Back in 2007, my company's STEEP Report series covered the implications of all the surveillance technologies coming on line. Back then we were alarmed at what we saw and thought people should consider this development well in advance. We were right then; we are right now. For more check out https://www.competitivefutures.com/ and http://www.ericgarland.co/keynote-speaker-executive-educator/

1. BIG BROTHER
TECHNOLOGIES

2. THIS MONTH’S ISSUE
Why we chose…
Big Brother Technologies
We chose to examine forecasts for surveillance technologies
for this month’s STEEP Report because the technologies are
without precedent and the social implications could change
the future of our entire civilization.
Dramatic? Yes. Hysterical and paranoid?
We wish.
There is surprisingly little discussion in the media about the
rapid development of information technologies that will be
used to track individuals anywhere on the globe in real time.
These technologies will not be implemented as part of some
government scheme to control citizens, but all for useful
commercial and government applications – marketing,
logistics, health policy, human resources, and security.
This doesn’t change the gravity of the ethical (and business!)
implications of what’s next for surveillance technologies.

3. A portfolio of surveillance technologies will soon be able to
track most of the world’s population in real time.
Do not underestimate the consequences or possibilities
from this development.
Through technologies such as GPS, RFID, IPv6, and facial recognition,
we are rapidly developing the capacity to track billions of people in
real time.
The power of ubiquitous computing and sensing will give your
company dramatic new powers and significant liabilities.
Our societies may never be the same.
Talk to your employees, your lawyers, and your elected officials

4. The world is investing in cameras, RFID, GPS, remote sensing and powerful internet
architectures to measure, store, and correlate trillions of points of data around the world
Big Brother Tech: The Global View
HOLLYWOOD:
Movie posters
scan facial
features to
examine which
images evoke the
most response
WASHINGTON:
Global climate
change
monitoring tracks
individual
factories
CHINA: One
billion Chinese
citizens issued
radio-frequency
identification
cards that
broadcast family
history, marital
status, prison
records
LONDON:
Advertisements
coordinated with GPS
positioning in cell
phones to show
businesses within
walking distance
AFRICA: Refugee
movements tracked
by satellite to
coordinate
humanitarian efforts

5. The Trends

6. Radio Frequency
Identification Tags
(RFID)
Global Positioning
Systems (GPS)
IPv6 Internet
networking
Facial recognition
software
A portfolio of information technologies is converging in the near future (2010+)
with dramatic social consequences, and plenty of business opportunities, too:
We are entering, willingly or not, into the era of Big Brother Technologies.
Iris scanning
Biometrics
Ubiquitous video
surveillance

7. RFID Tags – unlimited applications for “talking barcodes”
In usage since 1955, radio-frequency identification chips are essentially barcodes that
talk. With a tiny chip and an antenna to broadcast its unique code, short-range radio
signals broadcast a limited amount of information to any device capable of listening.
The technology is maturing, having dropped in price over the last eight years to begin to
find applications in the logistics industry.

8. The RFID market is set to explode: US $1 trillion by 2017?
• From 1955 to 2005, total sales of RFID tags
were $2.4 billion.
• Last year alone, 2.24 billion tags were sold
worldwide. and analysts project that by 2017
the annual sales could reach $25 billion.
With a variety of maturing applications, from
improving global logistics to preventing
pharmaceutical counterfeiting, the market for
RFID tags will explode in the next ten years.
(“Microchips Everywhere: A Future Vision.” Todd Lewan. Seattle Times.
January 29, 2008. )

9. RFID tags: headed to the item level
Until recently, the high price of RFID has
kept it on pallets, monitoring of batches
of products in transit. It has been too
expensive to have one on each unit.
In the coming decades , as the
price continues to fall, RFID tags
will finally be incorporated on
individual items
“[RFID] is like having an expert with a clipboard sitting next to every of your trucks, manufacturing
lines, pallets with goods, and they can tell you at any time what is happening, where,”
- Ken Douglas, global director of technology at BP.

