“You are being watched.” In our digital age many pieces of electronic communication is monitored and stored. The technology for tracking and identifying people is exploding. Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers the government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. This is just another sign that we are rapidly becoming a “Big Brother” society where virtually everything that we do is watched, listened to, tracked or monitored.
Cell Phones
Most people do not realize this, but the reality is that cell phones are tracking devices that governments, law enforcement authorities, and even big corporations can use to easily track your movements. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Times recently reported that cellphones of private individuals in the US are being tracked without warrants by state and local law enforcement all across the country. With more than 300 million cellphones in the US connected to more than 200,000 cell phone towers, cellphone tracking software can pinpoint the location of a phone and document the places the cellphone user visits over the course of a day, week, month or longer. As a result, government officials can learn a tremendous amount of detailed personal information
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about a person by accessing their location history from their cell phone company, ranging from which friends people are seeing to where they go to the doctor to how often they go to church.
Roving bug
Not only do cell phones track you wherever you go, they can also be used to listen to your private conversations even when they are turned off. According to CNET News, the FBI can remotely activate the microphone on your cell phone and listen to whatever you are saying. The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials.
“Extraction devices”
According the American Civil Liberties Union. authorities have portable machines called “extraction devices” that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over. The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.
License Plate Readers
The use of automatic license plate scannreaders is spreading. In an article in the Times, it was found that the ACLU is already calling the license-plate readers “the next big thing in government tracking.” The government stores the information, it is not trying to solve an ongoing crime — it is building a database. “These databases can quickly fill up with all sorts of details about how people lead their lives by piecing together the locations of a particular license plate over time. The federal government is also making money available to states to acquire license-plate readers.
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Cards
A Forbes article reported that Department of Justice (DOJ) released a 10-page paper that outlined the Fed’s guidelines in spying on the financial transactions of Americans. The act is called “Hotwatch” and in a nutshell means that the government can watch in real time the activity of credit card transactions, airline and hotel reservations, debit card transactions, etc