I'm in the market for some very specific computer hardware - so specific, I have to order it from out-of-province.
It's called a RAID, and it makes several hard drives act as one. I've been looking intensively at one called a LaCie 5Big Pro NAS.
The other day I looked it up on several Canadian specialty online computer stores. One of those was TigerDirect.ca. Imagine my surprise when, immediately after I left that web page, an ad appeared on my Facebook page. Not only was it from TigerDirect.ca, but it was for precisely what I was looking at - the LaCie 5Big Pro NAS. The next several ads showed similar competing products in case I wasn't hung up on the LaCie.
I've done some Facebook advertising. The reason the social network is so financially successful is the ability to drill down through demographics and precisely target what you are looking for. Back when I was doing wedding photography, I was able to have ads shown only to women, engaged, ages 18-40, employed and within 50 kilometres of five specific towns. There were only a few hundred people who would ever see my ad.
In the TigerDirect.ca case, it wasn't a few hundred people. It was one person. In all of humanity, that ad was targeted for me and me alone.
If that's what an advertiser can do, imagine what governments with the power of organizations like the National Security Agency (U.S.) or Communications Security Establishment Canada can do? The Edward Snowden revelations are freaking us out, and rightfully so.
I once knew a former RCMP Security Service member. He didn't write traffic tickets, he was a counter-intelligence spy in the 1970s. His job included recording everything a certain university professor said, and thus he got a degree out of the assignment. His primary tool for that was a recorder the size of a briefcase. Halfway through the lecture he had to quietly reach in and flip the tape without being noticed. When he saw my Sony Clie PDA 10 years ago, he practically drooled over what it could do - and it fit in the palm of my hand. An iPhone makes the Clie look like a Playskool toy.
I watched the movie Enemy of the State on Netflix the other day. Of all the creepy things seen in that movie, I personally have, or could easily obtain, the capability of doing most of those things. And I'm just a guy.
Track your location? If I have your Apple ID and password, track your iPhone will do that easily. My wife could find me in a heartbeat with that. We actually have that as a contingency plan should I ever get stuck in the boonies on a photo shoot.
Overhead surveillance in real time? Check. One doesn't need a satellite for that anymore. You can get a drone and iPhone pretty cheap these days. I have two drones capable of doing this, and you can watch it live on the iPhone.
Track your vehicle in real time? Ever heard of OnStar? I've had OnStar diagnose my check engine light while I was driving, without ever pulling over.
Record a conversation in an open area? My video camera hardware includes a shotgun microphone and two lavalier mikes each the size of a large pea that plug into iPhones or recorders. Then there's two digital voice recorders the size of a pack of gum each. A parabolic microphone is easily obtainable.
Long distance photos or video? My 14-year-old Hi8 camcorder had 300x magnification, never mind the current hardware.
Use tiny cameras to spy on a room? Let's see here, we could pick up the fiber optic snake camera on sale at Canadian Tire, or use an iPod, GoPro, etc. The GoPro can transmit Wi-Fi video in real time, too.
Watch you in your office using your own computer's webcam? This wasn't in the movie and I personally can't do it, but on Dec. 18, the Washington Post reported, "The woman was shocked when she received two nude photos of herself by e-mail. The photos had been taken over a period of several months - without her knowledge - by the built-in camera on her laptop.
"Fortunately, the FBI was able to identify a suspect: her high school classmate, a man named Jared Abrahams. The FBI says it found software on Abrahams's computer that allowed him to spy remotely on her and numerous other women."
If these are all possible by Joe Public, what do you think the NSA can do and actually does do on a regular basis? Could they activate your smartphone remotely and listen in on any conversation within earshot in real time? Can they do the same with a landline while still on the hook? Could any cellphone be used to track your location 24/7, within a few feet?
Sixteen years later, is there anything in Enemy of the State that remains a fantasy? Perhaps only the general public's illusion of privacy in any form.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