10. Tracking shampoo bottles is great, but applications for the future surely won’t stop there.
Now companies are selling RFID tags to help identify and track pets, children and the elderly.
RFID tags: headed to the individual citizen
level
RFID chip
Plus, save time and
money if you have
employees in sensitive
areas – many companies
are choosing to implant
RFID chips, increasing
security and dispensing
with messy ID cards.

11. In the future, anything with these tags could be scanned at increasing distances without a
person’s knowledge.
Market researchers could scan items in your car from five feet away or a police officer
could scan your ID as you pass on the street.
RFID tags: mass data collection at a distance
NOTE: The Chinese government just ordered one billion RFID-loaded chips to identify its
citizens.

12. GPS chips: Surveillance at a serious distance
GPS chips, computer chips that record and broadcast their location via satellite, are now
commonly used in navigation, telecommunications, tracking almost anything in real time.
The market for these devices is poised for exponential growth.

13. GPS sales predicted to hit one billion units per year by 2012
Between real-time navigation, geo-tagging of images in digital cameras, emergency rescue, and
more, there are seemingly limitless applications for GPS.
If market forecasts are correct, then billions of digital devices will begin streaming out digital
information about their position. The era of losing track of things may be over…

14. GPS will lead to the advertising of the future:
100 million Europeans will subscribe to “location-based services”
As all advertisers know, we are in an arms-race when it comes to capturing the
attention Businesses are using GPS for new and creative ways to advertise:
Pictured at left Yell.com has
installed digital billboards fitted
with GPS technology on the sides of
London buses to create location-
specific advertisements.

15. Facial recognition software: the end of anonymity?
1. A tiny camera projects an invisible light pattern onto the
subject’s face, revealing the face's surface geometry, which is
captured on streaming video at 30 frames per second.
2. This 3-D measurement allows point-to-point measurement, such
as forehead to cheekbone.
3. The face pattern is plugged into an algorithm to generate a 3-D
"mesh" created from measurements smaller than a millimeter.
4. A biometric template -- based on bone structures that don't
change over time -- is created from the image and is stored in
the database.
5. The database stores the images, comparing them to locate
matches.
Combining software analysis, cameras, and
databases facial recognition software could be
the nosy neighbor of the future. This cutting-
edge software can quickly scan faces at a
distance and compare results to any database –
domestic or international

16. Facial recognition:
The billboard of tomorrow will watch YOU
Worried about your latest ad campaign? With facial recognition software, billboards like this one
analyze who looks at the advertisement, where they focus, and for how long. Unlike biometrics, it
requires ZERO consent from those observed.
Advertisers measuring:
• Age
• Gender
• Race
Located in:
• McDonald’s
(Singapore)
• Ikea (Europe)
• A&E (New York)
• 30 more locations in
US

17. Biometrics: check on employee productivity
without the need for managerial skill
• Monitor employee activity through PC and
laptop computers, mobile phones, and
blackberries
• Monitor employees’ heart rate, breathing, body
temperature, facial expressions and blood
pressure
• Record and analyze words and numbers used
and websites visited
• Measure workload and test for honesty
Microsoft recently filed a patent application for “Monitoring System 500” a “virtual
middle manager” that uses to:

18. Biometrics to meet the talent crunch
The “Monitoring System 500” is designed to replace middle managers by:
• Measuring speed of task completion
• Identifying areas of assistance
• Offering assistance (prompts) when employees need it
AND…
• Nothing like invasive surveillance to motivate productivity!
• Eliminating human interaction!

19. Video surveillance: an old technology expands as
governments become more interested in security
Where there is little data correlating surveillance and public safety, governments on both
sides of Atlantic are increasing their investments in Big Brother Technologies.
The United States has approximately 30 million surveillance cameras in operation, mostly
in cities – roughly one for every 10 people.
Nearly every block of Manhattan under camera surveillance
London monitors every neighborhood. “Every Briton can expect to be caught on camera on
average some 300 times a day.”
“Learning to live with Big Brother.” The
Economist. Sept 27, 2007.

