Arnav's Musings

The sudden focus on sexual harassment at the workplace in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal made me ponder, "Why do men in positions of power misuse their authority?" The incident reminded me of the famous quote by John-Dalberg Acton which goes something like this:" Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are, almost always, bad men." The countless other examples that have since tumbled out of the closet from the entertainment and media industries illustrate that this is a widespread trend that has been going on for many years. While the culprits always claim that it was consensual and the victim was aware of the implications, it is often the victim's gullibility and desire to be successful that these powerful men so casually prey upon. This happens primarily due to the perpetrator's "too big to fail" mindset. A person in a position of power believes that he is licensed to impose his will on other...

Amazon just launched a new in-home delivery service called Amazon Key  that the company believes will revolutionize the way it delivers packages to our homes. The service essentially works with a security camera (Amazon Cloud Cam) and a compatible smart door lock (from Kwikset or Yale) to allow courier agents access to an amazon prime customer's home to securely deliver her/his package. While this does offer the ultimate ease of shopping for busy people who are often away from their homes when a delivery is attempted and remain concerned about package thefts, the question that must have crossed everyone's mind is, "Are we ready to trade privacy for greater convenience?" The pace at which online retailers have been working to gain control of not only the way we shop, but also the way the products we purchase reach us is breathtaking. I wonder whether in the rush to offer a unified shopping experience, critical issues surrounding privacy might have been overlooked...