29/08/2007 SOMNAMBULISM: SSSOM-NAM-BE W-LIS-MMM... THAT’S WHAT WE, THE BRITISH PUBLIC, ARE DOING RIGHT NOW. WE’RE SLEEP-WALKING INTO A SURVEILLANCE STATE AND WE ALL NEED SOMEONE TO GIVE US A HEARTY SLAP. BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS DANGEROUS.
Where do you draw the line with being watched and recorded? And who looks at this data? There comes a point when surveillance becomes too intrusive, becomes more than just a safety net. It’s not about being paranoid – it’s about our right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Yet we’re observed so much, by institutions who regard us as, at best, a nuisance and at worst the enemy. We’re all in a goldfish bowl, and there are plenty of cats outside. But now they’ve got all sor ts of fishing rods and nets...
BIOMETRIC DATABASES AND IDENTITY CARDS
ID Cards will be available in Britain from 1st January 2009, and mandatory one year later. Despite the media hullabaloo about them, the cards are (£10billion price tag excepted) fine in principle – 21 EU countries use
them. However, most of these are not compulsory, not linked to a national database and are not biometric. Britain’s will be. The National Identity Register will at first feature 52 pieces of personal information, including fingerprints, retinal scans, voice recognition and hand geometry.
DANGERS? If the data isn’t secure – and what computer system is? – then there should be real worries about our privacy. There’s also the marvellously-titled “Feature Creep” danger: the possible extensions to the use of the cards and databases.
HOW TO AVOID: Er...get a fake one?
RFID (RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION)
RFID tags, placed most frequently in cards (like an Oyster) and passports but also planted in animals and people, are an automated form of identification.
DANGERS? The clothes you’re wearing might contain RFID tags in them – your identity and your whereabouts could be tracked by anyone capable of reading the chip.
HOW TO AVOID: Maybe there’s some kind of scrambler somewhere? Otherwise, avoid store loyalty cards at all costs – and if anyone tries to plant a chip in you, kick ‘em and run.
HEAD-MOUNTED CAMER AS FOR POLICE AND POLICE DOGS
Tested in several police forces already. The cameras record to a storage device on the belt/harness, footage is uploaded at the station and stored for reference to crimes that may later be tried in court, where it may be used as evidence.
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DANGERS? Apart from resuming our familiar refrain of “innocent until proven guilty”, this further eats away at our right to silence. It compromises freedom of speech, as careless actions when confronted by officers of the law are not generally representative of an individual and would be over-weighted in cour t before a jury.
HOW TO AVOID: Grow a pixelated face and practice different voices. Wear masks. Don’t say or do stupid things to policemen with cameras on their heads.
CCTV CAMERAS
Reports recognise 3 million cameras in England, but that was in 2003. No one knows how many there actually are: they are completely unregulated by law. Britain is the world leader in the use of surveillance cameras. On the tube, “smart” cameras are for behaviour monitoring and, better yet, cameras with audio microphones are on the way as well.
DANGERS? You’ve seen what constant surveillance does to the BB inmates. Who, exactly, has access to this footage? For how long is it kept on a database? When none of it is legislated for, we really can’t know....
HOW TO AVOID? They’re everywhere. Try wearing a paper bag, changing clothes every five minutes or carrying round a bag of novelty disguises.
COMMUNICATIONS SURVEILLANCE
There is currently great debate over an EU directive which would make it mandatory for all telecom and internet providers to keep complete records of all clients’ usage for at least 12 months.
DANGERS? This technolog y is completely invisible to us. Though heavily regulated, it is also primarily commercial. Anyone could theoretically track your movements and monitor your communications. |
