Time: Sun Sep 14 13:31:30 1997
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Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 12:17:02 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Will We Be Under Total Surveillance? (fwd)
<snip>
>
> REAL AMERICANS DONT WEAR UN BLUE
>
>Read it and weep, folks. Like the song says I decided long ago NOT to
>walk in anyones shadow especially big brothers. Take back America now.
>
>
>WILL WE BE UNDER TOTAL SURVEILLANCE?
>by Charles Ostman
>
>Imagine a world in which every aspect of your life, past and present, is
>encrypted on a personal ID card and stored on a nationwide data base.
>Where virtually all communications media-soon to be 100% digital-are
>automatically monitored by computerized phone taps and satellites from
>control centers thousands of miles away. Where self-training neural net
>and artificial intelligence data search systems scan for undesirable
>lifestyles and target you for automatic monitoring.
>
>Personal privacy was once considered the most sacred of our constitu-
>tional rights; agencies were severely limited by law. All that's about
>to change drastically thanks to a deadly combination of extremely
>sophisticated surveillance technology, ubiquitous digital information
>collection, and centralized interagency data exchange.
>
>Until recently the "supersecret" National Reconnaissance Organization
>did not exist-even though it has the largest budget of any intelligence
>agency. They are responsible for the design, development and procure-
>ment of all US reconnaissance satellites and their continued management
>once in orbit. Recently photos have surfaced in the press of its huge new
>complex being completed in Chantilly, Virginia. (Senator John Warner-
>Liz Taylor's ex- has described the one million square foot complex as a
>"Taj Mahal.") The NRO is eagerly implementing such technologies as
>ultra-high storage capacity holographic films (allowing huge amounts of
>personal information to be present on your ID card) and self-training
>artificial intelligence software that tracks your personal data without
>human intervention. A new era of ubiquitous surveillance is dawning.
>
>A struggling military-industrial complex searching for new markets
>for their technologies has merged forces with a government obsessed
>with ever tighter control over the activities of the general public.
>
>Congresswoman Barbara Jordan has proposed a "National Employment
>Verification Card" that will be required for all employment in the U.S.
>The card will, of course, have a magnetic data strip, and altering of
>counterfeiting the card will be a federal felony offense.
>
>There is a dedicated and aggressive effort underway to chart various
>genetic features as part of one's personal information set. The fed's goal
>is to have the ability to screen individuals for everything from behavioral
>characteristics to sexual orientation, based on genetic information
>embedded in your personal (and required) national ID card.
>
>Biometric signature technologies have been developing apace. There is
>even a technique available to translate human DNA into bar codes for
>efficient digital transmission between agencies.
>
>Are these science fiction story lines or the ravings of a paranoid lunatic?
>I wish they were. As a former research engineer at Lawrence Livermore
>Labs and other government labs, I watched some of these mad schemes
>being hatched. This technology is on the street today or about to leave
>the labs and believe me, it goes way beyond Orwell's worst nightmares.
>Listen up and hunker down.
>
>A fundamental shift in the legal definition of personal privacy is occurring
>right now. A court-issued warrant used to be a universal requirement for
>personal surveillance, such as phone tapping, observing physical papers,
>and probing financial or medical records. Now, in this new age of AI-
>driven monitoring and data tracking systems, there are no pesky people
>in the loop.A computer doesn't need to seek a court warrant to monitor
>every aspect of your private life. A self-training automated surveillance
>system doesn't need permission to observe your movements or
>communications.
>
>Total data tracking is already commonplace for financial institutions and
>private security operations. Tomorrow, it will be commonplace for all of
>us. The technical elements of a massive surveillance engine are in place.
>It's just a matter of turning the key to fire it up. Let's examine these
>elements and why you should be concerned.
>
>Universal Encryption Chip
>
>Is sounds logical. The feds want to preserve privacy, so their story goes,
>so they've announced that an encryption chip will go into all phones
>and computers that they buy. But what do they really want in the long
>run?
>
>How about a government-issue encryption chip in all personal
>computers and communication devices? That way, the feds can deal
>with drug smugglers, terrorists, kiddie porn merchants, and other
>miscreants who use encoded messages.
>
>Of course, they'd have to prevent tampering with the chip. In fact, the
>technology to do just that has already been developed at Sandia
>National Laboratory. Scientists there have developed an optical sensor
>that uses a powdered silicon optical absorption layer in an optical
>waveguide embedded in a chip. A micro photodetector detects even
>the slightest intrusion into the chip package by measuring a slight change
>in the photonic conduction through the waveguide. It can then send an
>alert via modem to a central monitoring system to notify an interested
>party that the device has been tampered with. Sandia is also developing
>a microchemical intrusion detector that would be sensitive to the
>chemical signature of human fingertips.
>
>Is this all part of some master plan, or what?
>
>In fact, in the near future, all encryption hardware and software will be
>subject to federal registration/authorization. Possession of unauthorized
>encryption/decryption capability will be punishable as a federal felony.
>In other words, if it doesn't have a handy back door for NSA snoops, it
>ain't legal.
>
>We can further speculate that the feds will embed chips in all equipment
>sold for use in data transmission, digital phone calls and all other
>frequencies. Note: all new phone systems wired and wireless will be d
>igital in the next three years.
>
>Intelligent Video
>
>Nor would you know what's watching you. Security cameras are
>becoming standard in corporate and government facilities. They may
>soon even be required. Why? Ostensibly because they want to recover
>losses in cases of theft, keep insurance premiums down, monitor
>petulant employees and keep intruders out.
>
>But the new genre of video cameras now coming out of the labs do a
>lot more than that. They're intelligent. They can recognize faces,
>motion, and other interesting characteristics. In fact, they behave a lot
>like a human eye, with intelligent preprocessor abilities.
>
>Intelligent cameras are needed because a security guard or cop can't
>monitor the dozens or hundreds of video cameras in a large facility (or
>dozens of satellite video surveillance channels). Intelligent cameras use
>artificial intelligence-based object and motion recognition. They scan for
>what a trained security guard looks for: certain motions, clothing, faces;
>the presence of people in off-limits places. Instead of watching 100
>cameras, only a few at any time send pictures. A single guard or a
>computer can deal with that.
>
>In fact, a steady data stream from multiple intelligent cameras can be
>uploaded to computerized monitoring facilities anywhere, coupled with
>other automated observation systems.
>
>The next big thing in intelligent cameras will be "content-addressable"
>imagery. That means they'll automatically detect the content of
>sophisticated patterns, like a specific person's face, by matching it
>against a digital "wanted" poster, say. New software that can even run
>on cheap personal computers makes that possible. MatchMaker from
>Iterated Systems (Norcross, GA), for example, uses a fractal algorithm
>that converts image data into mathematical form, automatically
>recognizing and categorizing realtime "targets"-untouched by human
>hands and tied into a centralized monitoring facility!
>
>A related technology called focal plane array sensors (FPA) discrim-
>inates objects at just about any distance. FPA makes it possible to use
>neuromorphic sensors, modeled biologically on the human eye, which
>are built into a camera to recognize a person or object by "associative
>cognition."
>
>Carver Mead at Cal Tech has designed a broad-spectrum "human-eye"
>sensor using FPAs and 3D artificial neural network processors. To prove
>the viability of such concepts, Raytheon, under contract with the Guided
>Interceptor Branch of the Air Force at Elgin AFB, has developed "smart
>eyes" using FPAs for recognizing objects in flight, thus relieving the
>pilot of visual target recognition tasks while in a high-pressure combat
>situation.
>
>This technology is inexpensive, easily reproducible, and will be part of
>standard equipment for fully automated, on-site visual and infrared
>surveillance in the near future.
>
>Langley Research Center (Hampton, VA) in conjunction with Telerobotics
>International (Knoxville, TN) is taking a step further. They're developing
>an advanced surveillance camera system that's even more intelligent: it
>uses self-aiming and analyzes motion or other parameters. A fisheye
>spherical lens views a very wide field of vision while a self-contained
>image processing subsystem tracks several moving targets at once in
>real time. Video for suspect targets can be transmitted in real time to a
>security center.
