FBI got its access; we lost our privacy

A week ago, I spent a good deal of time on the phone with a woman in Manila. Her name is Carolina and she works for Microsoft, which insists on compelling me to "upgrade" to Windows 10. I tried, but for some reason it did not work. My computer froze and so I had Microsoft walk it back to Windows 7 whereupon, a bit later, Microsoft struck in the middle of the night and "upgraded" me one more time, and one more time my computer froze.

That's how I wound up with Carolina. I'd like to think that she helped the FBI unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

Carolina took over my computer. (She had my permission.)

After a while, Carolina pronounced the problem solved. The computer was returned to my control and Microsoft, I was assured, would never again take command of my computer and "upgrade" me to Windows 10. A week later, Microsoft tried again.

While all this was happening, the FBI and Apple were fighting over whether and how to unlock Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone, which could contain important information - maybe relating to a future terrorist plot. Apple spurned the FBI's request, maintaining that if it unlocked this single phone the method for doing so would leak and every 14-year-old kid would be hacking cellphones instead of developing useful assassination skills on some computer game.

As if to prove this was not a trivial concern, a third party did indeed show the FBI how this is done. The phone spilled its secrets and the Justice Department dropped its case against Apple.

But nothing has been settled. While Apple and the government were duking it out in court, local prosecutors across the country cut and pasted the FBI's request and demanded the keys to cellphones they had seized in their investigations.

As sometimes happens in life, both sides had a case, but from the start I tilted toward the FBI. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, murdered 14 people and wounded 22 others - and this cannot be allowed to happen again. But while I was still mulling over this matter, Carolina clarified things.

There she was digging around the innards of my computer, doing things I did not understand, and while she had my permission she nevertheless came to represent all the people and companies and God-only-knows-what who I deeply suspect mess with my computer all the time.

I have steadied myself for the counterattack. I am told that my location is tracked and my buying habits are known and "cookies" incessantly tattle on me. Some people I know have had their emails filched by the North Koreans or somebody and wind up on the Internet for the malicious or the merely curious to peruse. What privacy is the nice Mr. Cook talking about?

I do not doubt his sincerity. And I will concede that some of my paranoia is attributable to my heroic lack of computer knowledge. But I long ago gave up any expectation of privacy. While I fear the government more than I do private enterprise, the government has guns and jails and a U.S. attorney can ruin your life on a whim. After all, it was not the FBI that discovered how to bust the phone. It was a private company - maybe, I'd like to think, sweet Carolina.