In 1984, moviegoers were given a front-row seat to the potential horrors of self-aware computers as they took over the world’s technology. In the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick The Terminator, an artificial intelligence network called Skynet — initially designed just to manage defense systems — quickly learned all of mankind was a potential threat that needed to be eliminated.

While it was fun food for thought, nobody at the time really believed computer technology could become a species in and of itself.

Thirty years later, however, the whole idea doesn’t seem nearly as far-fetched.

Autonomous robots are a reality, we implicitly trust our connected devices to help manage our lives, and there’s not one shred of meaningful information (even about individuals) that’s not accessible via the web.

Perhaps even more alarming is how only four companies are quietly becoming the gatekeepers and tone-setters for how we’ll interface with technology (not to mention interface with the rest of the world) in the near future.

These four organizations might make for fine investments, but as citizens, we also might want to keep a watchful eye on how indispensable they’re making themselves to us.

Google (GOOG)

No surprises here. Web-search giant Google (GOOG, GOOGL) isn’t just a search giant any longer. It’s also ankle-deep into technology like driverless cars and computerized glasses, and it’s waist-deep into the telecom arena with Google Fiber, which delivers ultra-high-speed Internet service to a growing number of U.S. markets.

It’s the less-publicized technology arenas Google has tiptoed into, however, that should concern us … areas like artificial intelligence and robotics.

In January, Google announced it would be acquiring AI outfit DeepMind, and over the course of the past year Google has acquired about half a dozen robotics companies. Even a couple years ago, Google had already taught an artificial brain to recognize pictures of cats.

While the technology might seem benign on the surface, a virtual neural network of computers that taught itself to “see” cats is probably capable of teaching itself to see and recognize other things too. Say … people and guns.

Put that technology into an autonomous robot, intentionally or otherwise, and one has to wonder how easily things could turn bad.

Walmart (WMT)

OK, not that the world’s biggest retailer isn’t cold and seemingly resentful of the very shoppers driving its revenue, but how is Walmart (WMT) crossing the line in terms of using technology?

The most offensive way is by installing facial recognition software in places shoppers might not expect … like on mannequins, and reportedly in mannequins’ eyes.

The software is called Shopperception. The system’s creator, Alfonso Perez, defends it by pointing out that Walmart doesn’t store information about individuals. Walmart itself even denied in December 2013 that it’s using the system — at odds with Perez’s comments — saying it’s only planning on using such a technology for security purposes in the future.

It only takes the push of a button or a few keystrokes on a keyboard to change what the technology does and whether or not it’s stored, however, and all of a sudden every item you pick up (including the ones you put back down) in a Walmart store are logged.

With a little more effort, the retailer could even connect your shopping behavior to the credit or debit card you use to pay for the merchandise.

Facebook (FB)

Speaking of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology, why is Facebook (FB) getting into either?

Regardless of the true reason, it’s happening. In the fourth-quarter conference call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that it’s working to develop an AI technology “to try to understand how everything on Facebook is connected by understanding what the posts that people write mean and the content that’s in the photos and videos that people are sharing.”

And facial recognition? Your friends can already tell Facebook collectively what you look like by tagging pictures of you, but its facial recognition software makes the company creepy-good at figuring out who’s who.

It wouldn’t be a stretch for Facebook to recognize you when you’re out and about.

And if for some reason it was able to access a database maintained by Google or Walmart, it could begin interconnecting your online and offline personas and really figure out exactly who you are, and where you go.

Apple (AAPL)

Apple (AAPL) seems harmless enough on the surface. It makes smartphones, which are essentially the norm now in developed societies, and offering downloads of digital audio and video is hardly a step toward world domination.

There’s still a risk involved with the proliferation of iPhones and iPads, however — they’re GPS devices that can pinpoint its owners’ whereabouts at any point in time, should someone go looking.

And remember, Apple was the one secretly doing the snooping three years ago.

In 2011, Apple was forced to acknowledge it stored months of timestamped logs of an iPhone device owners’ locations on that particular phone, if the device’s Location Services option was left in the “on” position. Apple explained that the log couldn’t be used to identify any particular person since the connectivity address changes every 12 hours.

If that were true, however, ongoing updates of the log would serve no purpose.

Besides, with the log being kept on the iPhones themselves, were the smartphone to be stolen and examined, it would be simple to determine a particular owners’ whereabouts at any time in semi-recent history.

Even more alarming is the possibility of Apple deciding later it wanted to access all that location history (and maybe link it to web browsing activity?) remotely, unbeknownst to owners.

The Last Word on the Rise of Technology

As over-the-top as the potential application of some of this technology might be, perhaps the scariest aspect of these pervasive programs is how none of these four companies can outright guarantee your digital data won’t be hacked or nefariously accessed.

While such activities are already underway, it appears we eventually become aware of them when breaches happen. The time to be worried is when security measures are breached and nobody is even aware of it, and some organization begins to collate every shred of data about you into a unified profile, up to and including your passwords, purchases, financial information and more.

Once those are all under one roof, one or two more key strokes could become disastrous.

Never say never.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.