So I’m sitting here after dinner, eating a cookie, and the phone rings. It’s an unsolicited call from AT&T, and there’s a real human on the other end, not a recording. Remarkably, it’s not a sales call, and not a phishing attempt either. The young lady just wants to know if my high-speed Internet and phone service is working okay, or if I have any concerns.
At first glance, it makes no sense whatever for AT&T to pay people to phone millions of random customers and ask this kind of question. It would seem to be a money drain for them with no plus side. If I have a problem, wouldn’t I take the initiative and call tech support?
But then the other shoe drops. At dinner I was reading a long article in Atlantic Monthly about data mining. Specifically, about how corporations are using seemingly irrelevant data to find the right people to hire.
Why should my account have popped up on an AT&T data mining operation, prompting them to call me? Easy answer: Last week I stopped turning on the TV. I bought a new synthesizer, you see, so I’ve been busy in the studio. The TV (AT&T cable) has not been active in about 10 days.
The caller didn’t ask specifically about my use of cable, but it’s not hard to connect the dots. Why else would they have called? George Orwell envisioned this kind of thing, but he didn’t go nearly far enough.
Jim Aikin's Oblong Blob 