- Just another government conspiracy theory laced with facts from yours truly.
“The most important kind of freedom is to be who you really are. You trade in your reality for a role, and in exchange you put on a mask”- Jim Morrison
The Australian Government is pressing ahead with controversial new metadata storage legislation to help fight home-grown terrorism.
Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop recently chaired the United Nations Security Council meeting and attempted to justify these new laws by saying that terrorists communicated their propaganda directly into our homes through social media, referring to terrorism as the most pressing threat to national and international security.
By collecting up to two years of everyone’s phone and internet history, the government will supposedly be able to reduce the threat of terrorism.
It will be illegal to know if your records are being accessed, even if you are innocent, while information about who you called, who called you, the location of both parties and the duration of your calls will be stored on a government server somewhere, while your file grows with every call you make.
Surveillance is a valuable commodity for governments. It allows them to passively control our actions through fear of consequence and thus, mould us into perfect, obedient citizens of the state.
“Under authority's gaze, many people become smaller, more obedient and less daring”.
The Wall Street Journal recently revealed the extent the American government has gone to monitor internet and mobile activity. Small planes designed to mimic mobile phone towers have been flying all over the country to intercept signals and capture the unique registration information on our mobile phones. This sophisticated surveillance operation has been in operation for nearly a decade. The US government says this technology was developed to locate criminals on the run and boasts about its proficient accuracy, where people can be pinpointed within a 3 metre radius.
The gaze of authority also plays out in literal terms. Closed-circuit television has been the eye of the state since 1949. We know that it’s used to solve crime and locate missing people.
A former model who battled with schizophrenia told me she liked to sleep under CCTV cameras in the city. The watchful gaze of the running tape gave her a sense of security. I felt for her.
As you walk through the streets on your daily grind, often indifferent to the workings of the social and political structures around you, just remember this. Much of what you do is being watched.
Online, we shed data like DNA. The information stored on credit cards, telephone bills and email addresses are all intimately linked to your identity. Every time you purchase online, you are surrendering your personal information to the infinite and sometimes shady world of the internet.
Just today, in a darker, more Russian version of chat roulette, a website was uncovered streaming live images from thousands of private webcams across the globe, including images from the homes of Australians. It took my co-worker 5 minutes to start streaming a stranger’s live feed from the computer next to me.
The eye of the state comes in many forms and as you can see, there is a concerted effort to expand its view. Modern society is interconnected, information-rich and becoming increasingly digitised every day. This structural change is blurring the lines between private and public life. We invest a certain amount of trust in government surveillance and we expect them to do good with their power, but what about the bad apples among us? You cannot deny their existence, unless you believe ignorance is bliss. If any of these surveillance techniques end up in the wrong hands, we are so technologically advanced that the consequences would be more explosive than ever.
If not, what are your feelings about living in a country where the government stores vast amounts of information on its citizens, who are yet to be guilty of anything at all?
Go ahead, buy it online, send the flick over the net, just text me your address or put it in your GPS. Tag your new Opal card when you get off and don’t forget to smile for the cameras. I know you enjoy all the pleasures of these new things.
And repeat after me...
I am free... I am free.
Dijana Damjanovic.
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| Starry Starry Sight by Xin Yu |
The Australian Government is pressing ahead with controversial new metadata storage legislation to help fight home-grown terrorism.
Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop recently chaired the United Nations Security Council meeting and attempted to justify these new laws by saying that terrorists communicated their propaganda directly into our homes through social media, referring to terrorism as the most pressing threat to national and international security.
By collecting up to two years of everyone’s phone and internet history, the government will supposedly be able to reduce the threat of terrorism.
It will be illegal to know if your records are being accessed, even if you are innocent, while information about who you called, who called you, the location of both parties and the duration of your calls will be stored on a government server somewhere, while your file grows with every call you make.
Surveillance is a valuable commodity for governments. It allows them to passively control our actions through fear of consequence and thus, mould us into perfect, obedient citizens of the state.
“Under authority's gaze, many people become smaller, more obedient and less daring”.
The Wall Street Journal recently revealed the extent the American government has gone to monitor internet and mobile activity. Small planes designed to mimic mobile phone towers have been flying all over the country to intercept signals and capture the unique registration information on our mobile phones. This sophisticated surveillance operation has been in operation for nearly a decade. The US government says this technology was developed to locate criminals on the run and boasts about its proficient accuracy, where people can be pinpointed within a 3 metre radius.
The gaze of authority also plays out in literal terms. Closed-circuit television has been the eye of the state since 1949. We know that it’s used to solve crime and locate missing people.
A former model who battled with schizophrenia told me she liked to sleep under CCTV cameras in the city. The watchful gaze of the running tape gave her a sense of security. I felt for her.
As you walk through the streets on your daily grind, often indifferent to the workings of the social and political structures around you, just remember this. Much of what you do is being watched.
Online, we shed data like DNA. The information stored on credit cards, telephone bills and email addresses are all intimately linked to your identity. Every time you purchase online, you are surrendering your personal information to the infinite and sometimes shady world of the internet.
Just today, in a darker, more Russian version of chat roulette, a website was uncovered streaming live images from thousands of private webcams across the globe, including images from the homes of Australians. It took my co-worker 5 minutes to start streaming a stranger’s live feed from the computer next to me.
The eye of the state comes in many forms and as you can see, there is a concerted effort to expand its view. Modern society is interconnected, information-rich and becoming increasingly digitised every day. This structural change is blurring the lines between private and public life. We invest a certain amount of trust in government surveillance and we expect them to do good with their power, but what about the bad apples among us? You cannot deny their existence, unless you believe ignorance is bliss. If any of these surveillance techniques end up in the wrong hands, we are so technologically advanced that the consequences would be more explosive than ever.
If not, what are your feelings about living in a country where the government stores vast amounts of information on its citizens, who are yet to be guilty of anything at all?
Go ahead, buy it online, send the flick over the net, just text me your address or put it in your GPS. Tag your new Opal card when you get off and don’t forget to smile for the cameras. I know you enjoy all the pleasures of these new things.
And repeat after me...
I am free... I am free.
Dijana Damjanovic.
The eye of the state is always watching 👁
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