On track: Using my media, not theirs

by Fiona Joy Green

As a cycling enthusiast, I feel ill-prepared and incomplete without my little computer attached to my handlebars that monitors my distance, speed, cadence and time. Unlike my fellow cyclist friends who have accounts with the cloud to record and share online recording of routes, distance, speed and other stats, I prefer the privacy of keeping that info to and for myself. I simply record the distance and time on my phone calendar to keep a record. This has been a good  move as I’ve just learned that Garmin has been hit by a ransom attack that has shut down not only record keeping of recreational cyclists, runners and other fitness enthusiasts, the attack has also shut down FlyGarmin, the company’s navigational support service for pilots, as well as Garmin’s call centres, email and chats https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/garmin-gps-outage-1.5661546

We use media, is the point emerging here. But my route enables me to control monitoring and collection—media serves me. The other route might involve data collection or theft and service costs. I think this example demonstrates the possibility of exercising choice and exerting some control.