Surveillance is simply the ability for a person or persons to track your activities and movements at all times. When the scope of this surveillance is without bounds, or controls, then it presents a massive potential for abuse. Unfortunately, the abuse is well and truly being revealed now.
Internet of things (IoT)
Today, digital cameras are so tiny, they can fit on the tip of pen. You probably have one in front of you right now … the front facing camera on your smartphone. Modern microphones are no different. Now add the ability for these devices to be connected to a network, share data and upload to central servers and you have what is broadly termed the “Internet of things”(IoT). The wikipedia entry on this subject explains just how deeply this is now part of our lives, so I won’t repeat the details here.
IoT – Wide Open to Abuse
Facial recognition, voice recognition and AI machine learning has now made it trivial to aggregate the total information into a form that makes it trivial for a human to identify and track a designated “target” anywhere in the world, at all times.
- When a domestic bully does it to another person, it’s called “stalking”.
- When a thief does it on a home-owner it’s called “casing the joint”.
- When a retail store does on it customers, it’s called “mistrust”.
- When a government does it on it’s citizens, it’s called “mass surveillance”.
The point is, that in all cases, it is fundamentally not socially acceptable behaviour, yet all the scenarios above are currently possible with the current IoT.
Government Abuse of Surveillance
Australia, once know as the “lucky country” is one of the worst examples in the world. Australia is a long term member of Five Eyes (FVEY). FVEY is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Mass Surveillance In Australia
Australia is not alone, if you are still not convinced, check out this for a country near you!
If you look at the extensive “public” information available on Five Eyes, Nine Eyes and Fourteen Eyes in Wikipedia, for example, you will see that the world has long surpassed the dystopian predictions made 40 years ago by writers such as George Orwell in the book 1984. With the additional power of recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, CCTV systems in all buildings and home security systems, tracking and monitoring of everybody, at all times, is guaranteed.
Crime Prevention or Ultimate Control
There is no evidence that I could find that the technology has had any positive impact on world security. The lack of oversight, or standards in the development of the IoT, has opened so many opportunities for unauthorised access to so many devices.
The opportunities for systems like this to restrict freedom of movement, freedom of knowledge and freedom of speech, while adding to the ability to link into social credit systems, makes these countries ripe for the introduction of a totalitarian government.
I will be publishing a number of articles on what you can do, at home, to minimise the risks associated with the abuse of this technology, so bookmark this site to get updates.
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