US 2017: under surveillance, or is it today or yesterday

“The Chinese proverb and curse says,
‘May you live in interesting times’.”
In the first decade of the twenty-first century,
we live in profound uncertainty,
 faced with issues unprecedented in the history of the human race.

 
This vision of the future has been compiled
on the orders of the information commissioner.
It is what the world will look like 10 years from now.

This study is based the vision of the future, not on wild
 hypotheses but on existing technology, statements made
 about the intentions of government and private companies
and studies by other think tanks

 

 I fear that we are, in fact, waking up to a
surveillance society that is already all around us.
A world in which our nation uses fleets of tiny spyplanes
 to watch its citizens, preemptive justice that is what
 they will call it, the underclass trapped in ghettos
under constant state surveillance, the worker drones, now
forced to take on the lifestyle and values of the
 megacorporation they work for, the super rich hiding out
 in gated communities constantly monitored by cameras and
 private security guards.
Pervasive surveillance aimed at tracking and controlling people
 and preempting behavior, that glimpse of the future is fairly conservative.



There once were independent watchdog's warning against
 government and private companies invading the privacy
of citizens and exploiting the masses of information currently
held by the Surveillance Network on each and every one of us.






Here’s how 2017 might look…

 The Jones family are returning to The America Union.
 It’s hard to know the difference between the countries
 by what the family experience at the border.

The America's, Europe, Asia, Africa, all member countries
 of the New World Order have outsourced their immigration
 and border control services to massive a private companie.
 In this, lets give the company the name BorderGuard.


Thanks to the never-ending war on terror, these
 governments have developed “smart borders” using
hidden surveillance technologies.
 

Cameras and scanners at passport control monitor faces,
 irises and fingerprints checking them off against records
 of biometric passports, the regional ID card system and
 or chip implants.


 BorderGuard has access to state and transnational
 databases and can also data mine information on
individuals, such as consumer transactions, via a
paid for service provided by specialist companies
 trading in information held on every individual
in the land.

For families like the Jones, crossing borders is
relatively swift and painless. The wealth of information
 held on them means they can be quickly identified and
processed. But citizens of nations not signed up to the
 BorderGuard scheme face hostile and lengthy
 investigations while crossing frontiers.


Racial profiling is now the norm. Certain ethnec and
 racial features inevitably mean being pulled to oneside,
whether or not you carry a biometric passport or ID card.

Brandscapes Retail chains and mega-malls now use huge
 shared databases, which began with data mining
reward card information, to create a “brandscape”
 for every shopper.


Smart tags buried in a shopper’s clothing “talk” to
scanners in shops. The system then connects to consumer
 databases, revealing where the clothing was bought and
 by whom and what other purchases the person has made.

 The system knows who you are, where you live, what you
like and don’t like. Intelligent billboards at eye level
 then immediately flash up adverts tailored to the consumer
 profile of the individual.



The wealthiest consumer citizen can even become a
cashless shopper. For, a chip, remember the chip?, can be
 implanted in the human body which is loaded with a
 person’s bank and credit details.

 From then on, it’s their arm that will be scanned in a
 shop, not their credit card. Chiped shoppers also get
 first class service in mega-malls, with special lounges,
 spas and massage facilities reserved only for them.

Urban myths, however, are springing up that muggers are
targeting these elite consumers and cutting the chip from
 their arms. There are also concerns about hackers being
able to upload viruses to the chip or empty the
 chipholder’s account.



Tagged Kids Scandals about child abductions and murders
 during school hours mean teachers prefer tagging a child
 to facing legal liability for their injury in a court.

 Drug testing in schools has also become an accepted part
 of life following pressure by the government to identify
problem children earlier and earlier in life. What
 children eat in schools is also monitored by parents,
 as boys and girls are required to swipe their school
card every time they visit the cafeteria. The card
contains information on school attendance, academic
 achievement, drug-test results, internet access and
sporting activities. The card’s records are used to
assess whether the child has passed or failed their
 citizenship program.




Shops are also monitoring children in order to tap into
 the lucrative youth market. Children today are gradually
becoming socialized into accepting body surveillance, so
 location tracking and the remote monitoring of their
dietary intake will be quite normal.


 Most cities are divided, the gated private communities,
 patrolled by corporate security firms, which keep
 insurance costs to a minimum. They hire private
companies are tasked to deal with social evils.



Offenders have the option of having a chip voluntarily
implanted in their arm so they can be monitored at home
 using scanners and sensors.

