Loss of Privacy

A little over a year ago, two Citywatcher.com employees had themselves chipped as a means of restricting access to sensitive vault areas that contained data held for police departments.

“To protect high-end secure data, you use more sophisticated techniques,” Sean Darks, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based company, said. He compared chip implants to retina scans or fingerprinting. “There’s a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door.”

While it appears innocent, the forced chipping of employees to perform their jobs has caught the attention of privacy advocates.  This story has steadily gained attention over the past year as a major concern for the privacy of individuals.  The main concerns are that, for all of history, people, for the most part, could come and go as they pleased, with little concern of being tracked.  Today, however, chipping a person is becoming less and less voluntary and more “for the safety and security of everyone around you.”

Chipping, these critics said, might start with Alzheimer’s patients or Army Rangers, but would eventually be suggested for convicts, then parolees, then sex offenders, then illegal aliens – until one day, a majority of Americans, falling into one category or another, would find themselves electronically tagged.

It has already moved into the medical field with Indonesia’s Papua now mulling over the idea of chipping HIV/AIDS patients.

Lawmakers in Indonesia’s Papua are mulling the selective use of chip implants in HIV carriers to monitor their behaviour in a bid to keep them from infecting others, a doctor said Tuesday.

While they also claim that they will only chip those that become violent, it is only one small step away from monitoring all HIV/AIDS patients.  The good news is that a decision is a long way off as many still believe that forcibly chipping people is a violation of human rights.

The concept of making all things traceable isn’t alien to Americans. Thirty years ago, the first electronic tags were fixed to the ears of cattle, to permit ranchers to track a herd’s reproductive and eating habits. In the 1990s, millions of chips were implanted in livestock, fish, dogs, cats, even racehorses.

Microchips are now fixed to car windshields as toll-paying devices, on “contactless” payment cards (Chase’s “Blink,” or MasterCard’s “PayPass”). They’re embedded in Michelin tires, library books, passports, work uniforms, luggage, and, unbeknownst to many consumers, on a host of individual items, from Hewlett Packard printers to Sanyo TVs, at Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

As I have said before, humans are not cargo.  They are not appliances used in the home.  Tracking people is far more Orwellian than even Orwell thought.

While the chips at Citywatcher.com were implanted voluntarily, it still leads to a testing phase.  Once these volunteers say that everything is great and the chips work perfectly, it won’t be long before the implantation is a requirement for work.  And that leads to a huge host of privacy concerns whereby people can be watched, followed, and tracked, all unbeknownst to them.

Those in the medical field also do not see or understand the far reaching implications of chipping himself.  One doctor, John Halamka, an emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, just doesn’t get it.

He got chipped two years ago, “so that if I was ever in an accident, and arrived unconscious or incoherent at an emergency ward, doctors could identify me and access my medical history quickly.” (A chipped person’s medical profile can be continuously updated, since the information is stored on a database accessed via the Internet.)

Carrying a Medic Alert bracelet will do the same thing, only then, the emergency room calls Medic Alert and gets your information.  A chipped person is constantly updated into a database that is accessible via the Internet!  I find it very scary that my information is accessible online to anyone who can, dubiously, obtain information from my RFID chip.  We already know that’s possible, yet, here is a doctor saying it’s a great thing and there’s no need to worry.

RFID is leading America to a surveillance society, much like the United Kingdom.  Chipping anyone, whether they be a violent criminal on parole, an Alzheimer’s patient, an HIV/AIDS patient, or your employee is wrong, unethical, and a violation of all human privacy rights.  Remember, just because we can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that we should.

The United States and United Kingdom seem to be in a race to see who can be the more invasive country.  The United States is in a distant second right now, however, they are attempting to catch up to their friends across the pond.

New passenger details are being recorded about Europeans traveling to the US, including religious beliefs, political opinions and sex lives.

In a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan that will affect the 4 million-plus Britons who travel to the US every year, the EU parliament said it ‘notes with concern that sensitive data (ie personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) will be made available to the DHS and that these data may be used by the DHS in exceptional cases’.

The new data will also be held for 15 years instead of its current 3 year limit.  This will, undoubtedly, lead to a massive data mining operation, designed to expose every single European who travels to the USA.  Europeans will also lose their rights to challenge misuses of their information as it will no longer be held in Europe, but in American databases that are accessible to many different agencies for many different reasons.

The new agreement will see US authorities gain access to detailed passenger information, from credit card details to home addresses and even what sort of food may have been ordered before a flight. In addition, US authorities will be free to add other information they have obtained about a passenger, leading to concerns about how the information will be shared.

