11268 - Stop demonising Aadhaar - Telengana Today

Stop demonising Aadhaar

Published: 6th May 2017   12:30 am Updated: 6th May 2017   12:35 am

Invoking the Orwellian images of State surveillance to oppose the Aadhaar card system is wholly irrational and misplaced. To think that an identification tool for streamlining citizen services will automatically amount to usurping citizens’ rights is a warped notion, particularly in this technology-driven age. While genuine concerns over privacy issues need to be addressed, the importance of having a robust and fool-proof scientific database of citizens, with unique identification numbers, cannot be ignored. 

Any attempt to give an ideological spin to the ongoing debate over Aadhaar and turning it into a ‘State versus civil rights’ face-off is a self-defeating exercise. It would be a great disservice to the people if modern transparency tools are blocked in the garb of protecting individual rights. Aadhaar is essentially an e-governance tool to help streamline the systems, eliminate leakages and bogus claims, rationalise welfare schemes and bring all citizens under the ambit of formal economy. However, concerns are being raised over privacy and security issues if Aadhaar is linked to PAN card and made mandatory for income tax returns. It is argued that since there are no safeguards at present to prevent misuse or leakage of citizens’ data, Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for I-T assessment and welfare schemes. 

While the question whether Aadhaar should be voluntary or mandatory will be decided by the Supreme Court, the nation needs to repose faith in the teams of talented and dedicated professionals who are tirelessly working on a robust and error-free system that is meant for larger public good.

Since its inception in 2009, the biometric-based resident identification programme has met with scepticism amid fears over data violation and breach of privacy. The problems of identity theft, fraud and misrepresentation are real concerns that need to be fixed. While there is a strong case for a national law for data privacy and protection, rejecting the Aadhaar system on the grounds of possible privacy breach is like throwing the baby with the bathwater. An identification number is the best way to make government spending on welfare more efficient and ensure that benefits reach the needy. 

Since there were many instances in the past where people held multiple PAN numbers to evade taxes, linking Aadhaar with PAN card will actually go a long way in curbing tax evasion and black money. 

As on April 15 this year, over 113 crore Indians, accounting for 88% of the total population, have an Aadhaar number. Already, the programme has helped in eliminating bogus beneficiaries of welfare schemes, resulting in a saving of Rs 50,000 crore to the exchequer. It is clear that Aadhaar can plug leakages in social welfare schemes and must be implemented vigorously while simultaneously putting in place enough safeguards.

11112 - Across the aisle: Go back and read George Orwell - Indian Express

Across the aisle: Go back and read George Orwell

The Yashwant Sinha-led committee slammed almost every aspect of Aadhaar and the Bill to establish the UIDAI.

Written by P Chidambaram | Published:April 23, 2017 1:34 am

What led to the idea of Aadhaar? Government transfers a number of benefits to different sections of the people.

Aadhaar, a unique identification number to every citizen, was an idea born in 2009. Was it an idea ahead of its time? A lot of people thought so, especially people working at the ground level among the poor and the neglected sections of the people.

Aadhaar was not a revolutionary idea. It is the foundation on which identity cards are issued in dozens of countries. Aadhaar was also not a novel idea. In India, other instruments have been issued — and are in use — which also serve as proof of identity for certain purposes. The best known are passports, driving licences, PAN and ration cards.

What led to the idea of Aadhaar? Government transfers a number of benefits to different sections of the people. Among them are scholarships, old age pensions, subsidies etc. In a vast country with a very large population, the delivery of benefits to the right persons poses a formidable challenge. Impersonation, falsification, duplication, pilferage, diversion and rent-seeking are the bane of any system of delivering benefits. Aadhaar was intended to get rid of the known evils of the system.

