Story 159: Dropping Eaves App

            “So, I got that new Dropping Eaves App,” she said, waiting for a response.

           “Oh?” was all he could up with at first.  “Well you know what they say: eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves.”

            “I know, that’s why I got it.”

            “Oh?”

           “I want to hear the trash people talk about behind my back.  Knowledge is power: when people suddenly stop talking right as I enter the room, I want to know the exact reason why, so as to know the best way to get revenge.”

            “OK then, how does it work?”

            “It uses that really illegal technology to tap into other people’s phones across the world, so when their microphones hear your name being spoken, your phone records the conversation.”

            “Wow, that’s so invasive!  What if you have a common name, like Cathy, or Ajay?”

           “You can program it so only your so-called friends’ phones are the targets, but fascist dictators just have to sort through the rest themselves.”

            “Cool!  Try it out now, I want to see what happens.”

            “Oh, I always have it on,” she said, holding out her phone to show the activated app.  “This may take awhile, though.”

            They sat in silence for a few minutes until the phone alerted her that one of her contacts had said her name.  “We’ve got a bite!” she said, holding out the phone and pushing the speaker button.

            “I’m worried about her,” they heard, “she’s getting really paranoid lately.”

            “Yeah,” another voice said, “she’s been checking up on all of us a lot and keeps thinking that we’re plotting something behind her back.”

            “Plotting what?”

            “I don’t know, something – she wasn’t specific.  I’m afraid she might hurt herself one of these days.”

         “Or she might hurt one of us.  You think maybe she got that black market app and is eavesdropping on our conversation at this very moment?”

            “That’s a bit extreme… but yeah, that’s totally something she’d do.”

           She turned off the app.  “You know, privacy versus security is a serious issue that is not getting nearly enough of the attention that it should.”

            “I couldn’t agree more.”