'Thought police' are here

[ShiningPlain]

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0...Enbv%5E,00.html

'Thought police' are here

the scrutineer | Bruce McCabe

OCTOBER 04, 2005

THE bracelet. Last week I must have discussed, presented or written about 50 technologies, but I couldn't get that one out of my head.

Always in the background, always nagging, bothering me, worrying me. Just like it would if I was wearing it.

Australia just became a place where a citizen can be detained for two weeks without charge, and where a person convicted of no crime at all can be forced to wear an ankle bracelet that continuously broadcasts their movements to an unknown watcher for up to a year.

The events on September 27, 2005, when Australia's state governments accepted new anti-terrorism laws proposed by the Federal government, made Australia a different place just as surely as events on September 11 2001 and October 12 2002, only this time we managed it all by ourselves.

"Braceleting" someone can be done on the basis that, on the balance of probabilities, this will help prevent a terrorist attack. But the subjective and ill-defined nature of the term "terrorist attack" is a huge problem. Of course, they mean planning mass murder, and acts of vandalism to public infrastructure will be included too.

But what about planning an aggressive protest, or preparing a fiery speech attacking the government? Can we be sure a definite line will be drawn there? Will someone decide a newspaper column criticising the government has crossed that line and represents an incitement to terror? Braceleting will be a punishment, make no mistake.

The physical presence of the device might be an inconvenience, but the psychological impact will be awful. Every minute of every hour of every day a faceless someone will be looking over the wearer's shoulder.

Orwellian comparisons are not out of place. Big Brother really will be watching at all times, everywhere.

There will be stigma and shame, and the constant care to keep the ankle covered in public places.

This is a punishment that will be inflicted on people that have committed no crime, and on people that will have no right to defend themselves against their accusers.

Even mass murderers such as Martin Bryant had the right to a trial, a defence, and to have the public scrutinise the process.

Australians can, for the first time, be punished because somebody else thinks they are thinking about crime.

The thought police are here.

Surely, I hear you cry, these people have good intentions and are not writing laws for that. Maybe, but the people writing the law will not be the ones applying it. Governments, police forces and intelligence services are made up of real people of all shapes and sizes. Some are good at what they do, some not so good, some are smart, and some not so smart. They make mistakes.

A few are corruptible. Politicians come along from time to time that are inclined to get confused between a threat to their politics and a threat to the nation. As I write this there is no legislation yet, so we don't know what the final judicial and public accountability mechanisms will look like, but they will need to be a hell of a lot better than the ones in place now. On September 15, the US activist Scott Parkin was deported from Australia and the government has steadfastly refused to provide details of why. Was this man a genuine threat to the nation or was he just a political inconvenience?

Under current law neither we, nor his lawyer, nor his family, have the right to know. Will the first woman that is braceleted have a right to know? Will her family?

The social costs are great indeed and, given that none of these laws would have prevented the London bombings, Bali or the other attacks that inspired them, they don't stack up at all well against the anticipated benefits. At the same time, our public service has countless opportunities to apply technology to directly improve the lives of Australians, and could do with all the political leadership it can get.

As if to underscore that need, only two weeks ago the Productivity Commission released a report, Impacts of Advances in Medical Technology, which contained damning statements about Australia's progress in applying ICT in healthcare.

It is a tragedy that the only technologies our Prime Minister has been inspired to back in recent times have been the Australia Card - and this bracelet.

Bruce McCabe is an independent technology analyst and managing director of S2 Intelligence.

[email protected]

The Australian

[apothecary]

Bruce is a good guy.

This topic is getting beaten to death so I don't want to dwell, but anyone who wants an interesting (if dark) look into the future of Australia (or possibly the world) would do well to listen to Cog's new album, especially the bits at the beginnings of the songs.

[ShiningPlain]

cog's new cd rocks! ;) gotta love the artwork, hey?

[Amulte]

ROFLMAO

i knew a niece of one bruce mccabe. bruce wrote for home and away! prolly not the same bruce but a very funny co-ink-i-dink

[ShiningPlain]

haha. and yeah, hopefully not! home and away get different writers all the time... and they still manage to show the same old stories. shiiiiiit; even i could get the gig. oh no wait, it's PG rated...

[simon_marklar]

Bruce is a good guy.

This topic is getting beaten to death so I don't want to dwell, but anyone who wants an interesting (if dark) look into the future of Australia (or possibly the world) would do well to listen to Cog's new album, especially the bits at the beginnings of the songs.

Ahhh cog, what a great bunch of guys. i think they recorded that album in my old house, unless there has been 2 released after the 'open up' single. useless trivia for yas, and my 15 minutes of fame I usually hated the bands that were recording there after a few weeks of hearing the same songs day in day out, but that album was something else, fucking epic, full of spine tingling moments.

can you tell me, what studio does it say it was recorded in?

hows that for a thread hijack! :D

[ShiningPlain]

yeah. lets not get way off topic people, lets be aware of what's happening. PSYCOLOGICAL WARFARE for one. but quickly about cog; the new album is called THE NEW NORMAL, and how is it that they could have recorded it in your old house? i mean, that would be awesome, but how? is your old house now some kind of studio? i know someone that used to be babysat by one of the guys out of truth corroded; so it is a small world me thinks.

[simon_marklar]

how is it that they could have recorded it in your old house? i mean, that would be awesome, but how? is your old house now some kind of studio?

yep.

it was a nightmare to get to sleep in aaaaany waysssss... just interested because the house fell apart towards the end of that album, just wanted to know if they finished it evolution studios

[apothecary]

I believe the album was recorded in the US, produced by Sylvia Massey, who is of course the lovely lady who produced Tool's Undertow.

[Green Osiris]

Cog are an amazing live band, for those who haven't had the pleasure, I highly reccommend it for the awesome intensity. I've been a fan of Cog since day one, and also of the mighty Lucius Borich (drummer extrordinaire) for over 10 years (from heavy funk/groove band 'Juice' and also 'The Hanging Tree' - the latter of which also featured Flynn Gower on guitar).

The first two releases (Just Visiting parts I & II) were recorded on an 8-track home studio (believe it or not!), while the album (The New Normal) was indeed recorded by Sylvia Shivy-Massey at her Radiostar studios. Aside from 'Undertow', she also recorded Skunanansie's "Paranoid & Sunburnt"

The name of the town that Radiostar studios is located is "Weed, California". No shit.

[Green Osiris]

As for the 'bracelet incarceration' which started this topic, the federal and state governments are first introducing it for those that society deems as 'scary people' like terror suspects and paedophiles. They do this so the mass-consumerist public mind accepts the technology 'for the safety of our nation'. Soon it will be scaled down to an small active chip inserted under the skin. Before you know it, they'll slowly introduce it for drink-drivers, convicted drug users, political dissidents, etc.

Eventually it will treacle down to all citizens, so our every move can be tracked and logged. They'll sell the idea as an internalised ID Card, Medicare Card, Keycard that is so convenient that everyone will want one.

Covert monitoring is already a reality with the potential to track our every move. This push towards a cashless society means that if you buy goods & services electronically (credit card, EFTPOS), a digital paper trail can be compiled to show what you eat, your lifestyle patterns, income statistics and more. Tie this in with a centralised network of monitoring cameras as found in most pubs and shopping precincts with built in facial recognition technology, and the doors already open to a dictatorial government intent on monitoring society.

The chip technology that's already developed has been used to tag items of clothing (this is permanent, built into a seam or stitching) so that it remains passive until you walk into a zone monitored by covert hot-spots. The theory has been sold as a 'shopping convenience' tool. For example, Joe Citizen buys a pair of jeans from a menswear store that he visits often. On record for Joe is this: size 35m long leg boot cut levis on the 12th February, a size 42 blue business shirt on the 19th March and three large T-Shirts in the last year of navy, black and brown. This information is transmitted to a register screen for the shop-staff, so that when they approach Joe with a sales pitch, they can address him by name, and know that Joe have a taste for dark apparel in a preferred style, which is then used 'in your best interest' to provide specific target information.

Scary shit.

More info here :ph34r:

[ShiningPlain]

EXACTLY. great posts (link included) man ;) weed, california; aha ha ha! cog are amazing live, and these latest moves of the howard government are orwellien. and what we're talking about with the homing chips is RFID, take care.

[apothecary]

I seriously doubt that anything designed to track a human being would be based on RFID. That would be rediculous.

The people who complain RFID is an invasion of privacy are nothing more than a bunch of tinfoil hat nutters.

I have seen video and image footage of the bracelets the government is peddling, and they are far too clunky, large, and definitely not passive to any extent, to be RFID.

EDIT: Hell, you would think people so dedicated to truth, honesty and the greater picture behind it all wouldn't stoop so low as to use highly biased, incorrect, and outdated technical information when they are trying to make a point.

I mean, only regimes as heinous as the Bush, Blair or Howard governments would do that, right?

[ShiningPlain]

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. you obviouslly know nothing about rfid chips. and what biased links? facts are facts man, so it matters very little who says them.

[Rev]

none of this shit will matter when oil gets expensive and the deck of cards tumbles down

its just a symptom of the degenerate phase of our civilisation

high tech costs big money and to have this kinda money you need consumerist policies, and to support that u need cheap energy.

pull C out from under B and A disappears in a puff of smoke

if indeed it is orwellian then itd pay to remember that that world too was an energy consuming consumerist (wars of waste ) society

[Auxin]

The chip technology that's already developed has been used to tag items of clothing (this is permanent, built into a seam or stitching) ... This information is transmitted to a register screen for the shop-staff, so that when they approach Joe with a sales pitch, they can address him by name

Glad you reminded me.. I need to get cotton seeds next seed order I make.. if I went into a store and someone I've never met called me by name with the help of a chip they hid in my clothes I'd burn my clothes and start making my own textiles!

