The surveillance we are subjected to extends beyond the confines of the internet
One of the favorite arguments of the technoskeptics is that we deserve to be spied on because we share everything on the internet. However, if one thing has emerged from the recent revelations about the spying to which some countries submit their populations—whether dictatorships or simply run by paranoids—, it is the extent of said spying: something that some people mistakenly believe is focused solely the web in fact goes much deeper, and has its origins in the ability to overlap technological developments with many of the activities that we undertake in our daily lives, and that have nothing to do with the web.
The US National Security Agency has just obtained authorization to continue with its wiretapping program. Yes, you read that correctly: eavesdropping on telephone conversations. That means collecting all metadata associated with your telephone conversations, and in many cases, then recording and processing them. This is spying that we can do nothing to protect ourselves against, it cannot be brought before the courts: it is, quite simply above the law, just like in a bad film. A law that is progressively being refined in secret to increasingly allow for the setting up of a permanent surveillance system.
Do you really think that none of this affects you, because you haven’t done anything? You are wrong: increased spying is not limited to those suspected of activities that could be considered threatening or criminal, but includes all their contacts, and the contacts of their contacts, and their contacts’ contacts’ contacts…
That’s three levels of contacts, within which you could quite easily find yourself, even if you aren’t one of the baddies, or have ever had anything to do with the baddies.
It’s possible to imagine one answering for the activities of friends. But what about your friends’ friends? To which you might reply: “I don’t care if they spy on me because I have nothing to hide.” Really? Take a look at these two cases.
So don’t use the web, or the telephone, and don’t send any text messages. And of course don’t even think about using your car, because your license plate is being noted every time you pass by one of those cameras that in theory are there to help traffic flows, but that in reality are there to build up a data base in real time of our movements. This really is the new frontier: the mass control of license plates via readers able to capture up to sixty plates per second and then run them through a data base of stolen cars and another to check whether they are up to date with their insurance bills.
In all probability you will not have stolen the car you are driving, nor will you have ever thought about stealing a car; you almost certainly pay your insurance premium religiously, but your data is in the system. And as face recognition technology steadily improves and more and more CCTV cameras are installed throughout our cities, this surveillance will no longer require a license plate, and will instead be able to trace your footsteps around your city, generating an even bigger data base that will know much more about you than you would ever be able to remember.
No, this isn’t about the internet. This is something much more serious, and that goes much deeper. This is an attitude, a way of understanding life, of society. And it must be stopped. By whatever means.
