) January 3, 2022
Research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein — a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 — said Google very likely manipulated a large swatch of votes in the leadup to the November 2020 presidential election to favor Democrats.
“We found a period of days when the vote reminder on Google’s homepage was being sent only to liberals,” he said on Fox News “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Nov. 24, 2020. “Not one of our conservative field agents received the vote reminder.”
According to the Washington Examiner, Epstein and his team of 733 field agents found that “Google’s search results are ‘strongly biased in favor of liberals and Democrats,’ which was not the case on smaller search engines Bing and Yahoo.”
In his 2019 Senate testimony titled “Why Google Poses a Serious Threat to Democracy, and How to End That Threat,” Epstein said Congress must stop Big Tech from controlling the flow of information and election outcomes.
“This system must be built to keep an eye on Big Tech in 2020 because if these companies all support the same candidate — and that’s likely, needless to say — they will be able to shift upwards of 15 million votes to that candidate with no one knowing and without leaving a paper trail,” he warned.
“To let Big Tech companies get away with invisible manipulation on this scale would be to abandon the free-and-fair election, a cornerstone of democracy. It would make democracy meaningless, even if your chosen candidate prevailed,” Epstein said.
From mass surveillance to public brainwashing to election rigging, every American must be vigilant about how we are being manipulated by left-wing tech overlords. This is especially critical as we approach the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election.