So I applied to this internship at a start up at the end of 2012 and was hired. I think people there were confused on how to treat me because they knew the reason I was hired; to be broken. Some gave into the peer pressure and some were neutral.
There were a couple of things that happened which convinced me that my ex’s stepdad arranged this internship for me. A day or two after I started, almost everyone went to get sandwiches for lunch and, intentionally, no one invited me. Afterward, my boss was standing at the end of the lunch table with half of his sandwich next to him as if he wanted me to ask him for his sandwich… like beg for it. I was so offended. In hindsight, I realized my ex’s stepdad must have instructed him to do this because we used to get sandwiches and one day I was super hungry and complained there was no food to eat, and we were on vacation, so it wasn’t like I could drive to go get food for myself. Later though, I went to lunch and stuff with coworkers. I can’t recall much else at the moment that would link my ex’s stepdad to this internship.
Anyway, back to the point. During this internship, there were certain things that happened that made me sure that I was being spied on. One day my coworkers were all just sneakily laughing, and it was obvious they were laughing at me. I realized they “hacked” my phone, an Android, and were looking at my photos; I had taken photos of my body in my underwear to evaluate my fitness progress. Also, one day, an older coworker was implicitly telling me I watch too much porn, and I remember I replied saying “oh, now I know.” On another day, I had my emails read to me. Even though this was a serious invasion of privacy, I didn’t let it bother me. I sensed that this was an effort to deter me from studying computer science, so I just stayed focused; this actually gave me more motivation. It also wasn’t my first time dealing with assholes. The way I deal with assholes is I usually outwork them. I actually made them more productive, and it was noticed, but not appreciated. The reason I say “hacked” is because I don’t think they picked any locks per se; I’m sure through the high level connections these people have in Silicon Valley, they were able to get admin access to my accounts and devices through Google and Apple. Do I think people in Silicon Valley are still spying on me for whatever reason? Yeah, definitely.
I eventually quit because they wouldn’t give me a raise and the only person who I figured would support me getting a raise ended up quitting, so I quit the same day. Coincidentally, the day that I quit was the day after Aaron Swartz committed suicide. At the time I didn’t know who he was, and I didn’t know about this until more than a year later. Overall, despite the spying and cyberstalking, and no pay raise, this was a cool and fun experience, and some people were actually nice.
This ability to spy on my devices was given to my parents, who still use it to stalk and harass me. I’m sure my ex’s stepdad gave them this ability.
(Originally published on 10-31-2019)