This week I had a birthday. Opening my browser I noticed immediately that the clever folk at Google had done yet another one of those nice designs. But it wasn’t Father’s Day. The Olympic Games had finished … The image was of a cake with candles on it, balloons and streamers. Surely not? But oh yes. “Happy Birthday Tom” it said as the mouse hovered over it.

When your computer wishes you a happy birthday before any human does, you realise that you are living in interesting times.

This week’s Asia-Pacific Digest contains some fascinating material. It looks at a billion dollar company that hacks smartphones, using them to take photos remotely, record conversations and transmit their entire contents. It examines the tension between governments and technology companies as to whether and how companies can be forced to surrender their encryption keys. The digest again of course provides yet further accounts of the huge database breaches that are happening on a daily basis.

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Information technology is advancing at a truly breathtaking speed.

All of this leaves me wondering. Perhaps next year my browser will offer me some birthday treats or have notified the retailers whose goods I look at most and prompting them to send me some special offers, noting my current bank balance and how recently I have purchased that kind of item? Perhaps by looking at my medical records it will have determined that I might benefit from attending a health spa or contemplating some elective surgery to nip and tuck my aging figure and redefine my sagging jaw line?

I do hope that won’t happen. Making our technology our servant rather than our master must remain the objective of privacy professionals everywhere.