Big Brother is Watching
63BIG BROTHER
Too Much Information?
As I pulled into work today I noticed a man strapping something to the nearby telephone pole. I didn't think much of it because there have been people working on the phone tower in back of our building. They have been there for a few days and I just figured this was more of the same project. As I pulled up close, I realized this guy was strapping a video camera onto the telephone pole right on the street. He was in an unmarked green truck that had safety (yellow) flashing lights on the top.
Here is my concern. Does this guy work for some government agency or is it a private company just taping what happens on the street. The camera was obviously being put up just to monitor oncoming traffic. Who is doing it and what are they going to do with this information?
As I started to really get bothered by this, I began to research what else of mine is being monitored. I found some really disturbing videos on YouTube about the government's ability to track not only what I am doing throughout most of the day (ubiquitous video cameras) but they can also track my location (through my personal property--my cell phone--without my permission), they can listen in on many of my private cell phone conversations, and they can also track what I am putting in writing by skimming through emails. All of this is being done without my permission.
The first question many people ask is, "Well, do you have something to be worried about?" No, I am a law abiding adult. I have earned a couple of speeding tickets in my life and that is about the extent of my lawless behavior. The problem I have is, now that the government is proving that it is willing to attack individual groups through illegal taxation (read carefully about the taxes that were placed on turnaround executives with AIG. These employees came in to help AIG turn around the disaster that had been created and now Congress has taxed them at 90% in a vindictive, illegal manner. If they do it to them, who else will they do it too?) Believe me, I am just as appalled as others at the poor manner in which many public companies have been run. But, I do believe the government is beginning to step onto a very slippery slope that starts with small invasions of privacy and leads to an all out loss of personal privacy. If we don't stand up now and speak, who will stand up for us when our rights are violated?
Government is Scanning your Personal Info
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Interesting Thoughts about Big Brother
- RFID Chips/Tags
- CCTV
- Telecom Technology
- Email Surveillance
- GPS Enabled Phones
These are five areas where Big Brother is already watching. Major corporations and governments know a whole lot about you and what you do with your time and money. Is it that they just want to know--or is it something a little more sinister? Do they want to control you? Several 19th century writers thought that the governments were quickly moving to a situation where they would have total control over our lives. Philip Dick touched on these thoughts a few times and Orwell wrote about it exclusively in his fantastic novel, 1984. These men were amazingly prophetic in the images they conjured up with their writings.
Is Big Brother too BIG?
Do you feel the Government is collecting too much personal information?
See results without votingGovernement Email Tracking?
Illegal Tax?
Do you feel the tax on AIG Executives was illegal and vindictive?
See results without votingInteresting reads on Big Brother
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Is the Government tracking you with your own phone?
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I am sure that is an interesting experience
Yep, and then you publish a hub that might make them angry, and then you worry a little bit, waiting for that knock at the door.
I have worst than big brother watching me, I think my wife is
It is a brave new world.
It's like Philip K. Dick wrote, "The Empire Never Died." Look up Rex 84 - we've got concentration camps in the US!
In America there is a feeling of paranoia about many things, I've noticed. It's much greater than when I lived there, however. Has your government really become so paranoid as well? I guess I'd check into that if I were an American today. But here in Spain we are pretty much not so afraid of such things and we don't have cameras posted through out the city of Madrid. Yes, there are some, mostly for web cam views, but police videocams? I am not aware of anyting like that except at banks and government buildings. Maybe it's coming, though!
This is a growing concern and has been for some time. Who knows how much is really going on?
I had an unpleasant surprise not long ago when looking up my own address on google maps. When I zoomed the satellite image to "street level", I was looking at myself waxing my wife's car in our driveway. The resolution was good enough to read the license plate. I don't know how the picture was taken or by whom but I'm not at all pleased by its existence.
I've suspected this for many years but I'm a law abiding, good type of citizen so I don't care. They can take a picture of me going to the bathroom for all I care.