The United States and United Kingdom have taken their surveillance to the extreme, placing everyone under the title of “suspect.”  This is yet another dangerous trend that is intrusive to individuals and should not be tolerated.  If you give an inch, you give a mile and both countries have crossed the quarter-mile mark, stretching it out to the end of privacy finish line.

Oceania is alive, folks, and, if you don’t want it, you need to step up now and force your lawmakers to tell the USA to piss off and keep your privacy.  Americans shouldn’t be complacent either.  Once it’s acceptable on foreigners, they will come after you.  Otherwise, get used to being randomly labeled an “enemy combatant” and plan on your vacations in Guantanamo.

As if you didn’t see this coming after the car bombs in London, the anti-terror police officers will now be exempt from Britain’s 1998 Data Protection Act and allowed real time access to London’s congestion charge cameras.

Under previous rules, police had to apply for access to the cameras on a case-by-case basis because of concerns that routine use of the information would be an invasion of privacy.

Under the new rules, anti-terror officers will be able to view pictures in “real time” from Transport for London’s (Tfl) 1,500 cameras, which use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to link cars with owners’ details.

The slippery slope has just gotten more slippery and the frog just got a little bit more cooked.  The cameras weren’t installed for national security and they weren’t installed for criminal purposes.  Whatever they tell you that they aren’t going to use something for, they already have plans to use it just for those purposes.  All they need to do is gradually step up incidents until the public is convinced that what once wasn’t necessary is now a necessity to protect everyone.

It will be used for any purposes the police can think of, it just may take a year or two to dream up other uses.  No sir, we wouldn’t ever use it for anything other than its intended use.

While other American states and cities are busy passing laws restricting illegal immigrants, conducting raids, and arresting illegals, Connecticut has taken the stance that they should have ID cards, allowing them access to public libraries, city services, and a chance to open a bank account.

Supporters say the cards will improve public safety and give undocumented workers protections now afforded legal residents. Critics contend it will unleash a flood of illegal immigration, straining services and wasting taxpayer money.

So, you violate the law by coming into the country illegally, and now you want protections that are given to people who followed the rules to live here legally?  You willfully violate the law of the land and disregard said law, and you still don’t understand why people hate you?

Kica Matos, who administers the program for New Haven, said undocumented workers are often targeted by thieves and robbed because they carry cash, a result of not being able to open a bank account.

Oh, boo-hoo.  Let me get a tissue and I’ll see if I can cry a few tears for you.  YOU’RE HERE ILLEGALLY!  I’m sorry that you’re an easy target but how about you try to follow the law first before you start whining that someone broke the law by stealing your money.  You remind me of those potheads who call the police to complain that their pot was stolen.

“Part of the reason they can’t open bank accounts is because they don’t have forms of identification that were valid,” she said.

Yeah, that’s what happens when you’re an ILLEGAL ALIEN, you moron.

Connecticut doesn’t know what it’s in for, now do they?  There will be more than a few thousand illegal aliens in their state very soon.

North Carolina-based Americans for Legal Immigration PAC has circulated a flier in 40 states urging illegal workers to move to New Haven, said its president William Gheen.

“Maybe New Haven needs to learn, if they want the illegals, then they’ll get the illegals,” he said.

His flier, in English and Spanish, says: “Come to New Haven CT for sanctuary. Bring your friends and family members quickly.”

Unfortunately, other cities, like New York City and San Francisco are thinking of creating similar schemes.

The new ID, she added, does not easily identify a person as an illegal immigrant. “That is the last thing that we want to have happen,” she said. The card was created with several features to appeal to all residents, including a debit component and access to city services such as parks.

Yes, that’s exactly what we want to do: ignore the problem.  Let’s just let whomever the hell wants to jump the border come into America.  Screw the laws on the books.  Screw immigration procedures.  Screw background checks to see if you’re a violent criminal from another country.  Let’s just give you a card that doesn’t identify you as illegal and let you wander around.

As for enjoying our parks, well, you’re not here legally are you?  Then, why should I care if you’ve been denied access to a park because you can’t properly identify yourself?

Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, said she is eager to apply for the card. “The ID will help me because it’s a way to be in this country and get people to know who you are, especially for people who crossed the border and lost their papers,” she said. “I feel safe here in New Haven.”

Thank you, Fatima, for proving my point.  You lost your papers crossing the border because YOU’RE AN ILLEGAL ALIEN!  If you want people to know who you are, then you should have tried stopping at the border and trying to come in legally.  Sure you feel save in New Haven.  They’ve just given you a card that says, “we don’t give a shit if you’re illegal and we don’t care if you shouldn’t really be here.  We just want some cheap labor.”

Thank you, Connecticut for screwing over the rest of the nation that’s actually trying to tackle to problem of illegal immigration and for telling the USA that you don’t care who does your work, as long as it’s cheap and you don’t have to give out benefits.