You’re being watched. Every second.

In retrospect it has to be the most chilling conversation Irsquove ever had though it felt utterly normal when it happened I was in the shower cubicle that morning She was nearby sitting on the washbasin ledge and minding her own businessIrsquod been in message chat with my friend Kalyan all morning about Covid19 vaccines human foolishness and his upcoming novel While I stood under the healing spray of hot water I heard the tinkletong of another WhatsApp message from KalyanldquoHeyrdquo I shouted over the roar of the shower ldquoWould you be a sweetheart and send a quick message to Kalyan pleaserdquoldquoSurerdquo she said ldquoWhat do you want me to sayrdquoldquoUmm Irsquom in the shower and will get back to you soonrdquoldquoOk no problemrdquo she said ldquoIrsquom in the shower and will get back to you soon Ready to send itrdquoldquoYuprdquo I saidldquoOk itrsquos donerdquo she saidHerersquos why that conversation was so chilling I was the only human being in the room I was talking to my iPhone on the washbasin ledge The pleasant female voice belonged to Siri the iPhonersquos builtin digital assistant Siri listens to every word that leaves my mouth just in case I might be addressing herWhen I said ldquoHeyrdquo she knew I wasnrsquot bathroomsinging the first word of Hey Jude but talking to lsquoherrsquoShe correctly understood that I wanted a message sent recognised the recipient from my contacts list and answered me instantly as a human would She captured my dictated message accurately sent it off and told me she hadMy smartphone tethered by Bluetooth to my Apple Watch knows an awful lot about meIt knows whether Irsquom sitting standing lying down walking or running thanks to its exquisitely sensitive accelerometer It knows my walking speed and stride length If I slip and fall it would know from my movements within seconds if I was unconscious and SOS my friend Kamal for helpIts scanners recognise my face and fingerprints know when Irsquom washing my hands can detect my blood oxygen level when Irsquom dreaming during sleep and give me haptic nudges if Irsquove been sitting too long at my computerIn other words there is nowhere I can hide from this amazing gadget that I paid a little fortune to buy It sees hears and senses me and stands ready to serve me day and night Whether I want to set a cooking timer know todayrsquos exchange rate the weather in Ankara where Irsquod misplaced my key and how long a ride to the airport would take my iPhone knowsIf God is an allseeing allknowing entity the smartphone comes close to meeting the definitionUnfortunately it also meets the definition of diabolical brutal surveillance technologySo imagine yoursquore Gulgine from Chinarsquos Xinjiang Province where the worldrsquos Orwellian future is unfolding The exact same technologies that make your smartphone so indispensable are being deployed there in one of the worldrsquos most sinister and brazen social experimentsOnly 137 of Chinarsquos 14 billion people live in Xinjiang predominantly Uighur Muslims but they are the lab rats in an ethnic cleansing experiment of Hitlerian proportions The difference is that instead of being gassed to death they are being stripped of culture history language and religion and reborn as factoryproduced standardised Chinese citizensThe surveillance technology used to see and hear them and monitor their movements is already in the smartphone in your pocket China has merely scaled it up Its 200 million CCTV cameras spread over every public space in China can sweep and identify every citizen once each second instantly accessing their financial personal professional and familial details and movementsWhere CCTV cameras cannot intrude inside Xinjiangrsquos homes there are lsquobrothersrsquoChinese statetrained snitcheswho live with the families and report back to BeijingXinjiangrsquos computers gather data on Uighurs with iris scanners CCTV cameras with face and voice recognition and DNA sampling This data is matched with their online activity banking information phone calls and text messages to decide if theyrsquore lsquotrustworthyrsquoAn Uighur could be deemed untrustworthy just downloading WhatsApp or having a Skype chat with relatives If the algorithm thinks yoursquore kinda shady you will just disappear into a lsquoreeducation camprsquoGulgine disappeared one day and has not been heard from sinceSometimes we carry the seeds of our downfall in our pockets China has already sold its surveillance technology to over 13 countries In India we are already monitored and managed in a hundred ways through our biometrics apps smartphones and Aadhaar cardsAs one analyst put it ldquoChina is open about it The others do the same thing but pretend to be champions of individual freedomrdquoRaise your hands if you believe we live in a country that would say no to mass surveillanceHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper