On October 26, 2011, President George W. Bush signed the PATRIOT Act (Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001). This act allows the government to wiretap, search business records, and conduct surveillance of individuals who are suspected of performing acts of terrorism, without court orders or search warrants. This act makes it easy for the government to obtain intelligence and conduct surveillance on suspected individuals. The government can implement increased surveillance and individual tracking in a variety of ways:

RFID Chips:

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips are a new method of tracking individuals and have been used for authentication and location services since World War I. RFIDs are digital location identifiers and contains electronically stored information. RFID chips have been used in schools in Texas to take attendance and maintain security; they have also been used by companies to track individuals and prevent them from stealing code or accessing system files in an unauthorized manner. In recent news, President Obama has considered using RFID Chips as a national identification in an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs in the US.

Wiretapping and Surveillance:

Wiretapping and surveillance are subject to a lot of controversy because the government is not required to inform an individual that they are tapping into their phone. The government believes this will enable them to investigate a suspected criminal and prevent acts of terrorism, however many view it as unconstitutional. Many believe that if the government has free reign to track and survey “suspicious” individuals without having a warrant, the United States will eventually become a police state, constantly tracking its citizens.

Wiretapping
Source: hackaday.com

Facial Recognition:

Facial recognition is a system in which a computer can identify and verify an individual’s identity. Facial recognition is used by the UK government to identify individuals who have committed crimes. In “Little Brother,” Marcus discusses the surveillance in the UK. He states, “The average Londoner is photographed 500 times a day, just walking around the streets. Every license plate is photographed at every corner in the country” (Doctorow 51).Facial recognition used by the police can have many benefits, as it will allow them to identify the correct criminal. However, if facial recognition technology falls into the wrong hands, it can be used to gain information on unsuspecting, innocent people.

Self-Imposed:

Self-Imposed surveillance is very common and perhaps the least controversial method of individual tracking. Individuals often forget that Smart Phones & Check-In’s contain more tracking technology than RFID chips. Apple’s IPhone location services is one example of this, and previously operated on an opt-out rather than an opt-in location surveying system.

Individual Tracking in “Little Brother” 

Cory Doctorow’s novel, “Little Brother” displays the usage of many of these individual tracking strategies. In the first chapters of the book, Marcus and Darryl are sneaking out of school to go to San Francisco to partake in the Alternative Reality Game, Harajuku Fun Madness. As they are leaving, Darryl remembers he has a library book in his backpack, which has an RFID on it. Marcus and Darryl are worried the school will be able to track their location through the RFID, so they disable the RFID’s tracking ability by microwaving the book. Marcus’ high school also had many cameras in the hallways in order to keep track of their students. The school originally had facial recognition cameras, but it was ruled unconstitutional, and they installed gait recognition cameras instead (Doctorow 8). The gait recognition cameras are supposed to be able to distinguish between different people’s walks. Marcus constantly walks through the halls differently–even putting rocks in his shoes–in an effort to interfere with the camera’s accuracy. After the terrorist attack, the government begins to use the RFIDs of people’s IDs, public transport passes, and credit card information to track citizens’ activity and location. In response to this, Marcus travels around San Francisco cloning people’s RFIDS to interfere with the government’s surveillance and tracking systems. The government specifically targets Marcus, surveying and tracking his every move without a warrant. As a result, Marcus cannot use his own internet connection or cell phone without first connecting with the XNet to ensure his anonymity, and to prevent the government from tracking what he does on his computer.