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Big Brother is watching us all
BBC News ^ | Sept 15, 2007 | Humphrey Hawksley

Posted on 09/17/2007 12:28:32 AM PDT by dayglored

The US and UK governments are developing increasingly sophisticated gadgets to keep individuals under their surveillance. When it comes to technology, the US is determined to stay ahead of the game....

Their goal is to invent a system whereby a facial image can be matched to your gait, your height, your weight and other elements, so a computer will be able to identify instantly who you are.

How you walk could be used to identify you in a crowd. "As you walk through a crowd, we'll be able to track you," said Professor Challapa. "These are all things that don't need the cooperation of the individual." ....

"And this idea about a total surveillance society," I asked. "Is that science fiction?"

"No, that's not science fiction. We're developing an unmanned airplane - a UAV - which may be able to stay up five years with cameras on it, constantly being cued to look here and there. This is done today to a limited amount in Baghdad. But it's the way to go."

Interestingly, we, the public, don't seem to mind. Opinion polls, both in the US and Britain, say that about 75% of us want more, not less, surveillance. Some American cities like New York and Chicago are thinking of taking a lead from Britain where our movements are monitored round the clock by four million CCTV cameras....

Using radio waves, you point it a wall and it tells you if anyone is on the other side. ... it turns out that the human body gives off such sensitive radio signals, that it can even pick up breathing and heart rates...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; camera; datamining; identification; privacy; surveillance
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Fascinating technology. I fear its use in the hands of the government, however, because although they develop it in the name of getting the bad guys, it is unquestionably the case that they will use it on private citizens.

That's what governments do, when they have power. There simply are no exceptions; sometimes there are delays in implementation, but the end result is always the same.

I truly fear for privacy should the Dems gain the White House in 2008.

1 posted on 09/17/2007 12:28:35 AM PDT by dayglored
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To: dayglored
I truly fear for privacy should the Dems gain the White House in 2008.

Some of us questioned the passage of the patriot act based on the powers that it granted a federal government. We were severely criticized for it. Let's see just how benign these powers seem under another Clinton administration.

The outright stupidity that some conservatives have demonstrated these past 8 years has really shocked me.
2 posted on 09/17/2007 12:33:55 AM PDT by Old_Mil (Rudy = Hillary, Fred = Dole, Romney = Kerry, McCain = Crazy. No Thanks.)
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To: Old_Mil

You think not having passed the Patriot Act would stop a President Hillary from violating the civil rights of her opponents ?


3 posted on 09/17/2007 12:38:56 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: Old_Mil
> The outright stupidity that some conservatives have demonstrated these past 8 years has really shocked me.

I'd say "short-sightedness" rather than "stupidity". A lot of people seem to assume that the party currently in power will remain in power forever. It just ain't so.

Hillary has demonstrated that she will wield power without conscience. That troubles me. Our Republic has weathered a number of powerful Presidents, and a number of bad Presidents, but rarely a powerful, bad President. Sounds dangerous to me.

4 posted on 09/17/2007 12:39:53 AM PDT by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: dayglored
Fascinating technology.

I was only half paying attention, but I saw on a TV program earlier this week where casinos were using similar technology to track known cheats and card counters. Once entered in the data base, it will soon be impossible for casino scammers to operate at any casino no matter how they try to disguise their identity.
5 posted on 09/17/2007 12:55:56 AM PDT by Welsh Rabbit
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To: dayglored

This has been going on ever since they first tacked up the Wanted Poster. The idea is to catch the bad guys.


6 posted on 09/17/2007 1:04:14 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
You think not having passed the Patriot Act would stop a President Hillary from violating the civil rights of her opponents ?

You think that having it in place isn't going to make her attempts to do that easier?
7 posted on 09/17/2007 1:06:40 AM PDT by Old_Mil (Rudy = Hillary, Fred = Dole, Romney = Kerry, McCain = Crazy. No Thanks.)
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To: dayglored
I'd say "short-sightedness" rather than "stupidity". A lot of people seem to assume that the party currently in power will remain in power forever. It just ain't so.

You're completely right in saying that our republican has weathered a number of powerful presidents, and a number of bad ones, but never the combination of the two. The end result will be a nation that, after a decade, is unrecognizable.

As for short sightedness, I'm not inclined to let them off quite so easily. It demonstrates not only a lack of knowledge of world history, it demonstrates complete ignorance of the concerns of the founders. It spits on the very foundations upon which this nation was built. In fact, they are cowards. The sorts of people who will trade freedom for security and thereby ensure that their descendents will be slaves...and quite unworthy of the term conservative.
8 posted on 09/17/2007 1:11:16 AM PDT by Old_Mil (Rudy = Hillary, Fred = Dole, Romney = Kerry, McCain = Crazy. No Thanks.)
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To: Old_Mil; fieldmarshaldj
>> You think not having passed the Patriot Act would stop a President Hillary from violating the civil rights of her opponents ?

> You think that having it in place isn't going to make her attempts to do that easier?


9 posted on 09/17/2007 1:29:06 AM PDT by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: Old_Mil

Bad administrations will flagrantly violate the law, regardless. Forgive me if I don’t want to hogtie responsible administrations from fighting a war on terror.


