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Next step, a surveillance state

Digital ID is on the horizon and some say it's inevitable.

Many countries are already rolling out digital ID systems, some making it mandatory, others claiming it is "voluntary". I use the word "voluntary" in quotes because governments tend to interpret that word somewhat differently to you and I.

There is no doubt that the technology certainly exists to give us all a unique identifier that is stored electronically and can be presented on-demand through a smartphone.

The real question is whether we really want to start down the path to what will almost certainly become a true surveillance state.

In the UK, police are (coincidentally) rolling out facial-ID camera systems.

Police vans, with these systems, are popping up in busy markets, shopping centres and other places where crowds tend to gather or transit.

The cameras on these vans are linked to a computer that flags "persons of interest" who might walk by and it certainly appears that these systems are quite effective in spotting those who are sought by authorities for whatever reason.

At this point in time, images captured by these facial-ID cameras are reportedly deleted as soon as no match is found -- for privacy reasons.

Hands up all those who don't see "feature creep" gradually altering this?

It stands to reason that if authorities convince themselves that keeping all the captured footage could help solve crimes and identify people of interest at a later date then at some stage, that footage *will* be retained.

With the UK also rolling out a "voluntary" digital ID there are plans afoot to link that ID to the photographic database of facial images from passport and drivers' licensing databases. We already have the technology that would allow a facial recognition system to actually identify a person's name and other information as a result of this linkage.

By recording and archiving footage from a nationwide network of facial-ID and ANPR cameras, the UK police and other authorities will be able to track everyone's movements almost every hour of the day.

Archiving that data and using AI for analysing it will give the government and its agencies the power to surveil every single person on an almost 24/7 basis, with the ability to go back days, weeks, months or even years to see exactly where you were and where you went at any time in that period.

Of course "only those with something to hide have anything to fear" from this 24/7 surveillance -- right?

Once a comprehensive record of everyone's movements is created it becomes somewhat trivial for AI to analyze those movements and come up with predictions -- such as who is likely to be about to commit a crime.

And you thought the movie Minority Report was just far-fetched science fiction, right?

This sort of power could be so easily abused that we must not allow such systems to be built.

We only have to look at recent events to see that we sometimes have bad people in positions of authority and if such people were to have access to such a trove of data and the power it creates, bad things will most certainly happen to good people.

It is also essential to remember that the right to privacy and anonymity is a basic human right that should not be usurped in the name of convenience or control.

Ultimately it will be up to us, the public to push back when we face this assault on those rights but we can rest assured, that time will come and it will likely come sooner than we expect.

Carpe Diem folks!

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