Kalafrana Rambler: Orwellian outlook

"You are being watched every hour of every day"

You are being watched !

Imagine a society where everyone was tagged and all of your movements were recorded. This has echoes of an Orwellian world of totalitarian governments where papers were required to be carried at all times and could be inspected many times a day. With modern technology like RFID, NFC, or GPS monitoring that tracking would not just be occasional but instead it could be active 24/7.

Popular culture has embraced the concept of tracking with many science fiction (or maybe science forecast) movies, like Gattaca, Logan's Run, Minority Report. The TV series Person of Interest highlights the huge usage of cameras that use facial recognition techniques and record this information in vast state-controlled databases. Analysis of this huge data store is somehow use to predict crime before it happens.

Consider how new passports are issued with biometric information encoded on a chip, how visitors to US, even if they are only passing through as transit passengers, are herded through Immigration. The US government is building a huge database on non-US nationals and potentially has more information about these individuals than their only sovereign governments. What does the US intend to use this data mine for? Will they be passing this on to other state authorities or commercial organisations?

The answers to these questions are not something that we will readily find in the public domain. Many commentators will provide an opinion.

Like any tracking technology there are some really positive benefits. Unfortunately the shadow of big brother means that we all need to be aware that for all the advantages of modern tracking technology there are some real dangers to our privacy and personal freedom.

Sometimes being connected may not always be in your best interests.