Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! Dark Knight portends dark days for civil liberties
Cornered! Dark Knight portends dark days for civil liberties | Dark Knight portends dark days for civil liberties |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Friday, 18 July 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 3 Unbeknownst to Fox, Batman somehow installs this modification on every cellphone in Gotham City and hooks them up to a huge bank of monitors on which he can, potentially, see and hear everything around every cellphone in the city. (Yes, I know it's ludicrous, but please bear with me) Batman's purpose is noble: he's out to catch The Joker who is on a rampage of wholesale slaughter and destruction. Batman reveals his system to Fox whose help he needs to monitor the bank of screens for any sign of The Joker while he, Batman, scours the city for the elusive villain. Fox is appalled at the level of surveillance Batman has created and initially refuses to help. He is swayed by the need to end The Joker's reign of terror, but announces that he will resign from Wayne Enterprises as soon as The Joker is caught. Now, here is where science fiction and surveillance fact come unpleasantly close to intersecting. In the UK, a society which already boasts more CCTV cameras in public places per head of population than any other nation on earth, the Government has flagged its intention to significantly ramp up the amount of information it gathers, and retains from telecoms service providers on the electronic communications of their customers: phone calls, email, instant message, web pages browsed etc. CONTINUED |
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