Jami and the TechnoParanoia

You may have guessed, reading my posts about the robots and such, that while I dig awesome new technological advances, I also have a healthy suspicion about it. Don't get me wrong, you can keep making my fridge and washing machine smarter, my TV's bigger and my TiVo more super. But, I will worry when you put things in my car I don't control, when my cell phone can track my movements and when my toilet seat gets too clever. Now I have a new problem. My old beloved Lappie finally achieved hard drive nirvana, and while it technically still works in the sense that you can turn it on, it thinks every time it's booted up is the first time, sort of the Memento of laptops if you will. Therefore, we spent our tax refund to stimulate the economy of a large Big Box company and an electronics company by purchasing this fancy-schmancy (and as of yet unnamed) laptop. And it's great. It does, however, come with a built-in webcam. Handy for calling the fam on Skype, but worrisome in my belief that I can't ever be really, truly 100% sure that it's not being used to watch me. Not necessarily by Big Brother, who I assumed could hack into all my REALLY interesting data in about .00001 seconds, (you know, like my weight chart on my Wii, or my super secret emails to my BFF with devastating info like "I really hate blue cheese".) No, I worry about some pervert hacker watching me, or that somehow someone has turned it on without my knowledge and is broadcasting to my friends and family. It's not like I do a lot of nekkid computing, but, for example, right now I have my glasses on. I think the people who have seen in my in glasses is less than 1% of all the people I know. And then only in extreme circumstances like when I am on vacation and I am getting ready for bed and have to make one more bathroom trip. Or what if I am scratching (okay, rooting around in) my ear and the whole world is watching? "ewww!! Geez, Jami, don't you shower?" (yes I do, I just wear my iPod headphones a lot and that causes waxy build up, okay?" I am thinking I might just start putting a post-it over it. The question is - if I give into the urge to cover it, am I starting down (or going further down) the crazy path, or just being cautious?