10 posted on 09/17/2007 1:42:27 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: dayglored
I’ve been implanted by the greys myself.
11 posted on 09/17/2007 1:44:36 AM PDT by Pro-Bush (Thread killer)
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To: dayglored
Here in PA I've been noticing the camera's popping up on streets and highways everywhere. The PennDot website mentions their on-line camera system for traffic monitoring, saying it's to help monitor traffic in congested areas like Philly and Pittsburgh, but I have to say some of the places I see the cameras NEVER have congestion.

My problem with the whole surveillance thing is that it doesn't prevent anything - it just provides data after the fact. UK shows that repeatedly - they'll have a crime (like the latest bombings), and sure, within a couple of hours they can show the perps committing the act, and show where they were in the hours before hand, but while that's glitzy, it didn't stop the crime. In terms of terrorism, when you are fighting people willing (and eager) to die in commission of their act, it really doesn't matter if you can see where they bought a soda 4 hours before - you're not going to prosecute anyway. It doesn't prevent ordinary crime either, because the criminals learn pretty quickly where they'll be under surveillance and just commit their crimes in other places. All the surveillance does is provide video history of a few crimes, and millions of hours of peaceful, law-abiding people going about their lives, unaware of the privacy they've lost. The idea that a government employee would ever have the ability to just look up all the video of someone they pick out (say a beautiful woman, or an ex-boyfriend), researching the patterns of their lives, just tells me that there is an element of society that will be looking to have those jobs that we probably would prefer didn't.

12 posted on 09/17/2007 3:19:20 AM PDT by Kay Ludlow (Free market, but cautious about what I support with my dollars)
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To: Kay Ludlow

Way more freakin cameras watching and waiting for grandma to run a red light than there EVER will be on the border watching to see Osama’s buddies come waltzing in with nukes in their backpacks.


13 posted on 09/17/2007 3:21:36 AM PDT by djf (Send Fred some bread! Not a whole loaf, a slice or two will do!)
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To: sauropod

read


14 posted on 09/17/2007 3:25:15 AM PDT by sauropod (You can’t spell crap without the AP in it.)
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To: dayglored
Using radio waves, you point it a wall and it tells you if anyone is on the other side. ... it turns out that the human body gives off such sensitive radio signals, that it can even pick up breathing and heart rates...

......And this isn't being used by the medical profession because.....?

I'm going to call BS on this claim. Our most sensitive medical monitoring equipment still requires instrument to patient contact unless we irradiate them.

15 posted on 09/17/2007 4:31:09 AM PDT by Sarajevo (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.)
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To: Sarajevo

I believe that the reason that the report’s claims sound like BS is that it is technically incorrect.

First, ‘radio’ waves.
All waves are of the ‘electro-magnetic frequency’ or EMF. Radio, TV, radar, are all divisions made by the FCC.

microwave,uhf,vhf,x-ray,vlf,ulf,visual - are the divisions or ‘spectrum’, which are technically correct.

Radio waves, as used, means a signal is imposed upon a particular frequency, to enhance it’s recognition when radiated back.

If you beam various parts of the spectrum at a solid object, some bounce back, some go through. Video, or audio interpretation of the difference in what bounces back can reveal even details like the article claims.

I have a device that I can hold up to the wall, and it will tell me;

If the wall is hollow.
If I am over a stud.
Where the nails are, exactly.
If what is behind the wall is wood, or metal.
If there is an electrical wire with current.

I can put it on my leg and it tells me where the bone is.

I can put on the floor, and it will tell me the same.
Any surface, it works.

I have had it for over 10 years.
You can buy it at a good hardware store.

We can ‘see’ through solid concrete.

Once again, the terminology is the fault. Concrete is not solid. It ‘is’ a dense solid.

It is permeable. We even beam EMF signals through the Earth. The Earth itself beams them every day. (Earthquake seismic waves)

We ‘see’ pictures from the Hubble, and Earth based ‘telescopes’, but most are interpretations of ‘radio’ waves.

This picture is taken of objects billions of light years away, through a universe that is as dense as concrete is on the molecular level.

I wouldn’t be too quick to call BS on this issue. The BS comes from the reporter’s translation of the concepts.


16 posted on 09/17/2007 8:32:33 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (((Wi arr mi kidz faling skool ?)))
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To: dayglored
I truly fear for privacy should the Dems gain the White House in 2008.

Or the Republicans.

17 posted on 09/17/2007 9:53:27 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: dayglored

I don’t care.


18 posted on 09/17/2007 9:56:33 AM PDT by Beckwith (dhimmicrats and the liberal media have .chosen sides -- Islamofascism)
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To: Still Thinking
Tips for the worried:

1) Always wear a baseball cap
2) Walk like Dr. Zaius on "Planet of the Apes"
3) Get all kinds of shoes, where one is higher than the other to always change your walk

So far, this is working out well for me ...
19 posted on 09/17/2007 9:59:24 AM PDT by Scythian
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To: Scythian

I think I saw you the other day at the store.


20 posted on 09/17/2007 10:05:39 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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