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The Day My TV Reached Out and Masked Me

2017-12-13 By knowlengr

Photo of audience member in Society Mask
The Mr Robot Reach. The Horror,  masked.

On Monday, there was a tweet I couldn’t ignore.

The result, shown above, is both an act of protest (fsociety) and of acquiescence (read on).

My Twitter modality is largely unidirectional. I don’t expect responses to my actions. I don’t expect, and very rarely stumble into sustained dialog as a result of an RT or dashed-off reply.

Despite a more than passing resemblance between E Corp and NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, when @whatismrrobot reached out, I did the unthinkable and provided a street address.  Yes — PII and all that. And over a weakly authenticated channel. No NDA. No opt-in. No privacy disclosure.

A Mr. Robot surrogate of some sort had somehow reached out through that noisy social network chatter. I lowered my guard, recalled recent hand-wringing over Season 3 ratings, responded with a guarded assent.

A day later FedEx announced a shipment from Los Angeles (yes, not a suburb), from Department “Mr Robot.” The rest is . . . well, very, very minor history. But memorable, in a Don Draper sort of way. A show known for its digital dystopia and destruction, decoy and dissolution did the unthinkable. It reached out and touched me.

Answer? Encrypted

TV is ordinarily a cold medium. If only Marshall McLuhan were around to offer a better explanation. But no. The API is undiscoverable. The answer, if there is one, is probably encrypted.

But please don’t delete me while I check anyway.

  • Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y
    Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y
  • Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y
    Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y
  • Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y
    Maker:S,Date:2017-8-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E:Y

Filed Under: cybersecurity Tagged With: advertising, Don Draper, marketing, Marshall McLuhan, Mr Robot

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