BJP Led The Opposition

Yet, when the idea of Aadhaar was mooted, it ran into fierce opposition. Nowhere was the opposition expressed more vehemently than in the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance presented to both Houses of Parliament on December 13, 2011. Mr Yashwant Sinha, as Chairman of the Committee, led the charge against Aadhaar. From the pronouncements of prominent BJP leaders at that time (Mr Narendra Modi, Mr Prakash Javadekar and Mr Ananth Kumar) it was evident that Mr Sinha had the support of a powerful section of his party. Today, if he reads some of the conclusions of the committee, he will be embarrassed!

The Yashwant Sinha-led committee slammed almost every aspect of Aadhaar and the Bill to establish the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). It questioned the wisdom of collecting biometric information; it warned of ID fraud; it pointed out that the estimate of failure of biometrics was as high as 15 per cent; it highlighted issues of privacy and data security; it cautioned against the involvement of private agencies, etc. The committee’s most serious objection was to the possible exclusion of genuine beneficiaries and it observed:

“Although the scheme claims that obtaining Aadhaar number is voluntary, an apprehension is found to have developed in the minds of people that, in future, services/benefits including food entitlements would be denied in case they do not have Aadhaar number.”

UPA Moved Cautiously

Nevertheless, the UPA government moved forward cautiously, using its executive powers, a non-statutory UIDAI, and the impressive talent assembled by Mr Nandan Nilekani. Before the UPA demitted office, 600 million Aadhaar cards had been issued (now one billion) and some Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes had been linked to Aadhaar.

Studies have indicated that the DBT works: transfer of old age pensions through DBT has reduced the incidence of poverty. Cash transfers, instead of transfer in kind, have not adversely impacted food consumption; on the contrary they have increased consumption of eggs, pulses, fish and meat. On the other hand, cash transfer instead of kerosene has increased the demand for fuel wood.

However, sections of civil society continued to challenge Aadhaar, mainly on the ground that it may have the unintended consequence of excluding deserving beneficiaries. The Supreme Court stepped in and, in 2013, by an interim order, directed that Aadhaar could not be made mandatory to receive benefits. In 2015, the Court agreed to examine issues relating to privacy and referred the case to a larger bench of the Court. Aadhaar was permitted only for Direct Benefit Transfer schemes such as scholarships, social security payments, subsidised LPG and MGNREGA wages.

On assuming office, the NDA/BJP government did a U-turn. Mr Arun Jaitley admitted as much when he said that, following a presentation by the UIDAI and satisfactory answers to their questions, the government was convinced about the merit of the Aadhaar project!

While the change of heart was welcome, what one did not expect was that the government would throw all caution to the winds and extend Aadhaar, indiscriminately, to welfare as well as non-welfare programmes. The government has made the possession of Aadhaar practically mandatory to receive benefits or to comply with regulatory laws, thus brazenly disregarding the limits set by the Supreme Court. Aadhaar is now required to file an income-tax return, to get a mobile telephone connection, to receive a university degree and so on. Soon, it is feared, Aadhaar will be mandatory to get a driving licence or an air ticket or even a rail ticket. Will it then be extended to taking health insurance or becoming a member of a library or paying one’s club bills?

The Privacy Issue

That would be a gross and unconstitutional invasion of privacy. While a unique identity mark is necessary, it cannot become a potential device to spy on people’s lives or gather private information that has no relevance to good governance. We must remember we do not yet have a comprehensive law on data protection or privacy.

Implementing an idea as far reaching as Aadhaar requires careful design, pilot projects, testing and validation, and robust security features. Absent these limiting factors, yet implementing Aadhaar on a mandatory basis, will give the government the instrument and the power to build a mass surveillance system and take one step toward an Orwellian State. Don’t say you were not warned.

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10970 - We are heading for an Orwellian state, says P Chidambaram on widespread Aadhaar-seeding - IB Times

We are heading for an Orwellian state, says P Chidambaram on widespread Aadhaar-seeding

Aadhaar is being linked to income-tax returns, public provident fund, old and new SIM cards, bank accounts and many more government services and schemes.

