“Big Brother is Watching You” That phrase began as fiction in George Orwell’s 1984, however from the NSA’s use of warrantless wiretaps & red light cameras in the United States to the vast usage of CCTV cameras across Europe that phrase seems to be all too real.
But “Big Brother” isn’t stopping his encroachment on your liberties. Gary Franchi’s Reality Report #52 reported on, “a new surveillance system triggered by the tone of your voice.” The Telegraph reports that the new “technology, called Sigard, monitors movements and speech to detect signs of threatening behavior.” Sound Intelligence, the company behind Sigard boasts on their website,
“SigardTM audio analytics is a very reliable method of automated detection to combat crime and antisocial behavior. 90% of all incidents involving physical aggression are preceded by verbal aggression. The ability to spot verbal aggression before it turns into a violent outbreak delivers valuable time to security personnel and enables speedy intervention.
SigardTM is based on sophisticated sound detection and analysis software that isolates specific sound patterns from the overall ambient sound picture. It dissects and looks for clues in the sound, much like the human hearing does.
Whenever a sensor in the SigardTM aggression detection system registers the typical sound characteristics of human aggression, anger or fear, the system will send out an alert. It will trigger the camera nearest the incident or other security surveillance devices.
The system works indoor and outdoor, at hot-spots with frequent incidents or locations with low incident rates.”
“Sound Intelligence’ patented technology is able to detect distinct sound patterns with a level of effectiveness similar to the human hearing. SigardTM, SI’s first commercial application, is capable of detecting verbal aggression in an early stage, dramatically enhancing the effectiveness of (video) security surveillance. Sigard systems are currently operational in prison facilities, inner cities, public areas and service counters.”
SI is boasting that Sigard can (and possibly should) be used ANYWHERE to spy on EVERYONE.
But, those of us in the United States have something almost as bad (or worse) coming our way. The Wall Street Journal has reported,
“The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed “Perfect Citizen” to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.
The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government’s chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn’t persistently monitor the whole system, these people said.
A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras.”
WSJ further reports, “While the government can’t force companies to work with it, it can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate, particularly if the government already buys services from that company, officials said.
The NSA has “no information to provide on the program”, and a leaked email from Raytheon said “Perfect Citizen is Big Brother”.”
We need to stand together in opposition to these intrusions of privacy. As long as a government is able to “get away” with “minor” intrusions such as traffic cameras and airport body scanners; they will try to get away with greater intrusions of privacy and greater violations of our guaranteed protection from “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
I have to wonder if any of this be possible if the Congress followed the Downsize DC agenda? It is my opinion that it would not, because the Congress would be forced to: write the law instead of allowing the NSA to make policy without Congressional oversight (to comply with “The Write The Laws Act”); read the bill and post it online for seven days before voting on it (to comply with “The Read The Bills Act”); not hide this project in an unrelated bill (to comply with “The One Subject At A Time Act”) and provide “a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of” the bill (to comply with “The Enumerated Powers Act”).