Revs right, only wealthy govenments could attempt these orwellian ideas- lets see em try and tag every baby with microchips 30 years after peak oil strikes

[ShiningPlain]

30 years?? i agree that they don't have the money to make these bracelets for everybody, but i still think they're going to make a few of them. you watch, it will still be orwellian; because a bunch of innocent NON-WHITES will get TARGETED. and whites? of course they'll be a few of us, but i doubt we'll be the majority.

[apothecary]

Forgot I shouldn't be feeding the trolls.

[Green Osiris]

I seriously doubt that anything designed to track a human being would be based on RFID. That would be rediculous.

Are you suggesting that this threat is simply a paranoid delusion ? It’s very real, and very likely !

I’m unsure how the bracelets work, but I suspect it’s a GPS tracking. And present technology probably can’t reduce it to a chip size. However, this is not necessary to track people through RFID, because it works like a bar-code scanner system, but the scanner would have a much greater (and omnidirectional) range to pick up chip info over a specific range.

Which means that if you live in a country town or the bush, its unlikely that ‘they’ would see setting up the technology as a viable option. But for city centres, shopping arcades, sporting events and pubs/clubs, that viability can be justified from the standpoint of corporations as a marketing/anti theft tool.

Check out these photos of how subtle RFID enabled clothing can be. Particularly images 9, 10 & 11 of the Calvin-Klein label chip. See checkpoint-photos

The woman who took these pics was threatened with legal action for publishing the images. Why did they see the need for such privacy ? More on that case > Here <

[apothecary]

Are you suggesting that this threat is simply a paranoid delusion ? It’s very real, and very likely !

I’m unsure how the bracelets work, but I suspect it’s a GPS tracking. And present technology probably can’t reduce it to a chip size. However, this is not necessary to track people through RFID, because it works like a bar-code scanner system, but the scanner would have a much greater (and omnidirectional) range to pick up chip info over a specific range.

Which means that if you live in a country town or the bush, its unlikely that ‘they’ would see setting up the technology as a viable option. But for city centres, shopping arcades, sporting events and pubs/clubs, that viability can be justified from the standpoint of corporations as a marketing/anti theft tool.

Check out these photos of how subtle RFID enabled clothing can be. Particularly images 9, 10 & 11 of the Calvin-Klein label chip. See checkpoint-photos

The woman who took these pics was threatened with legal action for publishing the images. Why did they see the need for such privacy ? More on that case > Here

I don't doubt that these bracelets are real. I believe I even said I have seen these bracelets?

My guess is also that they are GPS.

What I am sick of, is people who have no idea about the technology involved behind RFID screaming and shouting that a device with a smaller reading range than if I hired a burly guy called Bubba to follow you around is gonna somehow invade their privacy.

Obviously I know nothing about RFID though, so I'll just shut up.

[Green Osiris]

But shutting up defeats the purpose of an open forum about what seems to be a lively discussion, yea ? :D

You make a good point about a security guard being more mobile in tracking a person, with a range only restricted by his interest in following you around. But his limitations are as such that he can only monitor one person at a time. If, however, we were to look at a network of RFID transmitters/receivers (not the chip itself) , then there is a potential for a thousand people's movements to be tracked by a centralised information system.

I don't doubt your statement about the 'one metre range', but my basic understanding of a radio frequency device leads me to assume that this could be easily extended to operate over a far greater range, like say 500 metres. High frequency (talking Ghz) digital communication devices allow for a better signal quality over something in the VHF range, so the information from each chip-reading post would be more credible.

Looking at a shopping centre like a Westfield, which may span 2 kilometres of floor-space over a few floors, surely these (speculative higher powered) chip readers can be used to compile info about where you are at any time, ie "Apothecary was at Westfields Bondi Junction between 11.30 and 1.00pm last Tuesday". Sure, if curent technology is of a one-metre range, then its not a financial feasibility to install thousands in one shopping centre. But we do need to consider the future of technological advancements - build the chips and the high powered readers will follow.

But some may ask "how would 'they' know who's carrying which chips in the first place "? Well, you bought it on your credit card, didnt you ?

[apothecary]

Because such a system could be circumvented in its entirety by RFID cloning, or even putting the goddamn circuit in the microwave for five seconds.

[Green Osiris]

Great idea ! But the majority of society woudn't even think to disable this device. Perhaps civil libertarians can push for an addition to the 'care instructions' on the labelling.

[Benzedrine]

To me the whole bracelet idea ridicolous on all sides.

Since only those criminal masterminds who have access to such things as tin foil could stop this devious bracelet their forced to wear. Still the problems with these things is that they are only suitable to be used against ordinary people. These are measures easily defeated by people outside of our concept of society but those who are trapped inside are vulnerable against such control.