Arkadev Ghoshal

April 2, 2017 07:59 IST

Former Union minister P Chidambaram at a panel discussion in Bengaluru on Saturday, April 1, 2017.IBTimes/Arkadev Ghoshal

Congress veteran P Chidambaram said at a gathering in Bengaluru on Saturday, April 1, that India was moving towards an "Orwellian state" given how the current central government, led by the BJP, was making Aadhaar mandatory for many services across the board, from income-tax returns to provident fund to even SIM cards for mobile phones.

Also read: After income tax, PAN, EPF and mobile numbers, now Hajj applications to be linked to Aadhaar!

The reference was to the totalitarian or dystopian state in George Orwell's seminal novel 1984, where the government, as Big Brother, keeps a watchful eye on the masses and crushes even the hint of a rebellion with an iron fist. The similarity is often drawn to denote a dictatorial rule where the government heavily censors and censures public opinion and action.

During a panel discussion and a subsequent question-and-answer session in Bengaluru on Saturday evening, Chidambaram said that the Centre was getting extraordinary powers by making Aadhaar mandatory for almost every service or government scheme. "I think they will make it mandatory for medical insurance next," he said.

Chidambaram then went on to explain that making Aadhaar mandatory for things like one's bank account and booking a flight ticket, along with everything else, would mean "the government knows where I am, my financial status, where I am travelling and even by medical condition [in case Aadhaar is made mandatory for medical or life insurance]." He said this was amounting to a huge invasion of privacy.

Chidambaram added: "With Aadhaar seeding and digitisation of transactions, we are moving towards an Orwellian state." He used the word "gross" to describe the situation. He also said the Congress had initially wanted Aadhaar to be linked to only Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) bank accounts and to provide subsidies to people.

4473 - Snowden’s exile warning against UID scheme by Sandhya Jain - Niti Central

Snowden’s exile warning against UID scheme

By Sandhya Jain on August 10, 2013

It is strange that no human rights activist or political party in India has demanded that the UPA Government immediately destroy the vast biometric data of citizens that it collected illegally, even after Edward Snowden exposed the mass surveillance programmes being run by the Governments of the United States and Britain, with at least one server planted on the territory of India.

Snowden escaped incarceration for life in some isolated Guantanamo-type facility by securing ‘temporary’ asylum in Russia, after Washington grounded him at Moscow airport by cancelling his passport. He is likely to remain in Russia for the rest of his life, an irony that could make Moscow the new destination of those fleeing from the repulsive intrusiveness that George Orwell foresaw would be the fate of Western democracies. Big Brother is indeed watching you — all of us, in fact.

But no country over which the Americans have planted their spy cameras and listening devices is as vulnerable as India, because none other has so brazenly collected the biometric data of its entire population. The unique identification (Aadhar) programme has been executed illegally without Parliamentary sanction, at the expense of the taxpayer. Congress regimes like the Delhi Government have illegally forced citizens to enroll under the programme by denying property registration and other civic rights without an Aadhar number.

Right-thinking citizens always had doubts about the intent of the project — which can cancel the citizenship, voting rights, even bank accounts, of citizens — with a single click on the delete button. This is the ultimate in totalitarian power that has always been sought by the security establishments of countries like America which are committed to world domination, which is why the resistance to these powerful technologies emanates from there.

Biometric data is prone to misuse. Its very safety is difficult to guarantee in a world full of accomplished hackers, not to mention compulsive snoops. A particular denomination that feels targeted when certain crimes take place would be especially vulnerable in this regard. This is a grave danger to the entire citizenry, and the Supreme Court would do well, even at this late stage, to order the scrapping of the project and the destruction of all data. It never had any genuine justification, and after the expose by Snowden — who worked for both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) — there is no reason to believe that the data is safe.

So dogged is America in its pursuit of Snowden and all who helped him, even inadvertently, that an encrypted email service believed to have been used by him, shut down suddenly on August 8, after the US Government tried to gain access to customer information. The owner, Ladar Levison, explained to customers, “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people, or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.”