>
>These smart cameras are also getting incredibly tiny and low cost. The
>Imputer from VLSI Vision Ltd. (Edinburgh, Scotland) is a credit card-
>sized device that fits in the palm of your hand. It consists of a complete
>CCD video camera mounted on a circuit board plus an on-board DSP
>(digital signal processing) coprocessor for realtime image enhancement,
>feature detection, correlation and convolution (for fast analysis on the
>fly), and even an optional library of pre-stored feature data so that the
>camera can independently recognize a specific face or other security-
>oriented data. It can also download its captured visual data via
>telephone line to a data collection and processing facility.
>
>With everything on a few chips, intelligent cameras can now be mass-
>manufactured like pocket radios. No need for security personnel-they
>can be linked to a computer surveillance monitoring and data base
>system.
>
>This is where it gets really insidious. When the technology becomes
>so cheap, tiny, and powerful, and no guards are needed, they can
>sprinkle these things around like corn chips...secretly putting them on
>every street corner, in every waiting room, office, wherever.
>
> Keep smiling, because you'll never know when -
> "You're on Candid Camera"
> And Hey! Relax - they've just captured your surfaces.
>
>Where it really starts to get hairy is when we enter the brave new
>world of Biometrics. Biometrics is the process of gathering biological
>information and converting it into data that can be uploaded into
>automated systems for identifying you.
>
>They can use your fingerprint (via automated fingerprint identification
>systems), retinal scan, voice or other personal signatures. Miros of
>Wellesley, MA has recently introduced a system called Face-to-Face,
>using neural nets, that is particularly insidious. Unlike fingerprint or
>palm recognition, it identifies your face "non-intrusively" (that's techno-
>speak for surreptitiously) with 99% recognition. It can even identify your
>face when you add glasses or change your hairstyle.
>
>There are biometric service bureaus like TRW that provide immediate
>access to personal dossier information to prisons, banks, military bases,
>research facilities, pharmaceutical companies, etc. The client simply
>installs a retinal scanner or other device and transmits your image to
>a service bureau, which sends back your complete dossier. This is big
>business for these service bureaus. We're talking billions in government
>and corporate contracts.
>
>What's next? We can expect intelligent scanning systems will be
>installed in supermarket checkout lines, lobbies, airports, stores, ATM
>sites, and so on in the near future. Known shoplifters will be tracked
>from the time they walk into the store. There'll be a cordon sanitaire
>around playgrounds and day care centers.
>
>What happens when the FBI ties its fingerprint verification system at
>its National Criminal Information Center, with its library of over 250,000
>fingerprints, into the national health care card system, employment ID
>card, IRS, and just about everything else?
>
>Resources
>
>Who Owns Information? From Privacy to Public Access, Anne Wells
> Branscomb, Basic Books, 1994.
>Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security, William E.
> Burrows, Random House, New Yourk, 1986.
>The Electronic Eye-The Rise of Surveillance Society, David Lyon,
> University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
>Tuning In to Scanning-From Police to Satellite Bands, Bob Kay,
> TAB Books, 1994. (How to listen in on cordless telephones, military,
> FBI, Secret Service, and NASA communications).
>Undercover: Police Surveillance in America, Gary T. Marx, University
> of California Press, 1988.
>Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyone's Private
> Life an Open Secret, Jeffrey Rothfeder, Simon and Schuster, 1992.
>America's Secret Eyes in Space: The U.S. Keyhole Spy Satellite
> Program, Jeffrey T. Richelson, Harper & Row, 1990
>Hobbyist's Guide to COMINT Collection and Analysis, Tom Roach, 1330
> Copper Peak Lane, San Jose, CA 95120-4271; DIY dirty NSA-style tricks.
>Electronic Surveillance Manual, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Criminal Division,
> Office of Enforcement Operations, 1991.
>
>This article was originally published in the magazine Mondo 2000, and
>has been reprinted with their kind permission.
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
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