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Yes, that sounds like fun...
Right, do that, ok?
Sorry love, I have to go.
Yes? Okay, see you tonight.
That's okay, yes, do that.
Kiss... bye love.
Sorry about that...
I am pretty set on my privacy.
Like most people I think.
We live in a country where we can do what we want...
Where we're not being listened in on, where you don't go to jail
when you do or say something 'wrong'.
This is what happens in certain corrupt countries or dictatorships where there is no freedom of expression.
Where leaders keep a close eye on their people...
and deprive them of their freedom.
Fortunately, we are safe, as long as we comply with the law and have nothing to hide.
We can do whatever we want, we are not being monitored.
At least, that's what we think...
You probably have no idea, that we're also being monitored.
Being watched and recorded at work and...
in our private life at millions of our daily actions and transactions. We are being watched and analysed by...
the government and corporations.
The more they know about us...
the better they can predict how we react to new products, ads and prices.
That's why corporations put together complex physical data like our expenditures and our behaviour.
Everytime somebody clicks an internet link, dials a number...
uses a credit card, loyalty card or a public transport card...
that person adds important and personal information to their own data record.
To make this work in todays compatitive consumermarket...
companies seek the razors edge of hidden techniques to accomplish this.
Take for example this loyalty card...
in this case I'm being defined by what I buy as...
male, young, rich, healthy...
But perhaps also... impulsive and gullible
and A plus B equals C?
Corporations make nice promises in their privacy statemens...
But this will always loose out in favour of the revenues
Therefore it is very difficult to protect your privacy against companies and the government
In the fight against crime the government can always just get this information.
There is even an EU directive that requires phone companies and internet service providers to...
store the traffic data of every call and every email...
for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum period of 2 years.
This creates an incredibly penetrating tool to find out with whom you've had contact and where you've been.
So the data about the call I made this afternoon has been recorded and is being retained.
It looks like every piece of information by itself is not that important.
But all the pieces of the puzzle are put together to look into on our lives and personal networks.
Unfortunately this is being done by machines...
raizing the possiblility a very distorted picture is formed.
With the correct use of all this information, terrorism and crime can be put to a halt, but...
we've also seen it can go wrong.
When a researcher was looking for heavy water, and he lived in the same street as a Muslim...
they both and their whole street were put under surveillance.
The system missed the fact that the teacher was a chemistry teacher.
Human common sense was replaced with a system created from patterns and by machines.
Dumb systems catch stupid criminals.
Since terrorist attacks are extremely rare and since there is no clear profile...
even the most accurate systems will be flooded with with false alarms in such a way...
that they will be rendered useless because they look for recurring patterns to predict and...
to prevent future events from happening.
The expected pattern even makes us...
watch the skies, while the bombs are placed in trains.
Smart criminals can use this to their advantage.
No system is foolproof and criminals are eager to discover its vulnerabilities.
With CCTV camera's that watch our every move...
our right to privacy; our right to be left alone... has been replaced
with the thought that you might be a potential criminal.
This method has our consent because we got afraid after the terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid.
In this Kafka-eske society we've been transformed from people into objects.
What happened to the biggest principle of democracy?
- Innocent until proven guilty!
Privacy isn't meant to be a cover for your sins.
Privacy is all about who has information on you and what they can do with it.
Therefore you must be aware of what information is collected
Checking means everything.
In London citizens are being filmed by CCTV camera's up to 300 times a day.
These camera's grow in numbers and shrink in size.
"I've got nothing to hide" you think...
"so I've got nothing to be afraid of."
But the people we've elected to lead us...
more oftenly decide their rights in private...
their systems kept hidden and we're being watched behind closed doors...
This growth in gathering of information will in the end deprive us of our feeling of freedom.
Even to the point that it will prevent us to function in our role as citizen, company or government.
Individual power will be surplanted with a kind of herd mentality of us vs. them.
During the industrial revolution people saw the damage of greed and smashed the machines to pieces...
with iron bars and billets.
This... is not the solution.
The endless development of technology...
must be put to good use, to create an unsurpassed service to consumers.
And then the corporations must make and keep a promise to do good.
Laptops with sensitive data are being stolen from cars...
back-ups are being lost...
and hackers break into databases...
even into the Pentagon.
With employees peeping into files and laptops which are lost this can lead...
to a huge invasion of privacy and identity theft.
We live in a technology driven revolution.
More complex calculations create even higher levels of control.
Every electronic transaction, communication and change is recorded.
Security companies install, promote and control access to...
data networks of incredible capacity.
Sensitive and complex formulas filter all aspects of our private lives.
We are human.
The seperation between private and public is the foundation of our democracy.
As citizens we are giving away our rights...
without the possibility of asking questions about the methods used...
on how our data is being used...
or who has access to it.
How efficient is it to record all the moves of everybody on the internet...
to catch just a hand full of criminals?
How is our financial status of any relevance when we travel?
But above all, do we achieve the intended result with all these rules?
Be critical.
We are not obligated to leave all our personal data...
and certainly not forever.
Use your given democratic right to be critical of the direction chosen by your government.
Discussion this with your representatives.
Take action.
Ask questions.
Stay aware.
Subtitles by Rick Deckardt, License: Creative Commons