He further warned, “This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without Congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.” This was a hint at Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and other large providers who, according to Snowden’s leaks, were forced to help intelligence authorities gather email and other data on their users. Soon afterwards, another famous service, Silent Mail, also closed down, seeing the writing on the wall.

The sheer scale of NSA intrusion is causing some misgivings even in the normally discreet mainstream media, with the New York Times editorially commenting on August 8, “Time and again, the NSA has pushed past the limits that lawmakers thought they had imposed to prevent it from invading basic privacy, as guaranteed by the Constitution.” The NSA, the newspaper noted, “copies virtually all overseas messages that Americans send or receive, then scans them to see if they contain any references to people or subjects the agency thinks might have a link to terrorists… data collection on this scale… clearly shreds a common-sense understanding of the Fourth Amendment.” It called for Congress to clamp down on snooping that is not connected to specific targets.

Meanwhile, in the Capital alone, the Delhi State Election Commission found during the course of a routine exercise to weed out bogus voters, that there are over 12 lakh fake names on the voters’ list. In one instance alone, 30 residents of Seelampur got voter identity cards on the basis of a single Aadhar Card (no. 229575371505).

This means that all 30 persons had the same address proof with the same serial number, but different names and photographs. This is not possible without official complicity. It is clearly intended to facilitate bogus voting at election time. It is likely that some of the persons thus given voter identity cards may not be genuine citizens of India. Indeed, this was one of the greatest objections to the Unique Identification Programme in the first place.

Imagine what a foreign Government could do with citizens’ biometric data. Imagine if a country known to sponsor terror got its hands on our biometric data — it could use it to implicate innocent Indians in crimes they did not commit, to forge citizenship cards for its operatives, or to clean out target bank accounts. The possibilities are endless.

Another interesting scam that has come to light in the capital is that against a population of 16.8 million (2011 Census), Delhi has 18 million people on its ration cards. Since the middle classes were made to surrender their ration cards after the voter identity cards were introduced some decades ago, this means that at least 50 per cent, if not more, of the names on the ration cards are bogus.

This is clearly a scam to benefit certain chosen food grain dealers under the guise of the Food Security Bill that Sonia Gandhi hopes to push through in the Parliament session, in order to win the next election.

The food and supplies department claims it will weed out bogus claimants via Aadhar, and the Election Commission has already shown us how that can be fudged. So we are going to have a scam of unprecedented numbers in the guise of rectifying the shortcomings of the old public distribution system (PDS).

3458 - Aadhaar card: Compulsion by stealth - Economic Times

Aadhaar card: Compulsion by stealth

Bibek Debroy  

Thursday June 27, 2013, 09:24 AM

The Aadhaar card has been around for a few years now. If you go back and read pronouncements made by senior government functionaries when Aadhaar was launched, in 2009, many of them said Aadhaar isn't mandatory. UIDAI's website still proclaims this. Since the effective launch in 2010, 340 million Indians have voluntarily registered themselves for Aadhaar cards already. There can't be too many places in the world where such remarkably consistent choice has been exercised in favour of a government scheme. In the 4/5 years that have passed since launch, the tenor of pronouncements by senior government functionaries has changed. Initially, it was, Aadhaar isn't mandatory. Then it became, Aadhaar isn't mandatory. But it will be extremely difficult to obtain public goods and services without Aadhaar. Therefore, we won't make it mandatory. But we will force you to make a choice in favour of Aadhaar. Did you read about the decision taken by Jharkhand government a few days ago? Marriages won't be registered in Jharkhand without Aadhaar numbers. By the way, in May 2013, 49.49% of Jharkhand's population had Aadhaar numbers.

