With the increase in war, terrorism and gun violence there has been the introduction of ‘mass surveillance’ by governments, allowing them more flexibility in terms of what and how they can collect information on citizens. Indeed, gun violence is becoming an escalating problem with a recent CNN article stating there has been more than 1 school shooting every week in the US in 2018.

However it seems that this increase in surveillance is leading to more of a ‘big brother’ state (imagined by George Orwell in his novel 1984), where our every move is being watched and analysed. On top of this companies are collecting more data on us than ever before. This raises some moral questions about the borderline between keeping us safe and allowing citizens their right to privacy.

Mass Surveillance

The use of CCTV cameras in nothing new - but with developments in technology they are becoming more sophisticated and overt and coming with amazing zoom technology so that the government can track your every move if they need to.

However, a fairly new advancement is that some forms of public transport are now being equipped with the recording devices - to me this like its taking things a bit far, what do you think? For more information about this check out this article.

Mass surveillance in Xinjiang China

In the Chinese city of Xinjiang there has been riots and civil unrest causing several casualties dating back several years, and has led to many changes in terms of surveillance. According to endgadget.com:

Xinjiang has both a massive security presence and ubiquitous surveillance technology: facial-recognition cameras; iris and body scanners at checkpoints, gas stations and government facilities; the collection of DNA samples for a massive database; mandatory apps that monitor messages and data flow on smartphones; drones to monitor the borders.

What I found interesting was that in Xinjiang they have taken the extreme measure of asking for ID with purchases of any knives - even just regular kitchen knives. Knives are then encoded and have a QR code lasered into the blade - the intention being that if the knife has been used for violence it can be traced back to its owner.

It does seem these changes have made a huge difference with decreases in violence and ceasing of riots across Xinjiang. However, is this type of surveillance too much of an invasion of privacy? How would you feel if you knew the government was tracking your every move? In my opinion is that it would lead to a level of uncomfortableness for the everyday citizen as though they haven't done anything wrong they know they are being watched.

Are you being watched?

There is a great episode of Black Mirror called ‘Shut up and Dance’ in which the main character, a teenage boy has his camera on his laptop camera hijacked and they record him having some ‘alone time’ and use this as collateral to make him commit crimes.

Although Black Mirror is a dystopian future type television series (highly recommend it i you haven't seen it!) and dramatised, it seems that webcams and cellphone cameras are being watched for a variety of reasons. Although there is no specific mention of governments hacking into webcams, there techniques are not always above board, so it is a possibility.

There are some suggestions that you could protect yourself by placing sticky tape over your camera when it not being used, but these seems a bit paranoid to me - what do you think?

There has also been reports that the NSA is planning to ‘infect’ millions of computers with malware which will in esscence give them access to all sorts of private information. It seems that there are more and more ways the government can track our every move, especially when we are online and have a ‘digital footprint’. It makes me feel uneasy knowing that people out there, not only companies like Facebook and Google, but also governments have all sorts of data available on innocent citizens.

You never know who could be listening

Recently there has been some news about how a couple had their private conversation recorded by their Alexa device, which was then sent to one of their employees. In this case it seems and innocent mistake, but it makes you wonder what would happen if the use of your Alexa rights got into the wrong hands? Could they have access to your private conversations?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Where should the line be drawn between privacy and keeping the public safe?

Pictures downloaded from royalty free website pixabay.com

References:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/school-shootings-2018-list-trnd/index.html
https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/22/china-xinjiang-surveillance-tech-spread/?guccounter=1
http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/feature/a795242/can-people-spy-on-me-through-my-laptop-or-smartphone-camera/
https://www.fastcompany.com/40510238/in-xinjiang-china-some-knives-branded-with-owners-qr-codes
https://theintercept.com/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware/
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/24/technology/alexa-secret-recording/index.html