The “first throb” of the idea came at a dinner party seven years ago, when the red wine was flowing and a group of 50-somethings were chatting about their increasingly tech-dominated lives. Stories were shared of spooky things happening, of receiving targeted ads relating not just to your recent internet browsing but also to private conversations that had taken place offline.
“I’m sure it may have happened to you, where you receive a pop-up ad on your phone suggesting that our devices may have been spying on us,” says writer and film-maker Anthony McCarten. “Well, guess what, they have been. Our devices, although they’re enabling great miracles to happen, on a moment-to-moment basis they’re also working against us. Our data is being sold, our private behaviour monitored then even manipulated, without our knowledge and consent.”
More than 160 years ago, Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” It introduced a tale set against the tumult and violence of the French Revolution in the late-18th century, but it seems equally applicable to our modern, technologically advanced times. We, too, live in an age of wisdom and foolishness.
“I’m old enough to remember a time when you could easily slip off the radar and avoid all influences, other than those you chose