20. IPv6 Internet networking: faster and more secure
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is an Internet Layer protocol
for packet-switched internetworks. It is designated as the
successor of IPv4, the first and still dominant version of the
Internet Protocol, for general use on the Internet.
IPv6 has a much larger address space, which allows flexibility
in allocating addresses and routing traffic. The extended
address length eliminates the need to use network address
translation to avoid address exhaustion, and also simplifies
aspects of address assignment and renumbering when
changing Internet connectivity providers.
The IPv6 address space is extremely large: IPv6 supports 2128
(about 3.4×1038) addresses, or approximately 5×1028
(roughly 295) addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion
(6.5×109) people alive today.[1] In a different perspective, this
is 252 addresses for every observable star in the known
universe[2] – more than ten billion billion billion times as many
addresses as IPv4 supported.
IPv6 is an updated internet system, greatly expanding the
number of potential IP addresses, therefore the number of
possible internet users.
Under the current system, IPv4, the overall pool of IP
addresses is expected to be depleted by 2012, leading to the
necessity for IPv6.

21. IPv6 Internet
IPv6 uses a 128-bit address size compared with the 32-bit system
used in the IPv4, allowing for as many as 3.4x1038 possible
addresses, enough to cover every person on the planet several times
over.
The 128-bit system also provides for multiple levels of hierarchy
and flexibility in hierarchical addressing and routing, an
improvement over the IPv4-based Internet.

22. The Whole is Greater…
The combination of surveillance techniques and
advanced technology is greater than the sum of its
parts.

23. Combining all of the parts: China’s Golden Shield
Golden Shield – a nationwide digital surveillance network, linking national,
regional, and local security agencies through a web of surveillance technologies,
featuring:
• Speech recognition
• Facial recognition
• Closed circuit TV
• National ID cards
• Credit records
• Internet surveillance

24. Building China’s surveillance society
The police will be able to coordinate vast amounts of
data
RFID-implanted
national ID cards –
scanned without
owner’s knowledge
Closed-circuit TV:
monitoring public
spaces
Database - instantly
comparing
fingerprints
Nationwide database:
tracking
citizens since birth
Speech recognition:
monitoring telephone
conversations
Facial recognition –
capturing and
matching facial
images in a crowd

25. How the technology works in Shenzhen
• This web of cameras will be
linked to the country’s national ID
system, tracking citizens by RFID
tags.
• Anyone who does not get the ID
card cannot live in Shenzhen and
cannot get government benefits.
• It allows the government to
control the movement of political
and religious dissidents and
control the population of the
future.
In the rapidly-growing city of Shenzhen, police are installing over 20,000
surveillance cameras in the streets, guided by American-made facial recognition
software.

26. Implications

27. RFID: Implications for the Future
• ADVERTISING – to the individual level!!!!
• Theft prevention
• Pets, elderly, kids
• Shipping industry
• Sales – locate desired product in remote warehouse
• Medical – speed lifesaving when seconds count, anti-
counterfeiting
• IDs – immigration (passports)
• Political/population monitoring – eye on troublemakers
• Market research!!!!!

28. Implications for the Future
Biometric applications combined to improve security for:
• Travel speed/border security
• Purchases by credit card
• Secure access to buildings
• Security for high-volume events
•Computer passwords
•National or state identification

29. Questions
Broad issues:
• Right to privacy
•Does consent exist anymore? Limitations?
•Who “owns” this info? What if the info “they” have is somehow
wrong (like on credit reports)? How do you know, how do you
correct it if it’s not public?
•What does the credit report of tomorrow look like?
•Is it inevitable that we are headed for a system like China where all
info is tracked on each individual since birth?
•Can a person ever make a mistake?
• Will there eventually be some sort of international data standard?
Shared data? Will the Chinese call the shots?

30. Questions
Broad issues (cont):
•Is there a way for laws to guide the development of these
technologies? Can we overturn the PATRIOT Act, ect…
• If all of this information is available on everyone, what is the
future of hackers?
• How to balance enormous benefits and positive uses of this
technology with its far-reaching, scarring impacts?

