TOTAL LICENSING
climbed out of their caves. has mothered for us another new baby. This is story about the Tesco
I don’t think it helps to blame technology. We a Lilliputian baby of great Samson-like strength. store in Cambridge
simply need to observe its effects and think ra- It is already running along at great speed and to (July 19, 2003). Be-
tionally abut their consequences. quote its enemies: It is preparing the world for cause that’s exactly
“Big Brother” and “Big Shopkeeper” – and Kath- what happened, until
A BIT OF NOT WELL-KNOWN DETAIL erine and Liz assert it’s already here and has us an awakened public
• A word about the advances in surveillance. surrounded with it millions of attackers on our forced the abandon-
Whereas older systems relied on closed dwindling defenses. ing of this large scale
circuit cameras that produced grainy experiment.
analog feeds that had to be stored on WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BE-
bulky video tape cassettes, now we TWEEN A BARCODE AND A SPYCHIP? HOW ELSE AND WHY ELSE WOULD
have digital cameras that provide A barcode describes a product but is generic so IT BE HELPFUL TO MARKETERS
clearer, more detailed images, and these that all items that are scanned read the same. It TO GET SORTED INFORMATION
can be transferred immediately to police is the ability of a spy chip to be so small, that it ABOUT—WHICH TYPE OF CUSTOM-
computers and those of law can be made practically invisible. It also can be ER, IN WHICH STORE, BUYS WHAT?
enforcements and stored indefinitely on read from much larger distances. The radio-like It permits pinpoint marketing and advertising
their hard drives. waves that it sends to any reader instrument, for similar or associated products. It also per-
• Britain, for instance, has now 4.2 million stationery or hand-held contain an individual mits rapid re-stocking when the chip radios the
cameras, one for every fourteen people! number peculiarly its own so it can be followed supplier hundred of miles away, “hurry up and
In London, an average person is captured and its information stored. ship”.
on camera 300 times in an average day and When you walk out of a store and someone at But, what if the chip tells the store manager, “we
even civil libertarian, Roger Smith of the exit strips a small clip off the t-shirt you just have few widgets left and the next ones will cost
Privacy Group says we can’t fight the bought, this was an RFID chip-and if you hadn’t more. So raise the price immediately. Now!”
cameras in view of the current threats of had it removed, the alarm bells would have rung So far we have only talked about innocent mar-
terrorism. and two burly store detectives would have keting ploys, but now look at medicine: Preci-
• New York will have 3,000 cameras through caught you quickly. sion Dynamics Corp. makes a spychip patient
out its Wall Street financial district by So what’s wrong about that? Isn’t it great to wristband. Into this we can consolidate medical
2010 and this system will include license stop shoplifting! history, account, payment and insurance history
plate readers that can identify license plate But what happens if with insatiable thirst for interesting and good to know. Helps the treat-
numbers immediately against a list of growth of sales progress and increased sales by ment! But what if a patient requires treatment
suspicious vehicles. If the camera detects creating more applications, a bright executive and we read while he is unconscious that he
you leaving a bag or package on the street, sold Tesco of the UK a more sophisticated sys- owes a score of medical bills?! Will a misguided
it will ring an alarm. If you’re forgetful of tem that could not only alert security but also hospital manager, worried about his underfund-
your lunch bag, watch out! provide a permanent record for the future This ed hospital’s bottom line and his next promo-
• All this adds to cameras at banks, stores, record, then, could help Tesco from serving this tion; choose a most expensive new “state of the
building entrances. We certainly need customer (shoplifter) ever again, reducing risk art” treatment or will he settle for one that is
security but how shall we deal with an to its profitability. more reasonable in the hope that with luck it
all-seeing, but unthinking Frankenstein. Aye, How does this work? might also work.
there’s the rub, said Hamlet. You have another camera snap the shopper’s Imagine for a minute, if you will, that the mi-
• Reduction of terror and crime is photo at the checkout. To make all this more crochip, which is already inserted easily with a
wonderful but we shall have to watch for foolproof, we don’t tell the customer so if there syringe and is already in use for large animals
police officers who might distrust people is not another matching photo at checkout we that need to be herded or pets that can be kept
in unusual clothes or “crazy hairdos” or assume the customer has not paid for his pack from being stolen or lost, were to be used for
officers like those who during surveillance of Gillette Mach 3 Razor Blades. (Of course if human beings.
of the 2004 Republican convention in New there is no match, if Mr. Shopper decided later If such microchips could ever be injected into
York were able to videotape a naked on not to purchase after all; and put the blades human individuals a great deal of information
couple making love on their roof-top on the shelf of talcum powders?) could be embedded that would certainly make
terrace. (The Week 9/28/2007). To make this work, we only have to request Gil- passing barriers, or phone booths, or borders
lette to glue a small photo spychip into its sealed much easier – however the use of such labor
CURIOSITY AND SURVEILLANCE cardboard box where you can’t see it. saving time saving chips easily carried about by
SPAWNS MANY NEW POTENTIAL Let us dream on. We can now also distribute their possessors would also have to do with
TOOLS OPEN TO ABUSES these pictures that have the unique serial num- TRUST.
ber given by the camera to the police depart- Too many tools might be too much information
LET’S LOOK AT ONE: ment where they could be matched with spy- and this, again, might lead to social or security
Have you heard of Spychips? They are officially chips that could have been embedded in drivers’ tinkering.
named RFID (radio frequency identification). license, or I.D. cards. I think you can think of lots The Home Again Chip by Shearing Plough is
Besides my short excerpts, you can read the more variants yourself—all we need is a spychip also in use in security badges and even experi-
book by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre accepting public. mentally on soldiers’ dog tags for identification
published in 2006 or check the website: spy- Well, this is too crazy, complicated, and could by medical personnel in battle conditions.
chips.com not happen in real life! Well, think again and Let us assume however Hitler’s hangmen had at
It seems the inexorable progress of technology find the UK Guardian newspaper and read the their disposal this chip to use by injecting forc-
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