Surveilled to death

You want to know all about my personal details? Easy, all you need is the power or the money because the data is there for the taking.

[ Worst moments in network security history. ]

So, how is this data acquired? Let me count the ways: For a start there are all of your commercial transactions, such as your bank accounts and money transfers (remember my Backspin column about the "Nationwide Suspicious Activities Reporting (SAR) Initiative"?).

There are also your credit card purchases, your tax records, your medical records, all interactions with government agencies and your police records (even those from when you got a visit from the cops because your neighbor thought you were being too loud).

But wait, there's more! There are also your telephone and cell phone records and, potentially, your Web browsing, your interactions with any major Web site, anything you might blog or tweet or post on Facebook or MySpace. Oh, and there's your entire e-mail usage.

Add to that video surveillance and it becomes clear that there's a staggering amount of detail about your life available to anyone with the right connections and or the right amount of money.

What's also interesting is that while there's a lot of evidence that video surveillance does little to deter or solve crime, there are all sorts of technological developments that are making video a great way to monitor people's activities. For example, check out the way cool People Tracking Demo from Numenta which will give you a taste of what can be done.

And here's the thing: It doesn't matter how many laws we enact or how vigorously we prosecute those who are dumb enough to get caught or fail to pay enough to the right people, all that intelligence about you and me is out there, waiting to be used and abused. Forever.

What makes this worse is that we've also become obsessed with social networking and we now reflexively share way too much and in so doing just help build a more detailed picture of ourselves for the world to peruse.

Forget the common complaint about Twitterers sharing their luncheon plans. It's the photos, jokey messages, dubious comments and indiscreet postings that we put into the public domain through e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, et al, and do so without much thought. (See 12 tips for safe social networking.)

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