ColdWarBaby, terrifying isn't it. I read the other day about a town in Wales or Ireland?? (I don't remember which) but they actually threw the Google Car out--the car that drives around taking video of the front of people's houses from the street. Seems like a good idea to me. I don't want pictures of my kids, wife, or myself hitting the internet without my permission
There are principles involved here WR. Whether or not one is misbehaving in some way is not at issue. There is a proverbial "slippery slope" here that no one should set foot on. There are lines, once crossed, which lead to places that are very hard to cross back from.
tdarby, I don't know about any "Google Car". When I look at the "street level" image I can rotate it to a view directly overhead. I'd like to know how the hell they get that POV from a car.
ColdWarBaby, I think they use satellite imagery if I have read correctly. They use that for the overhead view but they also do street sweeps where they take video of each street to get the ground level view. It all seems like a giant invasion of privacy to me. Like you say, the "slippery slope" has been reached. I fear we may already be sliding down a few of them.
Yes, the google car takes the images that give a side-view so that you can see store and house fronts instead of just roof shots. It's ingenious imagery but very invasive. I am glad someone stood up and tossed the peeping toms out of their town!
I still do not understand how the Google Car can provide an overhead view. Try it yourself. If you zoom to street level, you can pan the image 360 degrees, up, down, left and right.
I can understand the left/right capability. Realtors do that with the "virtual tours" of some homes. What I don't understand is how the Google Car gets a view from overhead, looking down at my car in my driveway from an apparent distance of only a few yards.
Is there a Google Chopper that flies around everywhere, hovering over peoples homes?
@ Coldwarbaby- The google van took a pic of you "waxing it" in your wifes car? Oh that is invasive!
The one of your house from above is from a satalite in space. The governments satalites can get down so low that if you were reading a news paper in your back yard, if it was facing up enough, they would be able to see what you are reading....from space! They have had this tech for quite some time now.
As far as the google van goes, they are suposed to blur out the face of anyone caught in the picture, but I have noticed that they have stoped doing this, or at least don't always do it.
Writer Rider wrote: I don't care...
...until they will make the laws, against you, that you would care.
In a song that Jill Scott sang (Watching Me) she voiced her objection to transistors in her dollar bills and said about her satellite TV "Am I watching it, or is it watching me?"
Great hub, thanks! And I enjoyed these comments as well.
Have you read my hub concerning the social networks? No, I am not afraid to speak out, this is my freedom of speech, and yours as well..for the time being...as far as your cell, go into the settings and turn off your gps except for 911 calls....I have found after writing some really racy hubs on my thoughts of this very subject and also on HR3200, I had had some type of spy files added to my computer I have high security and got rid of them...they pop up after I write sometimes tho....Big Brother has been watching us longer than you can even imagine....and planning on how to control us all...this is a fact here...take care of that cell and check your computer regularly for "things"....full scans, not quickies...put high security on it...I know I feel better because of the security I do have...check for keyloggers whle you are in there as well....
This is not paranoia....this is the real world and how we are being forced to live in it now....GREAT HUB!!!
There are marketing research companies out there that have access to far more information than I'm comfortable with, never mind the government. It's all for the sake of consumerism which I think is destroying our country, but what are you gonna do? Most people don't even seem to be paying attention which is extremely disturbing. Take a look at this video. It's just fiction of course, but I think it's very telling too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT9ho2G0N_Y
tdarby: Good hub on a pressing topic. But I believe that countering the trend of big government is an equally strong (perhaps) trend of public information and citizen power: the internet, whistle-blowers, media, protests, boycotts and all of us writing and blogging and sharing cautionary tales. See my hub on 'Cultures of Resistance' (or the rest of my eclectic 246-hubmix). Regards, RickZ
Good...scary...and more is coming down the pike. Thanks for courage to speak your mind here!
ladies and gentlemen, truth is, there is nothing the government wants to do less than control you. Simply because it costs more money than it is worth to pay attention to every American. Sorry, you are not worth the cost.
The government and corporate powers are moving toward dossiers which are updated often by the very means in which you described in this hub. I have many times experienced intense public scrutiny; believe me, this was personal data collected and effectively distributed. Thought Police of "1984" is not all fiction!
cindyvine Level 2 Commenter 3 years ago
Live in China with websites blocked and you'll know all about big brother lol