Surveillance: If you do nothing wrong...

The idea that "surveillance is okay as I do nothing wrong" is mostly disappearing but, it seems to be replaced with, "surveillance is okay because I like the app" instead. Some people have the feeling that since it is just little old them, they are not interesting enough for anyone to take the time or worry to care what they do but, I think people still have a feeling (even though they know it isn't true) that surveillance is like in the movies, two guys drinking coffee in a work van on the street. Those days have been gone for a very long time, this is the world of AI and big data.

They don't need to see you, hear you or even know you to put a tail on you, to follow you, to spy on your private life, they have apps that do all of that for them and, we approve them. We give them access to cameras, and microphones, we allow them to take our fingerprints, record voices, listen in passively and recognize our eyes and faces. We let them log our locations, follow our movements, identify our family, friends and colleagues and even record the ways we touch the screens we use. What don't they know?

We have become so accustomed to giving our access away without repercussions that we think the repercussions will never come but, with that much data with such granular information, there is little chance that there is nothing incriminating somewhere, especially with what people seem to share across these various apps. For all of the people sending nudes, assume that thy are all logged somewhere and attached to a file with your name on it.

The future is going to get interesting as leak after leak comes out, Hollywood stars, politicians and business leaders will fall while the 'clean' take their place. But, who is clean, those that truly are or, those who have just not had their data file used against them yet?

If you reside in America and it is dinnertime, you have almost certainly broken the law. In his book Three Felonies a Day, civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average person unknowingly breaks at least three federal criminal laws every day. This toll does not count an avalanche of other laws — for example misdemeanors or civil violations such as disobeying a civil contempt order — all of which confront average people at every turn.
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You might not think much of your actions now, you may be young and experimenting with life as a young person should but, this is the first time in history where your experiments, your actions, your whereabouts and who you are with are being recorded, cross-referenced and stored with as many data points as possible.

What about later, what if you want to become a lawyer, police officer, politician, president? Even a kindergarten teacher. Does any of that information incriminate you, stop you from getting a job or, can it be leveraged, used to blackmail?

There are people who say, "But I am not on social media" while they play their X-box, or log into their cloud storage. It is almost impossible in this day and age to not be recorded. Just take a walk down the main street of your town and count the cameras and think, how can all of these be getting watched? That phone in your pocket, pinging off satellites pinpoints you and even if the gps is off, the towers it is bouncing off triangulate well enough if they have to.

Who cares about all of these things? Governments, some shadow organization, marketers, advertisers... Who knows but, someone obviously thinks it is important to collect and keep all of this data. Is there a burn point? Is there some statute of limitations on collected data or, is it available forever, constantly being compressed down into smaller, more manageable packages to save storage space as the volume multiplies exponentially.

You may think that no one cares, that you do nothing wrong and that in all of that data, you are a needle in a haystack but, that is not true. At least, you are not a needle and in time, even less so as an AI will not only be able to sweep quickly through to compile a dossier on your known life but, connect across the networks to instantly have you on every radar it chooses.

Who will it target, who will it maximize the data of? Perhaps it will make predictions on who runs the highest risks of committing crimes or harming others and will be able to disrupt crime before it happens. Perhaps it will identify weaknesses in people to exploit, to nudge this way or that, coax them into joining this group or, acting out a crime. Maybe it will identify likely leaders in business or potential hindrances to future profits?

Are you safe because you think you aren't interesting enough, because you think you do nothing wrong? The world is an increasingly strange place being engineered by people with agendas and history tells us, very little is for the betterment of all, it is always to maximize for a few. Who are the ones really committing the crimes against humanity?

These words are recorded onto a blockchain but, it wouldn't likely matter if they weren't. It is late, these are 3 am thoughts.

Sleep well.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]