- Technically speaking, you now stand naked in the world.
People you have never met may know more about you than you can remember
yourself. It's all down to advancing technology and our continuing love-hate
relationship with computers, networking, automatic processing and customer
relations management.
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- Tougher laws protecting individual privacy rights come
into force in September but, says Federal Privacy Commissioner Malcolm
Crompton, few Australian companies are truly ready with privacy policies
to cover the information they collect as byproducts of their enterprise.
Yet breaches will be rigorously prosecuted and restitution exacted for
failure to protect private rights, he says.
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- The risk to individual privacy has arisen almost unnoticed.
Video surveillance, telephonic tracking, data mining and a host of other
technologies, collecting, collating and hoarding every detail of yourself
and your life are now proliferating faster than Mallee rabbits.
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- Big Brother is bigger in some countries than others but,
wherever there are computers, Eftpos, electronic banking, closed circuit
cameras, e-mail, electronic tollway billing and the Internet you're being
watched. Britain, which now has more than 1.5 million closed-circuit television
cameras in its streets, parks and buildings is the most-watched country
on Earth, although Germany and the US are catching up fast. So, for that
matter, is Australia.
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- Here are some of the snoops you may encounter on an average
day around town.:
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- Eftpos, credit cards and loyalty schemes: Loyalty cards,
such as Fly Buys, are not there to get you to Sydney. They are aimed mostly
at keeping your custom at member companies' shops, but they can be linked
to what you bought, and where and when, and used to either push products
to you (since they also know your mail and e-mail addresses, your phone
number and often much else, perhaps even your income bracket. Similarly,
whatever you bought is, or can be, linked to your credit card, which can
then give a picture of your spending habits, tastes, weaknesses and financial
strength.
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- e-tags: Cars moving along the City Link tollways are
all logged, which means someone knows they are there and in which direction
they are headed. The e-tag on the windscreen links with the computer system
operated by the private company that owns the highways. Cars without e-tags
are photographed and that image is stored. It might, therefore, be possible
to identify someone in the car, though probably the angle of view would
preclude that.
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- Mobile phones: Whenever a handset is turned on the radio
transceiver inside it immediately begins to search for and connect to the
nearest antenna. Each antenna inhabits, and is identified by, a cell covering
a certain area. As you move across the landscape, the phone in your hand
switches from one cell to the next, thus effectively charting your movements.
This information has been used in court cases in many countries.
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- Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on streets:
VicRoads operates an extensive network of video cameras used to manage
traffic flow on our highways, mainly by giving controllers in the Hawthorn
operations centre a view of traffic density that allows them to change
the on-off patterns of traffic lights.
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- Such cameras are all over the metropolitan area. One
of the most prominent is at the intersection of Victoria and Hoddle Streets.
It sits up high above the traffic, peering down upon the passing parade.
Others hide under dark plastic domes on street corners in the CBD.
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- CCTV cameras in buildings: Hundreds of shops, supermarkets
and buildings all over Melbourne use closed-circuit video technology to
watch their customers and staff. All of these images can be, and usually
are, recorded by videotape recorders. Use of such images in identifying
criminals in incidents such as hold-ups in banks is now standard practice.
But they also record everyone.
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- Face recognition systems: In Crown Casino, Colonial Stadium
and, increasingly, even shops and business premises, there is increasing
use of face recognition technology. Images taken by CCTV cameras scanning
an area are sent to computers where software compares every face with photographs
stored on a database. Thus, not only can individuals' whereabouts be established
by time and place, but also the company they are keeping.
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- Cookies on the Web: Almost every website into which you
log will, generally without your knowledge, insert a tiny piece of software
into your computer that identifies you to the site's owners. That's how
e-mail spammers, those pesky people who keep sending you mail, get your
address.
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- Computer operating systems: Intel and Microsoft, among
a few others, have been criticised several times for hiding identification
codes in their microprocessors, operating systems and applications. The
codes allow individual computers to be identified when they go online,
making it possible to track their progress around the Internet.
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- Echelon: Echelon is said to be operated by the military
and intelligence agencies of the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. No government will talk about it. It is believed to monitor e-mails,
telephone calls and other communications flowing over the world's cable
and satellite systems looking for words that might alert intelligence organisations,
police, customs, immigration officers, military and security services to
pending crimes. The concern is not that someone is watching for terrorists
but that innocent people might get caught in the net.
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