Marriage registration isn't compulsory in India. There is a Compulsory Registration of Marriages Bill floating around (since 2005). Though marriage registration has benefits, I think compulsory registrations is a bad idea, both because such provisions are difficult to enforce and because they impose additional transaction costs on the poor. So what about the non-enumerated 51.51% in Jharkhand? I guess the response will be that they will all eventually be enumerated and till then, marriages can be hold. I asked an UIDAI representative about Jharkhand government's decision and about the earlier May decision of Delhi government, making Aadhaar mandatory for property and marriage registration. (There is a PIL in Delhi High Court on this.) His response was that Aadhaar wasn't mandatory for Union public goods and services, though the Union had no control over what State governments did. That's easy, blame State governments, though this 2013 response is quite different from the 2009 response.

So I asked him about EPFO. Aadhaar has been made mandatory for EPFO, hasn't it? And EPFO can't be blamed on State governments. I was thereupon told that this is only for those who enrol in EPFO after March 2013 (I am not sure this is quite right) and therefore, Aadhaar isn't universally mandatory. 

That's a facetious argument. But whichever way you look at it. Aadhaar is gradually being made mandatory. That's understandable. A lot of people who take policy decisions have a 1984 kind of streak (I mean the Orwell novel) in them and probably love the Idea advertisement. Apart from transaction costs on poor, what bothers me about this is the non-transparent way government has gone about this. One might as well have said, right from the beginning, that Aadhaar was going to be mandatory. It would have raised some more hackles and caused a problem with the legislation. But it would have been honest and transparent.

3069 - 29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid

29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid

 By Michael, on November 21st, 2012

The elite want to tightly control almost everything that we do, say and think.  When most people think of "tyranny", they think of thugs with guns and little dictators running around barking orders at everyone.  But that is not how the elite are accomplishing their goals these days.  They want us to actually believe that we have freedom and that we are choosing our own leaders, but in the background they are exerting "soft power" in a way that is absolutely ruthless.  

They fund the political campaigns of our politicians, they own nearly all of the large corporations and financial institutions, they exert very tight control over the media and their agenda is being promoted through the education systems of virtually every nation on the planet.  What the elite are doing is not illegal.  In fact, they use the government and they use the law to accomplish their purposes.  That is one reason why the elite love big government.  For them, it is an instrument of control.  The larger the government is, the easier it is to watch, track, monitor and control the rest of us.  As you read this, a "total domination control grid" is being constructed all around us that is far beyond anything that George Orwell ever dreamed of.  This system is advancing on hundreds of different fronts, and it is getting tighter and more restrictive with each passing day.  We may think that we still have a certain degree of liberty, but if you start doing things that the system does not like, the system has a way of getting you back in line very quickly.  In the end, it is all about control.  There are many among the elite that actually believe that a tightly controlled society that is dominated by government institutions that they control is what is best for humanity.  Many of them honestly believe that society would descend into chaos without a strong hand guiding it.  Many of them truly are convinced that those that are "enlightened" are doing a noble thing by guiding humanity into the "bright future" that the elite are designing for them.  But of course the freedoms and the liberties of the common people must be greatly limited in order to get us to that "bright future".  We are like cattle that need to be penned in for our own good.  This is how the elite actually think.  I spent many years being educated by them and rubbing shoulders with them.  They should not be trusted.  Once our liberties and freedoms are gone, they will be nearly impossible to get back.  And once the elite have total control, we will be faced with a tyranny unlike anything humanity has ever seen before.

The following are 29 signs that the elite are transforming society into a total domination control grid...

1. A new bill in the U.S. Senate would allow more than 20 different government agencies to read your email without a search warrant.

2. Next generation facial recognition cameras that can identify a person in less than a second and "send authorities all known intelligence about anyone who enters a camera’s field of vision" are being put up in southern California.

3. A highly sophisticated surveillance grid known as "Trapwire" is being installed in major cities and at "high value targets" all over the United States.  Unfortunately, most Americans do not even realize that it exists.

