Read this very carefully and remember: from now on you will be observed. Does it sound fantastic or creepy to you? Look closely at the stranger sitting at the other end of the hall. Although it seems as if he is talking on his smartphone, he is actually taking pictures of you with the help of a special app. And thats just the beginning. At that morning meeting last Tuesday, when you were making this outrageous joke about your new boss, your colleague’s smartphone, which was quietly at the table, recorded every word you said. Later that evening, when you were in the restaurant, making a flirting but innocent joke to the waitress, someone recorded a video of the whole interaction.
At first glance, it seems that there is nothing you can do to prevent this from happening again and again. Millions of working smartphones around the world mean millions of active recording devices that are ready to quickly capture every word or movement. And when these records are made, it’s not a big deal to put any pictures, videos, or audios online and share them with everyone. Maybe there is a way to prevent everything? Just take a look. Maybe someone smart enough creates a camouflage cloak like in fantasy films, or companies use clues from James Bond films and create high-tech counter-surveillance devices that allow us to move around in public without worrying about possible privacy issues to take care of.
In fact, it could be the companies that we already know well, all the more because there are already some technologies that I’m talking about. For example, Apple patented new technology at the end of last year, which can simply deactivate the camera of an iPhone with the help of infrared sensors aimed at the camera. It was developed to prevent film piracy. But ordinary people can also use such devices in advance. The founder and chief executive of surveillance and counter surveillance company BrickHouse Security, Todd Morris, said that some early technologies already exist to help people be deliberately recorded. For example, every woman can use a wireless camera detector in the locker room to find out if a hidden camera is installed between her clothes. Yes, that happens, and quite a bit.
But there are some limits as the changing room or business office is completely different from the large and crowded public space. For example, if you use the Apple camera deactivation device, you will definitely make a lot of people feel annoyed if they just want to imagine a few sights or take photos to remember friends. The same applies in part to gps jammer, but it can vary from location to location (for example, the cinema must definitely have such devices to make the visitor’s experience uninterrupted and therefore even more enjoyable).
“While you don’t have a fake mustache or stocking over your head, there is no way for a large crowd to prevent them from being secretly imaged,” said Todd Morris. “In these cases, we need to use our technology to combat the technology only at the server level using algorithms that say,” Do not post this photo of me on the Internet. “Internet, by simply recognizing their voice or even their face, they should be able to unmark them the same way. But if everyone starts wearing these Google glasses and other augmented reality glasses, we will face the new type of surveillance because they are likely to record everything they see.
Founder and CEO of Nest Labs (company that makes intelligent thermostats) Tony Fadell said that stealth devices would definitely be available to ordinary people because they could protect their privacy. What he calls “audio cloaks” would be a high-tech hat that pours flat noise from the top and prevents any possibility of anyone recording your babble. However, it is much more difficult to hide pictures, he added. In addition to other possible counter-recording techniques, there is a necklace that emits infrared light and simply blurs all the pictures that are taken in your direction, or a radar watch that vibrates every moment when an audio recorder becomes active nearby.
“Most of the surveillance is organized by governments that want to reduce the level of crime in their countries by watching all of us at the same time,” said David D. Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University。