It knows everything

Phones. They know everything about us. They know more about us than we do, and that is not normal. Location, friends, enemies, school, age, family, every single thing, that small device takes it and you will never know what it does with it or what it will do. They are dangerous and you may call me crazy, but I am right because it affected my life. But there are not only phones, but there are also laptops too. Now you are like: "She has problems with technology, and that is why she said all these things!". No, I don't. I think technology is important but we don't care about what happens with our information. I don't blame you, of course, I don't, because I was thinking the same before it all happened. 

I am Giannina, and I am 19 years old. I realized all this stuff about phones and technology 4 years ago, when it actually happened.  

I was working on my laptop when my web camera suddenly, out of nowhere, turned on. I opened the camera app, so I could see if there was everything on and it showed me that it wasn't when it was open. I decided to put a bandage on my web camera. I did that and it sent me a notification saying- "Everything is okay, take the bandage off!". I got scared, really scared. I remember after I put the bandage on, I told myself- "Is there something wrong with the laptop?", and that it is when I saw that somebody was listening to me. I looked in the settings of the laptop and I saw that my microphone was off, as well as my web camera. I decided to scan my laptop for viruses and hackers, and it told me that everything is completely safe and fine with the laptop. I wanted to search on google about my problem but it blocked my search, so, I went on my phone to search how to solve my problem and it sent me a message on WhatsApp, by an unknown number saying- "Stop now! Your life is in danger!". I almost had a heart attack when I read that message. I turned my laptop off and my phone too. My dad was working with laptops and technology every day, and I showed him my problems with them and he was shocked too. He had never seen such a situation before, so, he took my devices and took them to a technology expert. The technology expert didn't give us a solution, so he told me and my father to forget everything, and maybe, with time, everything was going to be the same as it was before. I couldn't sleep that night. I was afraid, and nobody understood why I was, especially, my friends and classmates, and they would say that I was crazy and I just wanted attention. You may tell yourself now: "Why didn't you change your phone and laptop? It was the best solution" I wanted that but I bought them 3 weeks before the problems started. 

I asked my friends if they had that problem but nobody had the problem I did. It made me so scared. I had my location on every day and when I wanted to turn it off my phone would just freeze. Completely freeze. My parents didn't like the idea of changing my phone or laptop either, even if I told them that I can give them half of the money to buy them.  

After two months, I started using a Nokia. You don't know what that is? I didn't know either, but it is that kind of phone that grandparents use, without any apps, just a message one and another one to call people. It didn't have a normal battery, like smartphones do. It had toy batteries that would last one week! I didn't have social media or games on it and my classmates would call me "granny", but I didn't mind it, I found it quite funny. My parents got used to my "granny" phone, but I had to use my dad's laptop and I swear, it took one hour to open! One hour! In one hour, I could go to the gym, or go to the mall but no, I had to wait for that slow slow slow laptop to turn itself on and to make the updates. 

Everything went well until I decided to take my old phone and laptop because I had to go to a friend. I felt like I was left out of my group without my smartphone and laptop. I was waiting at the bus stop for the bus when I felt like somebody was staring at me behind my back. When I put the foot to go on the bus, somebody caught me by my long jacket and took me into a car. I tried to break the window but he pulled a gun, and I thought that the best decision was to stay in the car. He asked me a lot of questions on the road, even if he didn't know me at all. He put me some questions, like- "Do you talk with people online?", "Do you share information of your normal life with people you don't know on the internet?", and a lot more but it made me think about what and who I talked to on the internet. He drove to a campsite. I wanted to run. I asked him why he did that but he didn't answer.  

When we got out of the car, he took my hand and took me to a small house near a tree. When we entered that small house, I felt that my chance to escape and go back to my normal life flew away from me. He took a phone and searched for something on an app. An app that seemed familiar to me. He showed me a profile, a profile that had my photos, information, locations that I had been to, friends, every single thing, even messages. I asked him where did he take all this stuff and he answered that he got all this information from my phone and my laptop, and that left me thinking because I knew I had never made such a profile. He also added that he took it mainly from my phone, but my laptop helped that too. He told me- "I was the one who was listening and watching you, and with every information, I found from your devices I added on a profile" and- "I am a hacker and I know how to do all these things. I was watching and listening to you every single day". I was suffocating, I helped him, without even knowing it... 

He didn't do anything to me actually, he just talked to me, but I was praying for somebody to find me. I couldn't see anything in the window because he covered them with newspapers. I heard some footsteps coming from the entry. There were the police. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was going to go back to my normal life. 

It all happened to a 15-year-old, and I am still traumatized. That man was crazy. He made a lot of profiles with different girls; he had a mental problem. The police already knew him. He left the hospital without anybody knowing. He had an obsession with young women, even if they were minors. After that event, I changed every single device I had and tried to forget everything that happened. The man was arrested and my life came back to normal but it for sure made me realize how dangerous technology is