Just over 15 years ago, the DDR -or East Germany- ceased to exist. For those of you who are too young: the DDR was a Communist country under the sphere of influence of the USSR. It's secret police (that all authoritarian states seem to have), the Stasi was a very effective one. For instance, they managed to place a spy in West German chancellor Willy Brandt's office.
Some things the Stasi did were laughed at. For instance; of every typewriter in the country a typed sheet of paper was kept. The thought was that every typewriter was slightly different and in this way anti-communstic ("free") propaganda could be linked to a specific typewriter so anti-communistic activists could be arrested and imprisoned -or worse-.
Then why am I so afraid ??
Well: What would have been an authoritarian state's dream is todays reality. It is widely known that the NSA listens to phonecalls of virtually anybody on the planet. Very worrying.
Even more worrying is that every photo you take with a digital camera gets an identifying mark of a unique camera and already longer than 10 years printers mark papers that can link every sheet of paper back to the printer it was printed on.
In my country there are camera's on every highway, registering -and keeping- all car-traffic. Even worse; soon I can't buy a public transport ticket that is not registered to my name via a creditcard, or personalised buspass. All that information is stored, meaning I cannot go anywhere outside bike-distance without a governmental institution knowing where I am.
Do you really think this is only to catch child-porn creators? Do you really think this is to catch counterfeiters? Do you really think this is to fight terrorism?
Do you really think a state that wants to control its citizens and does not tolerate anti-government voices to be heard demands HP to only sell printers in their country that always makes prints identifyable ?? Dissidents are easily caught with this.
This technology is not fiction. This technology exists. This technology is being used. This is technology that can so easily be used to control the citizens of a nation. This technology is East-Germany's dream - only 15 years after Communism fell, the West is under more surveilance than the East-Germans were.
You can trust your government to not do it, sure, but when you do, think of this: This technology will not go away. In order to not share my fears, you will have to trust the government for 50 years. For 100 years. For ever. I don't trust my goverment that they will not use an existing powerful technology in this way.
Some things the Stasi did were laughed at. For instance; of every typewriter in the country a typed sheet of paper was kept. The thought was that every typewriter was slightly different and in this way anti-communstic ("free") propaganda could be linked to a specific typewriter so anti-communistic activists could be arrested and imprisoned -or worse-.
Then why am I so afraid ??
Well: What would have been an authoritarian state's dream is todays reality. It is widely known that the NSA listens to phonecalls of virtually anybody on the planet. Very worrying.
Even more worrying is that every photo you take with a digital camera gets an identifying mark of a unique camera and already longer than 10 years printers mark papers that can link every sheet of paper back to the printer it was printed on.
In my country there are camera's on every highway, registering -and keeping- all car-traffic. Even worse; soon I can't buy a public transport ticket that is not registered to my name via a creditcard, or personalised buspass. All that information is stored, meaning I cannot go anywhere outside bike-distance without a governmental institution knowing where I am.
Do you really think this is only to catch child-porn creators? Do you really think this is to catch counterfeiters? Do you really think this is to fight terrorism?
Do you really think a state that wants to control its citizens and does not tolerate anti-government voices to be heard demands HP to only sell printers in their country that always makes prints identifyable ?? Dissidents are easily caught with this.
This technology is not fiction. This technology exists. This technology is being used. This is technology that can so easily be used to control the citizens of a nation. This technology is East-Germany's dream - only 15 years after Communism fell, the West is under more surveilance than the East-Germans were.
You can trust your government to not do it, sure, but when you do, think of this: This technology will not go away. In order to not share my fears, you will have to trust the government for 50 years. For 100 years. For ever. I don't trust my goverment that they will not use an existing powerful technology in this way.