 We now can be subject to area-wide curfews, following
 outbursts of antisocial behavior, which ban anyone
 under 18 from entering or leaving the area from dusk
 until dawn.

Community wardens armed with Tasers enforce the law.
 CCTV cameras can be viewed by residents at home on
their television’s security channel.


In gated communities, meanwhile, no-one can get in or out
 unless their car’s number plate is authorized by the
automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) devices located
 on gates.

 There are now so many ANPR cameras across the land
 that it’s almost impossible to drive the length of a street
without details of your car being logged by the state.



The aesthetics of surveillance Security has been incorporated into the design
of architecture and infrastructure so that it is almost unnoticeable now.

 Anti suicide bomber triggers,  outside embassies and
government buildings are secreted in the ground, being
 activated in an emergency by the security sensors.

Anti government protesters are monitored by small
 remote control spyplanes, which were introduced
 during a temporary security alert but remained
and became permanent fixtures.




CCTV is now embedded at eye level in lamp-posts to
enable the use of facial recognition technology.


 Individuals can be monitored by camera by private
 security contractors, and held for the local authority
 to question them in the event of any questionable event took place.

Helmet-mounted cameras scan the biometrics of anyone
 being questioned. All guards and police are also now
 monitored by surveillance devices in their handheld
 computers. Ironically, this has triggered civil
liberties concerns within the police union.



 As an example of how police might treat dissenters.
 When taken into custody by private security
guards one undergoes the usual DNA swab, which
is analysed instantaneously, and hands over his
 ID card for scanning. ID cards are still theoretically
 voluntary, but not having one makes life almost
 impossible.

If one doesn’t have a card, it means they can’t apply
 for a government job or claim benefits or student loans.
 one can’t travel by plane or even train. To make matters
 worse, one is deemed a high category suspect and is
routinely stopped and brought in to the nearest police
station for questioning.



Once released, police monitoring systems piggyback on
your hand-held device to track your travels across the
 city. you will also been put on a communications
watchlist which means all internet and e-mail traffic
 is saved by your ISP and passed to police. As most
 phone calls are online now, police also get access
 to these communications as well.




Call centers monitor everything and surveillance
 information is used to recruit staff. Potential
 employees are subjected to biometric and psychometric
 testing, as well as lifestyle surveys.

 Their lives outside work, and their background, are
the subject of scrutiny. It is felt to be increasingly
 important that the lifestyle profile of the employee
 match those of the customers to ensure better customer
 service. Recruitment consultants now frequently discard
anyone which does not volunteer health information.

Once hired, staff are subjected to sporadic biometric
 testing which point to potential health and psychological
 problems. Thanks to iris-scanning at a gym connected to
 the company, employees can be pulled up at annual
 assessments for not maintaining their health.

 Periodic psychometric testing also reveals if staff
attitudes have changed and become incompatible with
 company values.



Big Brother is looking after you. Homes in the ever
 growing number of retirement villages are fitted with
 the telecare system, with motion detectors in every
 room, baths with inbuilt heart monitors, toilets which
 measure blood sugar levels and all rooms fitted with
 devices to detect fire, flood and gas leaks.

 Panic buttons are also installed in every room. Fridges
 have RFID scanners which tell the neighborhood grocery
 store that pensioners are running short on provisions.
 The goods are then delivered direct to the doorstep.



Huge databases in hospitals are able to compare tests on
 patients throughout the country. This allows doctors to
 red flag risk factors earlier than ever before, meaning
 that a patient’s statistical risk of suffering, for
 example, a heart attack, are predicted with much greater
 accuracy. The hospitals will be locked in a battle with
 insurance companies who want access to health information
 for commercial purposes.

The temptation for the hospitals is the large amounts of
 money on offer. The fact is Iceland has sold its national
 DNA database to private companies for research and profit
 in 2004.



The data shadow Those rich enough can sign up to is the
“personal information management services” (Pims)
 which monitor all the information that exists
about an individual, a person’s so-called “data shadow”.
The Pims system corrects incorrect information held by government or private companies.


Those who can’t afford Pims have to live with the impact
 that incorrect data can have on their lives, such as
faulty credit ratings. Some are condemned to a purgatory
 of surveillance and an inability to access information.



But for other people total surveillance has become an
accepted way of life. Some voluntarily carry out
surveillance on their whole lives.


©2007 newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved

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