Your Personal Data is Part of The System.

We are living in a world where practically every move you make is seen, recorded and archived.

We are living in a world where practically every move you make is seen, recorded and archived. Where and how you spend your money, what you say, what medicine you take, what job you have and the people you live with are being documented. Your personal data is now part of the system.

This chronicled world isn't coming in the future, it is here and is having daily fabricated upgrades. This remodel gives, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” a whole new meaning. We really can no longer hide anything. We have been awake yet sleepwalking with our heads down and now we are living in a state of surveillance.

What happens when all this personal information is filtered into one central system? This arrangement watched over by unelected bureaucrats, corporate partners and anyone else deemed essential is too invasive.

All federal payments, Social Security, farm subsidies or veteran benefits are being moved to digital-only systems that can be controlled from a single switch. Biometric data like your photo, fingerprints, DNA and even facial recognition is being tied into these profiles. This is being done without your consent or any ability to opt out.

New rules are allowing some unelected agencies to pull your records and shut down your access if you're flagged, even by mistake. It wouldn’t take much, a photo at a rally, a social media post or an algorithm that doesn’t like the tone of your demeanor. Then BAM, you are suddenly facing an audit, losing access to your benefits, or finding yourself locked out and suspended from your own life, or deported to El Salvador.

This abuse of power always starts with a façade for safety and efficiency. Freedom demands checks and balances, not centralized control. What matters is that no one, Republican, Democrat or unelected official should have this much unchecked power. You don’t need to agree on who’s in charge to agree that this is wrong.

The idea behind this is not about fear mongering. It’s about the simple question of who should have control over your life, you or a government/corporate database that decides for you? To protect ourselves, our families and to preserve our freedoms, we must demand some type of transparency. Our personal data cannot become part of any unscrupulous authoritarian system.

The incarnation of a surveillance type government is dangerous not only because it violates the standard of privacy, but because surveillance fuels control. This is what has and is happening in China.

The Chinese people can be tightly controlled because they are closely surveilled, and the hard scrutiny is rapidly increasing. They have identification cards that are tied to massive databases, constant video-surveillance and checkpoints, house-to-house inspections, a convenience police station for every square territory of 500 inhabitants’ government agents “adopted” by families, etc. This surveillance allows the authorities to rank individuals by a degree of “trustworthiness,” and those that are deemed unreliable, are sent to re-education camps.

The idea that this could never happen here is ludicrous and in fact it is. As Americans we never thought we would be searched at checkpoints under the smokescreen of an inspection, that border agents would have the right to search smartphones or ICE could enter your home without a warrant.

There is no way to look the other way and deny that we are being watched. Automated License Plate Readers see your car on the street. What you mail at the local post office is seen and recorded. Facial recognition technology at the airport. Then there is what you post on social media, as well as what you view. Who knows how much private data can be collected from your smartphone that have now become the central nucleus of human existence.

Our information footprints have become gargantuan. This enormous trail we leave in our wake is easy fodder to feed the government’s desire and ability to collect the intimate details about the who, what, when, where, and how of our personal lives.

Surveillance technologies have grown in leaps and bounds just as the government’s willingness to use them. This is usually done in ways that are not compatible with a free society. Our Constitution is meant to protect us from government monitoring. There is a good reason for this. Authoritarian rulers and governments have long used surveillance as a means to control the public.

Personal data collection is often justified to remain safe, so we choose between liberty and safety. Those who do nothing wrong have nothing to worry about. This is the reason that yesterday’s extreme cases have often become today’s standard practice. Surveillance and control go hand in hand, so control grows as a consequence of surveillance.

Once everyday surveillance is in place, it becomes a low marginal cost for information. When the cost of something decreases, its users want more. The more the government knows, the more controls it will enforce in the future. We have advanced far past the level of necessary and acceptable surveillance. We now need to revisit Benjamin Franklin’s warning.

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 was part of an American delegation sent to Britain to resolve the outstanding disagreements between the Crown and the colonies. Franklin’s comments produced one of his most famous sayings from the period. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Just people should be very leery of surveillance because it can make them become non-law-abiding. With an overabundance of ridiculous laws, you can easily be caught violating one that was never known to exist. A high level of surveillance will, without doubt, multiply the number of new laws imposed on those thought to be law-abiding.

Another concern is the likely abuse of power. Government surveillance programs can be shrouded in secrecy, with little oversight or accountability. This lack of answerability paves the way towards blatant misuse by individuals within or by the institutions themselves.

There have been numerous instances where surveillance tools have been used for purposes that go beyond their stated objectives and engage in discriminatory practices. Without proper safeguards, surveillance programs can be exploited to suppress dissent and violate individual rights.

While advocates argue that these programs are essential for maintaining security, there is little evidence to suggest that they are as effective as claimed. The reliance on surveillance can also lead to a false sense of security.

People don’t seem to understand that with the aid of super advanced technology, the complete system has been redesigned to disengage and disconnect you from your rightful thoughts and insight. This is your independent reasoning process, which is also your direct perception of the truth. When you terminate this connection in a person, they become much easier to manipulate and control. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.