Spying on…myself

I took a pleasant drive to nowhere on Thursday morning following a quick trip to Dunkin Donuts.  Medium dark roast coffee with cream and 1 sugar pack. I listened to the acoustic music of LUCIUS on my Spotify app as I followed the road.

Morning rush hour didn’t bother me, as I was off work for the day. Bumper to bumper traffic has a different feeling when the destination isn’t the job. Blue tooth technology connects the cars sound system and speakers filling the cabin with a song called ‘Something About You’.

A call comes in and I answer it, then speak hands-free in a normal voice. The call is clear on both ends and I thank the built-in microphone on the phone for making this happen.

As I end the call, I noticed what looked like a microphone to the left of my sun visor. I decided to stop the car and take a closer look. Sure enough, there was a mic hiding in my car! Before pulling or cutting it out, I thought who would do such a thing? Who would invade my privacy? Was it Google? Just last week I was looking for an auto battery charger, then all of a sudden I started getting ads for- auto battery chargers. (maybe)

Was the previous owner investigated by law enforcement and the mic was leftover from a sting operation? (maybe)

Was it my ex after gaining access to my car decided to do a sting operation of her own? I considered this as I took out my utility knife ready to cut the strings on the mic. I was taking back my privacy from the person or corporation that had the gall to spy on me when another call came in. That’s when I realized where the mic came from.

Two months earlier I had professionally installed the Pioneer MVH-290BT digital media receiver, replacing an outdated receiver with a cassette deck. (remember those?) Anyway, I gave credit to the great sound quality to my phone instead of the external microphone on the media receiver. Since someone installed it for me, I forgot it had an external mic to assist with hands-free calls.

As I put my utility knife back I realized that if you install something yourself, you should read the instructions. But just as important, if someone installs something for you, read the user guide.