Big Brother may be in your pocket. Popular electronic gadgets with links to the Internet pose a mounting threat to consumer privacy, Richard Smith, a leading computer privacy expert, said in an interview on Wednesday. . . .
Big Brother may be in your pocket. Popular electronic gadgets with links to the Internet pose a mounting threat to consumer privacy, Richard Smith, a leading computer privacy expert, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Smith, chief technology officer for the Privacy Foundation, a Denver-based, non-profit advocacy group, said a variety of gadgets have come to market this past year that pump consumer data directly back to corporate marketing systems.

Such everyday "spy" devices include fitness monitors that track heart rates and pump out exercise-related advertising, digital music players that track listening habits, low-cost wristwatch and wireless surveillance cameras, as well as location-tracking mobile phones and other monitoring devices.

"What concerns me is how much surveillance companies are building into everyday electronic devices," Smith said. "Most people don't understand how far this has already gone."

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