Submitted by John Stauber on
In Orwell's 1984, people loved Big Brother. Today, we've already embraced Big Brother technology. "In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by
electronically monitoring the civilian population, the most
remarkable detail may be this: Most of the pieces of the
system are already in place. Because of the inroads the Internet and other digital
network technologies have made into everyday life over the
last decade, it is increasingly possible to amass Big
Brother-like surveillance powers through Little Brother
means. The basic components include everyday digital
technologies like e-mail, online shopping and travel
booking, A.T.M. systems, cellphone networks, electronic
toll-collection systems and credit-card payment terminals.
In essence, the Pentagon's main job would be to spin
strands of software technology that would weave these
sources of data into a vast electronic dragnet. ... The civilian population, in other words, has willingly
embraced the technical prerequisites for a national
surveillance system that Pentagon planners are calling
Total Information Awareness."
Printer-friendly version