The nature of a computer means that it is capable of storing information and make no mistake, any piece of technology that we use, from a smart phone to an alarm clock is a computer. Therefore, information is being gathered all day, everyday in huge quantities, about the vast majority of the population of the world, due to the overwhelmingly digitalised way of life we live and because upgraded forms of electronically automated systems replace the manual or paper systems at an alarming rate. Technology is the new form of evolution, instead of growing stronger and more intelligent as a human race, an elite few now develop machines that, for the masses, make life more convenient and ‘safe’ whilst contributing to their under-development, with literacy rates dropping and obesity rising. These machines hide surveillance under a guise of entertainment, usefulness and efficiency.
I’ve made a list of these machines, the mediums through which we, everyday, give ourselves and often our inner-most thoughts to some data bank somewhere, whether the information is being used or not does not matter – it is still stored. In other words, to what extent are we being surveyed unconsciously as we go about our everyday lives and where, instantly, could information about us be pulled at the click of a mouse button or could we be tracked and found at a moments notice:
Phone
Fingerprint technology
Siri/Cortana
Web cam
iPad
CCTV (duh)
Phone/tablet/ipod/watch cameras
Oyster/contactless oyster payment
Apple pay
Mobile phone payment
Credit/Debit card and Contactless
Internet banking
Touch in/out id cards
Satellite Navigation
Passport control
Smart TV
iWatch
Location settings
Any kind of ‘Messenger’
Internet use of any kind at all! Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, Viber, Tinder, Google+, Whatsapp, Tumblr and on, and on, and on…. Any website that requires a log in (as most do now): Amazon, Ebay, buying tickets for ANYTHING, Netflix, other streaming sites, illegal streaming sites eve, pornography, UCAS, University virtual learning pages, Employment virtual shared spaces… etc.
Cookies. (Wtf.)
Alarm clock
House alarm system
Bluetooth heating control
Surround sound system
Car
Emails
And this list is certainly not extensive….
The aim of this blog is to try to grasp at the scale of surveillance we have willingly implemented in this country. I don’t even think the list, while unnerving, necessarily accomplishes this. We need to also think of what is being surveyed, it is not worrying enough to simply think about ‘information about us’; our fingerprints, voices, retinas, personalities and weaknesses, as well as our addresses and locations, are being collected.
If we had been told, at some point in the past, that we would be forced to have device travelling with us, everywhere we go, that could track us down to within a square meter of the earth’s surface, we probably would never have allowed it. But here we are, queuing outside shops and getting into debt for the chance to own the latest iPhone. We were not forced, we were given the choice but it was streamlined so that we would only choose one way.