Sitting on a packed suitcase

'Alphabet' is the new holding company, the umbrella spanned over the disparate and diversifying activities of Google Inc. The very choice of corporate identity hints at a future full-spectrum hegemonic presence in our digital lives from 'A' to 'Z'.

And here I am with my shiny new Android smartphone, well aware that the device is far more intelligent than its user. It will, I fear, take an age before I can claim to have mastered its complexity. In the meantime the phone will learn more about me than I am able to imagine, my habits and proclivities, my attitudes, my strengths and my weaknesses.    

There was a time when persons who felt themselves threatened spoke of "sitting on a packed suitcase", ready to flee tyranny and oppression when the moment arrived. Is the option still valid? Or will Google and the others inevitably be able to track my valise, should I seek to escape.