4. Police departments all over America are beginning to deploy unmanned surveillance drones in the skies over their cities.  But don't think that a drone is not watching you just because you don't live in a major city.  The truth is that the federal government has been using unmanned surveillance drones to spy on farmers in Iowa and Nebraska.  There could be a drone over your house right now and you might not ever know it.

5. Individual politicians know more about you than they ever have before. The amount of information that the Obama campaign has compiled on potential voters is absolutely frightening...

If you voted this election season, President Obama almost certainly has a file on you. His vast campaign database includes information on voters’ magazine subscriptions, car registrations, housing values and hunting licenses, along with scores estimating how likely they were to cast ballots for his reelection.

6. The UK is often five or ten years ahead of much of the rest of the world in implementing "Big Brother" police state measures.  Over there it is now against the law to insult someone with your speech.  If you say something that is "likely" to insult a Muslim or a homosexual you could end up being dragged in front of a judge.  It is only a matter of time before we see these kinds of laws all over the planet.

7. Could you imagine the government telling you what the temperature inside your own home can be?  A new law in France would do exactly that...

Heating a French home could soon require an income tax consultation or even a visit to the doctor under legislation to force conservation in the nation's $46 billion household energy market.

A bill adopted by the lower house this month would set prices that homes pay based on wages, age and climate. Utilities Electricite de France and GDF Suez will use the data to reward consumers who cut power and natural gas usage and penalize those whom regulators decide are wasteful.

8. Control freak bureaucrats love to tell others how to run their lives.  For example, one man down in Orlando, Florida was recently ordered to rip out the vegetable garden that he was growing in his front yard.  Will we eventually get to the point where even the smallest details of our lives are micromanaged by the government?

9. Most Americans don't realize this, but the DNA of almost every newborn baby in America is collected and stored by the government.  What plans do they have for all of this DNA?

10. All over America, schools are beginning to require students to carry IDs with RFID microchips in them wherever they go.  Fortunately, some students are fighting back...

The San Antonio sophomore who opposed microchipping student IDs that would track their every movement has inspired a groundswell of 300 students in her huge district who now refuse to wear the identification chips over religious, personal privacy, safety and civil liberties concerns. In addition, some 700 other people have signed petitions opposing the microchipping program.

11. There is more crossover between our education system and our law enforcement system than ever before.  An increasing number of schools in the United States have police officers roaming their hallways, and today there are more than 70,000 children behind bars in America.

12. When you rely on FEMA to take care of you, it can literally feel like you are in prison.  The following is a description of what life is like in one FEMA camp that was set up in New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy...

“Sitting there last night you could see your breath,” displaced resident Brian Sotelo told the Asbury Park Press. “At (Pine Belt) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletived).”

Sotelo said Blackhawk helicopters patrol the skies “all day and night” and a black car with tinted windows surveys the camp while the government moves heavy equipment past the tents at night. According to the story, reporters aren’t even allowed in the fenced complex, where lines of displaced residents form outside portable toilets. Security guards are posted at every door, and residents can’t even use the toilet or shower without first presenting I.D.

“They treat us like we’re prisoners,” Ashley Sabol told Reuters. “It’s bad to say, but we honestly feel like we’re in a concentration camp.”

13. Your cell phone collects information about you wherever you go, and law enforcement authorities in the United States requested that cell phone data be turned over to them more than a million times in 2011 alone.

14. The federal government has created an iPhone app that is designed to encourage all of us to take photos of "suspicious activity" and report our neighbors to the authorities.

15. The U.S. government is increasingly using spyware to monitor the behavior of their employees while they are at work.

16. According to three NSA whistleblowers, the agency "has the capability to do individualized searches, similar to Google, for particular electronic communications in real time through such criteria as target addresses, locations, countries and phone numbers, as well as watch-listed names, keywords, and phrases in email."

