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mysteries |
Surveillance |
Other Information |
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Surveillance technology is designed to make our lives safer, But it can also be turned against us. Do we know who is watching us - and why? Before the advent of the microchip, the surveillance business was a low-tech yet expensive industry. A person wanting to monitor a partner's fidelity or a business associate's scruples would have to employ a 'private eye', a detective who would follow, watch and evaluate his or her target's every move. A detailed picture of a person's movements frequently took time, patience and money. Private Eye. Today, however, a private detective need never leave his office, as a target can be monitored and tracked using only a computer and a modem. Ms A. Soiks, for example, runs a detective agency in downtown Los Angeles. She rarely, if ever 'hits the streets' - all her work is done via computers. She sells her services on the basis that she can track anyone's location by following the digital trail they leave behind them. Credit and ATM cards, mobile phones and even supermarket loyalty cards can all relay information that can be used top accurately pinpoint a person's location anywhere on the planet. Ms Soiks and other surveillance professionals can access this information, often illegally, and provide a client with exact dates, times and places - all the information necessary to challenge a deceitful person. Private detectives such as Ms Soiks can charge upwards of £1,500 for a 24-hour surveillance job - a price not all are able to afford. However, miniaturized audio and visual micro technology can now be obtained through mail order companies at a fraction of the price, allowing everyone, should they want to, the means to spy on friends and neighbours. Little Big Brother. Some have suggested that the availability of this low-budget, hi-tech equipment encourages a climate of suspicion and paranoia. However, those who use surveillance devices in the work place insist that it helps to monitor productivity. Disparaging comments between workers about their boss - innocently traded in the office smoking room - can be recorded and played back to the unfortunate employees before they are escorted from the building. A survey of 301 businesses by MacWorld magazine in July 1993 found that 22% of businesses have searched employee computer files, voice mail, email or other networked communications. This jumped to 30% for businesses with 1,000 or more employees. Big Brother, it would seem, is alive and well and monitoring your every move - without your knowledge. Indeed, a whole new growth industry has arisen in step with the domestic surveillance equipment. Devices that can detect the presence of home bugs, block communication transmissions, encrypted email communication and scan premises for the electronic frequencies used by audio/visual monitoring devices are all now easily available. This counter surveillance equipment - once the preserve of spy and science fiction writers - is used by people who fear that their activities are being monitored. This use of counter surveillance has, some argue, created a vicious circle of fear and distrust, where personal liberty had been eradicated and people can only trust each other through the use of hidden cameras. Spy Science. Those of us who do not feel the need to purchase surveillance or counter-surveillance equipment are not immune to Big Brother's all-pervasive eye. Recently, cutting-edge developments in military science have become available to domestic law-enforcement agencies. One example of this new technology is the Forward Looking Infra-red (FLIR) system. Usually found on sophisticated fighter planes, the FLIR is used by police forces to scan buildings. Using thermal imaging, a mobile camera can detect a person's presence within a temperature range of between -20C and 1,500C. In effect, this makes the walls of a building invisible. Another invention, currently being tested in a number of international airports, is the BodySearch scan. This device can create a 3D image of a person in under a minute, and can identify exotic weapons such as plexiglass knives and ceramic firearms - which are both invisible to X-ray machines - as well as drugs and other illegal items. The BodySearch achieves this by firing a thin beam of X-rays that passes through clothing but is too weak to pass through skin, which it bounces off, and this is then used to make a 3D image of the body, and any object that blocks the X-rays will be clearly outlined in the computer simulation. The 'trickle-down' of military technology to domestic law enforcement agencies may have helped in bringing criminals to justice - but, ironically, it has created other problems in its wake. Electronic Curfew. One method which aims to avoid over stretching prison resources is the electronic 'tagging' of criminals. An instrument called a 'Personal Identification Device' (PID), approximately the size of a cigarette box, is securely fastened to the wrist or ankle. When activated, it can monitor a person's movements. If the person strays outside a preset radius - say 20 metres - after a certain time, the tag automatically alerts the local police station. The advantage of tagging is that the criminal is effectively under curfew while remaining at home. Electronic tagging works by installing a 'Home Monitoring Unit' (HMU), connected to the local police station via a separate phone line from the offender's home. If the signal from the PHD fails to reach the unit, the police are automatically phoned and told that the offender has strayed outside of the controllers range, and therefore broken the curfew regulations. The system, operating since 1989, is still being tested throughout the UK, so far with fairly successful results. It is not, however, foolproof. Some offenders are tempted to break the PID or cut the straps, both of which alert the police station. Spies in Space. Once the problems have been ironed out, a method to improve the features of electronic tagging could be achieved by using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. GPS works by relaying a signal from a small transmitter to a series of orbiting satellites. These then cross reference the source of the signal by 'bouncing' the signal off each other. This is extremely accurate, about up to 50cm's and it is updated every second. If the threat of satellite tracking from space seems a little distant, it is worth considering the current debate surrounding the use of CCTV cameras. According to Liberty, the National Council for Civil Liberties, there are currently over 150,000 CCTV systems in operation throughout the UK, and this number if growing by 500 each week. And according to Home Office figures, 95 percent of UK councils are considering setting up CCTV surveillance in high streets, shopping centres, parks and other public places. Although Liberty and other organisations concede that CCTV generally helps to reduce crime, they question advances in computer face-recognition technology that threaten the individuals right to privacy. The WISARD pattern recognition software, for example, was recently developed by Brunel University in the UK. Using CCTV data gathered by police observation units, this software is able to isolate the defining features of a face and match them with a computer wide database. |
Sources: The X Factor |