The other day I waved at a camera as it took my photo. It was a security camera at a t-intersection I was crossing. I’ve become very conscious of screening technologies and the monitoring of presence these last few weeks as I have crossed three international border protection points!Greetings from the USA, where I am currently meeting with Christian Schools International leadership, at their invitation; our focus is to discuss trends, both within and beyond our schooling movements, in each of our countries. I’ve also undertaken a similar round table meeting with our Canadian counterparts in Ontario.
It’s had me thinking about the way we are monitored. It used to be said that if you left home, you had no idea how your actions generated a (potentially permanent) digital record that could track your whereabouts, your involvements, and your associations. Street cameras, swiping debit or credit cards, making a phone call, using GPS, or appearing in the background of a stranger’s photo.
Good or malicious, reputable or nefarious, these records and the ways they are used have become a metaphor for our powerlessness against being scrutinised in ways we might prefer not to be. (I said earlier you used to have to leave home to lose control of this, but equally we can’t even determine who uses the data we produce within our house. As a prompt, do you have a streaming service, or simply an internet provider wired to your house or wireless to a router/phone within the house? Need I say more – I suspect we all now get the picture …)
But, my point is not to cause alarm, or to state a hopeless situation. We can protect, and should, that which we can control. Our College is respondent to privacy and data legislation that guarantees we must take the best of care – world’s best, I’d argue, is where Australia has set its standard – to ensure the protection of critical pieces of information within our College’s domain of control. Our current policies and internal controls reflect our proactive response to these mandated requirements.
However, I am not seeking just to assure you. Rather, to challenge our mindset (mine included). Do I take the words of Jesus captured in Luke 11:6-7 seriously?
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 11:6-7
What has this got to do with data, monitoring, photos, fingerprints, etc? Everything, I’d suggest! God bothers with us, and with those around us, at the finest levels of detail. He knows everything – he does, doesn’t he? And, Jesus reminds us that he bothers about how we are going.
Which for me, takes me to another plane of thinking. If God already knows, then there is no data that is being stored that retains information about me, that he doesn’t already know. So, shouldn’t I live in that reality? Shouldn’t my social media presence reflect my life, in every way, as one of his people? What does that look like? As a form of personal testimony, I switched my social media posts to “Public” about two years ago. I figured if I couldn’t say it because it would disappoint a particular audience and not bring glory to God then I wouldn’t say it.
I guess what I’m saying is – if I believe God knows it and is bothered with it – good or bad, pleasing or otherwise, I tend towards being relaxed about others knowing it too. And, when I want, need or are compelled to be somewhere, keep the company of others, or say something, I going to do so as much as I can in that spirit, with that mindset.
Thank God he is in control. We have an eternal reality as proof.
educating 4 life, too 
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