Watching You!

Identity ID cards are already widely used in many part of the world; these often contain information on your race, religion and medical history as well as some form of biometric data such as a fingerprint or an image of your iris. Opinion appears to be divided as to whether this is unacceptable intrusion by the state into the privacy of the individual or simply a useful way to centralise your documentation. Even without ID cards, however tracking and tagging technology is everywhere you go.

1.    Simply by going online, you can give away information about everything from your political beliefs to your buying habits. Tags, or ‘cookies’, record the websites you’ve visited, so anyone who can read your cookies can find out about your Internet activities., not just your service provider.

2.    RFID tags – tiny radios-transmitting microchips – are getting smaller and cheaper all the time. It seems that they will soon become the norm on all food packaging and clothes; this will allow retailers not only to keep track of what is being stolen but when stock is running low. However, as well as being used in shops and one everyday objects such as credit cards, tickets and keys, RFID tags are now also being offered as implants. For example, a tag can be implanted in club member’s arms, acting as a security pass and allowing access to the bar without the need for cash. There also appear to be many hospitals using them as tiny identity card for patients.

3.    Buying pre-paid ‘smart’ travel cars which contain a microchip means that you can be tracked across a city when you go by underground and on the bus. And in some big cities such as London there is a charge for traffic entering the city during busy periods. This tax is often enforced with the aid of a network of cameras, which records the number plates of everyone entering the congestion zone’.

4.    Inputting a personal identification number into a cashpoint may be the easiest way of getting your hands on your hard-earned cash, but while you are waiting for your money to appear, your identity, and with it all the information about you on records, is closely examined. Your withdrawal is also record and filed. And it is claimed that even your financial records can be accesses if there is a justifiable cause.

5.    There are now estimated to be more mobile phones than people in many countries. As soon as you activate your signal by using the phone, any organisation with the appropriate technology – for instance a car breakdown service, – can accurately locate you within seconds. With the co-operation of the phone company, it is possible to listen in on people’s conversations. In addition, each mobile has an international identification number, transmitted whenever the phone is on.

6.     CCTV cameras are known to operate in more and more buildings, both public and private. Workers at a hotel in Boston in the US took legal action against their employers after finding a tiny camera observing them from one o f their lockers, and at least one school in the UK is know to have installed cameras in pupils’ toilets.