I must be watching shows that target their demographic, because I’m constantly seeing 3M’s commercials for their computer privacy filter. One commercial shows a guy using his laptop from an airplane middle seat as his neighbors on either side try to see what he’s typing; the other commercial shows the same guy (or at least he looks the same to me) now at a cafe, beseiged on everyside by other customers (and one elderly lady looking through the window) attempting to read his screen. I find these commercials irritating for the way they’re produced and the itchy musical score, but more interesting, they reflect a growing culture of self-absorbed paranoia.

3M’s website explains that “3M™ Privacy Filters help block the screen view from anyone viewing the computer from a side view. 3M’s unique microlouver privacy technology allows persons directly in front of the computer to see on screen data clearly.” The reviews of the filter I found online are dead serious about stopping “snooping” of other people on “sensitive data.” I’ve never heard of any kind of identity theft from having used a computer casually in public. Look, obviously the 3M commercials are meant to be amusing over-the-top versions of the actual threat to privacy. And also obviously there are people who both (a) frequently view or produce sensitive data of some kind on their computers and (b) from time to time do that in public. I get it. (Although, if you work for the CIA, are you going to bring your work to Starbucks?) However, I simply don’t believe there are anywhere near that number of people to warrant multiple national television commercials that, at least to me, seem to be aired all the time. There are an infinite number of niche products that are never advertised on television or even in print for that matter–they’re niche enough that the customers who need them seek them out–and this filter seems like it should obviously in that category. Especially for 50 bucks! (hey, microlouver privacy technology isn’t free)

As I say, the reviews online are very striaght-faced about the need for this. One blog review warns, “While at the local coffee shop, sipping a latte and crunching sales projections, you may get that uneasy feeling that you might not be the only one crunching your numbers.” The reviewer concludes, “The filter does an excellent job of concealing the screen data,” but wait: “However, do not expect the Privacy Filter to work with individuals directly behind you!” Another reviewer reminds us that “People are nosy. They’ll look at what you’re eating for lunch, peer into your grocery cart to see what cereal you’re buying and they’ll most definitely shift their eyes to read what’s displaying on your notebook screen.” Yeah, I’ve “shifted my eyes” (sounds so nefarious) to someone’s laptop next to me on an airplane, but that’s because airplanes are cramped and if someone has a relatively large laptop it’s right in front of your face. Like the previous blogger, this one is satisfied overall: “this filter just plain works if you don’t want people to see what’s on your screen while out in public.  Unless they’re looking directly over your shoulder that is, you’d have to grow eyes in the back of your head or put a rear view mirror on your notebook to detect for those types of snoops.” Good idea, 3M should market a laptop rear view mirror.

The commentators on the second review’s post are a little more realistic (honest?) about why they’d use the filter. “Cool, useful at times(Like surfing while at work or in class),” says Coriolis. Chaz chimes in that “I find it really annoying when people crowd around me while I’m surfing or gaming…this might be a worthwhile investment.” (Really? For $50?)

They’ve recently completed studies that younger generations have a dangerously inflated self-esteem with feelings of such self-importance that they can’t handle criticism or instruction. I think 3M is semi-cleverly exploiting a related American impulse, that everything we do is so important that other people must want to see it. Watch that commercial set on the airplane again–it’s fascinating that they choose to have the computer user more interested in the “snoopers” than in his work on the computer. It’s just funny to me that 3M’s product coexists in a world where people scream their professional and personal stories and information on their cell phones, making sure anyone in earshot can hear. It seems to me that a kooky product like 3M’s filter is much less about privacy than about the desire to think that you need the privacy–the hope that everyone is trying to get that one desperate peek at your email. I like Umberto Eco on this aspect of culture: “People right now are encouraged to live a more public, fictional life than their own and you realize that when they are alone, they are compelled to talk on their cell phone to be in contact with somebody else, because they are unable to appreciate silence and solitude. I think it’s a dangerous risk of our time.” (Eco also says that, while people feel important when speaking on their cells, truly important people don’t have to use cell phones in a crowded airport waiting area, whoever it is who wants to speak to them can wait.)

I get the Bush warrantless wiretapping scandal from legal and political perspectives, but I also laughed at the man-on-the-street reactions in news stories, essentially “They shouldn’t spy on me!” 

The funny thing is I’m always complaining that I can’t use my laptop outside on a nice day because of the glare of the sun. Apparently the “privacy” filter also is meant to keep out glare. Now wouldn’t that be a much more useful way to market it? I guess everyone fantasizes they are a spy, and spies don’t worry about glare.

…Argus

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