The Government Has Eyes Everywhere

Published 11/19/98 Daily Egyption Newspaper (SIUC)

Big brother may not only be watching you; soon he could be following you, tracking where you go, and when. Now I'm not one to subscribe to the "sky is falling" kind of stories that a lot of conspiracy theorists endorse. An old friend of mine, Mark, has argued with me several times on some of these things. He's not a kook, but some of his concerns about our government seemed pretty far out to me. A couple of recent unrelated news stories have me wondering if maybe Mark wasn't on to something after all.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras abound in our society, and we pretty much take them for granted. These days if you look over the shoulder of the convenience store clerk while you grab your Powerball ticket, you're likely to see yourself on a monitor. Chances are you won't think twice about it, either. Access an ATM, and there's a camera staring you lens to eyeball. Go to any department store in your neighborhood and look at the ceiling. There's a better than even chance that there will be a number of dark globes; each of those contain a security camera. Banks, airports, train and bus stations abound with them. Again, all this is taken for granted.

While on the West Coast, I received a California driver's license. California has had for quite some time the digital licenses, with a digital photograph. At the time I thought it was pretty cool: cutting edge of technology, that kind of thing. As a military retiree, my ID card has a similar digital photograph. My only thought when I received it was that it was about time the federal government joined the 20th century.

Now, that's all background noise. Story one at the heart of this matter appeared in a recent edition of the Daily Egyptian. The state of Illinois is now issuing digital licenses. The new license has a magnetic strip on the back that can contain information about the driver to help prevent forged licenses. There was mention of some other security features, including a digital photograph. Law enforcement officials are excited about the new licenses as "…drivers' photos can now be stored on computer files…" The story continues to relate, as an example, how a woman was arrested in Peoria when she tried to obtain an ID card using fictitious documents. Seems her face didn't match the computer's. The important thing to remember is that her picture was already on file in the computer.

Story two came from the Southern Illinoisan the same day: Scotland Yard has a new tool in the war on crime. Along with a local council, they have installed a CCTV system in Newham, a district of London. A computer system linked with 144 CCTV's can reportedly scan up to 150 faces at a time and compare them with a database of criminals stored within the computer. The computer is supposedly able to match the faces despite such attempts to disguise one's self as makeup, eyeglasses, or even growing a beard.

It doesn't take a paranoid rocket scientist to see where this is going. The Yard's new computer has digital photographs stored within identifying certain people they are looking for. The computer scans the crowds, digitizes the image and attempts to match up a face in the crowd with a picture stored in the computer. A great tool, claim law enforcement officials. And if it works in the Newham district, it could be used elsewhere. England has over 150,000 CCTV cameras scattered about. How many do we have here in the U.S.?

Think about it; my face, along with perhaps millions of others, is stored in at least one state and one federal computer system. No real big concern, except now it's possible to match that face by computer with a new, real time image. It used to be pretty easy to be anonymous in our society. Pay cash instead of using credit cards and your movements as you went about your merry way were difficult if not impossible to track. Not any longer.

Now think about this: your face, stored in a computer. Think about all those cameras out there. Now think about the cameras you can't see; technology can make them small enough to hide just about anywhere. Every one has the potential to match your face to a computer record, and track your movements like an elk wearing a radio collar.

Hey, wait a minute, look over there. Maybe I've seen one too many episodes of The X-Files, but I think that ATM machine is staring at me.

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