31. What To Do Today

32. Addendum: Big Brother Tech - By the Numbers
Figure Source
There are approximately 30 million surveillance cameras in the
U.S. – roughly one for every ten people.
“Learning to live with Big Brother.” The Economist. Sept 27,
2007.
Analysts project that by 2017 cumulative sales of RFID tags will
top $1 trillion - generating more than $25 billion in annual
revenues for the industry.
“Microchips Everywhere: A Future Vision.” Todd Lewan.
Seattle Times. January 29, 2008.
GPS sales are expected to hit $1 billion by 2012. "GPS chipset sales to approach one billion by 2012 according
to market research firm," Digitimes, April 19th, 2008.
100 million Europeans will subscribe to location-based
services.
"Euro LBS users to top 100 million by 2012." GPS World. April
9, 2008.
Facial recognition software used behind the billboards. Ads for
McDonalds in Singapore, Ikea in Europe, A&E in New York, and
30 different locations in malls across the U.S.
“Billboards with facial recognition software trickling out.” Nilay
Patel. June 4, 2008. http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/04/
billboards-with-facial-recognition-software-trickling-out/
“Every aspect of computer users’ lives — from their heartbeat
to a guilty smile — could be monitored and immediately
analysed under the futuristic system detailed in Microsoft’s
patent application.”
“How computer spy in the office will monitor everything you
do.” David Brown and Elizabeth Judge. London Times. January
16, 2008.
In the rapidly-growing city of Shenzhen, police are installing
over 20,000 surveillance cameras in the streets, guided by
American-made facial recognition software.

33. Find out more: Books
1984. By George Orwell.
(Why not have another look? The technology is there.)
The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between
Privacy and Freedom? By David Brin.
RFID Applied. By Jerry Banks.

34. Find out more: Books
Loving Big Brother: Performance, Privacy and Surveillance Space.
By John McGrath.
No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society.
By Robert O’Harrow.
Handbook of Biometrics. By Anil K. Jain, Patrick Flynn and
Arun A. Ross.

35. Find out more: Articles
“Big Brother gets bigger, says global privacy study.” Elinor Mills. CNET News. January 2, 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9838743-7.html
“Big Brother in China – via U.S. technology.” Warren Mass. The John Birch Society. August 16, 2007.
http://www.jbs.org/node/5153
“Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society.” Jay Stanley and Barry Steinhardt.
ACLU. January 2003. http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/aclu_report_bigger_monster_weaker_chains.pdf
“Biometrics – the future for flying bliss?” Nick Heath. February 21, 2008.
http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39170130,00.htm
“Do Americans Care About Big Brother?” Massimo Calabresi. Time. February 14, 2008.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1722537,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics
"Euro LBS users to top 100 million by 2012." GPS World. April 9, 2008. http://lbs.gpsworld.com/gpslbs/LBS+News/
Euro-LBS-Users-to-Top-100M-by-2012/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/509169
"GPS chipset sales to approach one billion by 2012 according to market research firm," Digitimes.
April 19th, 2008.
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080419PR200.html

36. Find out more: Articles
“How computer spy in the office will monitor everything you do.” David Brown and Elizabeth Judge. London Times.
January 16, 2008.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193223.ece
“Japan’s teenage smokers face wrinkle test.” Justin McCurry. The Guardian. May 13, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/13/japan.health
“Learning to live with Big Brother.” The Economist. Sept 27, 2007.
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9867324
“Microchips Everywhere: A Future Vision.” Todd Lewan. Seattle Times. January 29, 2008.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004151388_apchippingamericaiii29.html?syndication=rss
“New security camera can ‘see’ through clothes.” CNN. April 16, 2008.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/16/camera.england/index.html
“RFID Tags: Big Brother in Small Packages.” Declan McCullagh. CNET News.
http://news.cnet.com/2010-1069-980325.html