- Big Brother on Steriods: Lifelog
by Rachel Naba
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Itıs a memory aid! Itıs a super-human robot! Itıs a terrorist catcher! Itıs spy technology created by the government, and it is coming soon to citizens like you from the Pentagon. It is called LifeLog, and it is a project that has been put out for contract bids by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the same agency that helped build the internet. The DARPA is not developing the next generation of anti-terrorism technology, and although the agency does not consider it to be an anti-terrorism system, LIfeLog is one of its prized projects.
LifeLog is a tool that will capture a persons “experience in and interactions with the world” through a camera, microphone and sensors worn by the user. Cameras and microphones will capture what the user says, sees and hears. Sensors will record what he feels. Global Positioning Satalite (GPS) sensors will log every movement one makes. Biomedical sensors will monitor vital signs, including heartbeat and blood pressure. E-mails, instant messages, telephone calls, voicemails, web-based transactions and web pages visited will be recorded and stored. Mail and faxes will be scanned. Links to every radio and television broadcast heard and every book, magazine, journal, newspaper or database will be recorded. Software will automatically produce an electronic diary that organizes the data into ³episodes² of ones life, according to the documents. The software will “be able to find meaningful patterns in the timetable, to infer the userıs routines, habits and relationships with other people, organizations, places and objects” DARPA told contractors in an advisory. The products of LifeLog will be available to both the private sector and governmental agencies.
Professor Steve Mann of the University of Toronto is already using this technology. He is currently working with Samsung on a commercial version of his version. Mann spent 30 years developing a wearable camera and computer, progressing from intricate metallic headgear to dark frame eyeglasses and a cell-phone sized belt attachment.
Gordon Bell of Microsoft has the same idea to record his life. He scans his email and other papers for storage. He records phone calls. He stores web, video and voice transactions. He stores it all in a computer file called MyLifeBits. Microsoft may include these abilities in upcoming products. Reports show that neither Mann nor Bell will bid on DARPAıs LifeLog project.
DARPA is taking the technology a bit further. They are going to develop artificial intelligence to analyze the data. Some speculation on how the data will be used include: military applications, anti-terrorism schemes, and building smarter robots and computers. The material will be indexed so that patterns are easily accessed in an effort to make machines think more like people. They hope to make them able to learn from experience.
If they are successful, it could mean more effective computers for the U.S. military that are capable of building on a userıs past and interpreting his or her commands. It would mean smarter, more efficient computers and machines that are able to reason in a number of ways and “respond in a robust manner to surprises,” said the DARPAıs Information Processing Technology Office.
The scope of the information that LifeLog will capture and store, and the availability of such information to the government and private sectors, is understandably causing an uproar of concern from certain members of Congress, privacy advocacy groups and conscious citizens across the country. Regardless what program administers will have us believe, an increasing number of US citizens are beginning to open their eyes to the realities of governmental action, suppression of freedoms, and surveillance. A growing number of citizens are refusing to be blindfolded any longer.
Under the Terrorist Information Awareness, or TIA, (formerly Total Information Awareness) database, DARPA is already planning to track all of an individuals ³transactional data². This includes what we buy, who gets our email, and our credit reports. Now, with LifeLog, physical information (like how we feel), media data (what we read, watch and listen to), who we correspond with and where we go may be added to TIAıs data. We are already being watched with the help of ATM cameras, roadside cameras and automatic tollbooth passes that can trace a personıs path. Where will the surveillance end? Will it end?
Supposedly, the LifeLog will be implemented with the consent of each user. No mention has been made, however, whether this ³consent² will be an opt-in or an opt-out option. Will hardware be automatically placed in telephones, cars, computers, fax machines and radios? Will we need to purchase special electronics that do not have these hardware devices implanted in them if we want to opt out of the project? Or will we have the option of requesting that we be used in the program?
Questions about the use of the information and an individuals right to privacy are also a primary concern. James X. Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology is highly concerned about privacy issues. “Because you collected it voluntarily, the government can get it with a search warrant. And an increasing amount of personal data is also available from third parties. The government can get data from them simply by asking or signing a subpoena.”
People simply do not feel comfortable knowing that Uncle Sam will be watching and analyzing their every move. They will be able to know what time you eat dinner, which restaurants you patronize, where you shop and where your children go to school. They will know what books you read, the news you watch, and the organizations you come into contact with. They will be able to predict when you will not be at home (and with the Patriot Act I and II and the use of unannounced wire tapping, secret searches and surveillance, worrying about the authorities paying a visit to your house while you are out is no longer reserved for organized crime families). The government will be able to analyze what you watch and read, making it possible to increase their ³influence² and covert censorship in those areas. Big brother will be listening to your calls, reading your emails, surfing the web with you and reading your letters, and they will be able to assess whether they feel you are a ³threat² to national security. They will analyze your feelings by using your heart rate, blood pressure and verbal/written expressions, and may be able to use that information for stronger brainwashing propaganda.
If you ever participate in a demonstration or rally, they will know. If you ever visit a website that is not pro-American, they will have it on record. If you ever have an affiliation with a group that is considered to be dissident, you may be flagged. If you donıt pay your taxes, the IRS can find out. They will hear everything negative you say about he president, the government, or congress. With LifeLog, the government and other private entities will have access to very personal information, down to how many times one visits the toilet each day.
Steven Afterfood, a Federation of American Scientists defense analyst, said LifeLog will collect much more information than needed, and that it will be enough ³to measure human experience on an unprecedentedly specific level.² This is worrisome.
LifeLog is still in its embryonic state. The government is scheduled to award four contracts for the project this summer. DARPA is asking industry and academics to submit proposals in which the scientists themselves are the centerpiece of their study. The amount of money that will be funneled into this project is unknown. Despite the fact that LifeLog is still in the very beginning stages, conscious people are worried. Aftergood wrote, “The more that an individualıs characteristic behavior patterns -- routines, relationships and habitsı -- can be represented in digital form, the easier it would become to distinguish among different individuals, or to monitor one.” How far will we, as citizens of this country, allow the government to go? We are quickly becoming one of the most monitored people in the world.