17. Private corporations are gathering every shred of information about you that they possible can. One of the largest companies involved in "mining our data" is known as Acxiom.  It turns out that Acxiom has compiled information on more than 190 million people in the United States alone…

The company fits into a category called database marketing. It started in 1969 as an outfit called Demographics Inc., using phone books and other notably low-tech tools, as well as one computer, to amass information on voters and consumers for direct marketing. Almost 40 years later, Acxiom has detailed entries for more than 190 million people and 126 million households in the U.S., and about 500 million active consumers worldwide. More than 23,000 servers in Conway, just north of Little Rock, collect and analyze more than 50 trillion data ‘transactions’ a year.

18. We are being trained to give up our privacy and our dignity in the name of "security".  For example, what the TSA did recently to one woman who was dying of leukemia was absoutely shameful...

A dying woman says a a security pat-down at Sea-Tac Airport left her embarrassed in front of crowds of people.

Michelle Dunaj says screeners checked under bandages from recent surgeries and refused to give her a private search when she requested one.

19. According to one recent survey, nearly one-third of all Americans would be willing to submit to a "TSA body cavity search" in order to fly.

20. Law enforcement authorities all over the United States will soon be driving around in unmarked vehicles looking inside your cars and even under your clothes using the same backscatter technology currently being used by the TSA at U.S. airports…

American cops are set to join the US military in deploying American Science & Engineering’s Z Backscatter Vans, or mobile backscatter radiation x-rays. These are what TSA officials call “the amazing radioactive genital viewer,” now seen in airports around America, ionizing the private parts of children, the elderly, and you (yes you).

These pornoscannerwagons will look like regular anonymous vans, and will cruise America’s streets, indiscriminately peering through the cars (and clothes) of anyone in range of its mighty isotope-cannon. But don’t worry, it’s not a violation of privacy. As AS&E’s vice president of marketing Joe Reiss sez, “From a privacy standpoint, I’m hard-pressed to see what the concern or objection could be.”

21. A company known as BRS Labs has developed "pre-crime surveillance cameras" that supposedly can identify criminal activity before it happens.  These cameras are being installed at major transportation hubs all over San Francisco.

22. According to Gizmodo, the Department of Homeland Security will soon be using laser-based scanners that can scan your body, your clothes and your luggage from 164 feet away...

Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it.

The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security. In-Q-Tel is a company founded “in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Congress.” According to In-Q-Tel, they are the bridge between the Agency and new technology companies.

Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States.

23. A complex network of automated license plate readers carefully track the movements of millions of vehicles as they move in and out of Washington D.C. and the surrounding suburbs.  Most people do not even know that they are there.

24. The FBI is spending a billion dollars to develop a biometric identification system that will reportedly be far more sophisticated than anything that law enforcement in the United States has ever had before….

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics, that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this biometric data is captured, through a nationwide network of cameras and photo databases, that is raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates.

Until now, the FBI relied on IAFIS, a national fingerprint database that has long been due an overhaul. Over the last few months, the FBI has been pilot testing a facial recognition system — and soon, detectives will also be able to search the system for other biometrics such as DNA records and iris scans.

25. If the government decides that you are a "bad guy", they can put you on a "no fly list" that will ban you from flying indefinitely.  This can be done to you at any time, without any notice, and you won't be told that it has happened.  In fact, as one prepper discovered recently, you might only find out that you are on the list when you try to board a flight.

26. Those that revere individual liberty are now being labeled as "potential terrorists" in official U.S. government documents.

27. A National Guard whistleblower recently revealed that members of his unit were told that "doomsday preppers" will be treated as "terrorists" when civil unrest breaks out.

28. One family in Idaho recently had their home raided by a SWAT team because a computer identified them as "constitutionalists" after someone had phoned in and complained about a domestic disturbance at their address.

29. Today, the mainstream media in the United States is totally dominated by just six giant corporations.  Those corporations own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and large numbers of popular websites.  The way that almost every American looks at the world is being constantly influenced by these media corporations every single day.

Please share this list with as many people as you can.  We desperately need to wake people up while there is still time.