TACTICAL MEDIA:

BIG BROTHER IS IN YOUR POCKET -- BUT WAIT! BIG BROTHER IS YOUR SHIRT!

New Technology, New Means of Tracking and Surveillance are Upon Us

By Paul Garrin (pg.mediafilter.org)

[September 2007] Just made a call on your cell phone? Or maybe it's just in your pocket, quietly chit chatting with the network, sending its Global Positioning System (GPS) location back to your account database where all your movements can be recorded and tracked. A cell phone constantly communicates with the nearest "cell" (a short range radio transmitter) which connects your phone over the air to the phone network. It's never really off unless the battery is removed and all power discharged. Cell phones are the least anonymous and potentially most invasive "self-enabled" surveillance method that unwitting and unsuspecting happy consumers embrace and rely upon. There is no chance of anonymity nor privacy with these tiny "Big Brothers" in our pockets. Cell phones may even be used to conduct real-time audio and video surveillance, controlled surreptitiously over the network, unbeknownst to the phoner.

Just used an automated teller machine (ATM) to take out some cash? Or used your credit card to make a purchase online or in a shop? Every time you use your cell phone, execute a credit card transaction, use the internet, each and every step of the way your movements are tracked and recorded.

This is not news to most, but what may be over the horizon, beyond "warrantless wiretapping," "black bag jobs," "data mining," and "private sector cooperation" looms a more insidious and threatening form of surveillance that could literally immerse us in the not so distant future. This new wave that brings us a new twist to the digital pan-opticon comes at the dawn of the transition from analog to digital broadcasting on February 19, 2009. On that date, analog over the air television broadcasts will have faded into history as the age of digital broadcasting takes form. TV as we've known it will be a thing of the past as the "digital convergence" culminates into full reality.

One topic at issue is what will happen to the 700 mega-Hertz (700 mHz) band of electromagnetic spectrum that till February 19, 2009 is carrying analog UHF TV channels 60 through 69 that we, up till that date, have been able to tune in on our television sets. Before the transition to digital in 2009,
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will auction off parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that have historically carried some of our familiar analog TV and radio stations.

The 700 mHz band is a hot property and up for grabs to the highest multi-billion dollar bidder. Several large companies like AT&T and Google, among others, have their eyes on acquiring the 700 mHz spectrum and are prepared to spend whatever it takes to gain control of it. Who gets it and what they do with it will have an indelible impact on whether anyone who lives in our society will ever have any chance of privacy or anonymity in any form.

The 700 mHz spectrum is extremely valuable for digital use because of its excellent signal propagation properties, especially when applied to broadband wireless computer networks, similar to what we know today as WiFi. In the analog days of broadcasting, we became accustomed to being able to tune our TVs and radios just about anywhere, in our homes or outdoors, and elsewhere.

That's because the airwaves that carried the analog TV and radio signals could easily pass through buildings and walls, making it easier to reach large numbers of people with a minimum amount of transmission equipment. Cell phone and WiFi computer networks transmit on a higher frequency, in the microwave range, which works best with an unobstructed line-of-sight. Cell phone and WiFi connections get degraded as the path between the transmitter and the receiver becomes obstructed, as the higher frequency energy is absorbed or reflected by the objects in its path.

Lower frequencies, as in the 700 mHz band, pass more easily through obstructions and therefore work well in non line-of-sight conditions. When applied to digital wireless networks, the 700 mHz band becomes extremely powerful in that it enables the construction of large scale digital networks with less equipment than is required for higher frequency devices as used in present cell phone and WiFi computer networks. In short, 700 mHz signals attain better coverage and quality than existing cell phone and WiFi networks can.

On the surface, this sounds like a good thing. In fact, for some time, the 700 mHz band was explored to carry emergency services, police, fire, and government com-munications. In light of the failure of the digital radios that sputtered during 9/11, contributing to the deaths of many fire-fighters, the 700 mHz band for emergency use became an attractive solution. Because there were no repeaters inside the World Trade Center during the disaster, radio dispatches and communications were spotty
or unavailable because the digital radios operated at frequencies that did not penetrate the walls and floors of the structures. Without indoor repeater transmitters connected to outdoor antennas, the signals could not reach the firefighters inside, and caused them to be tragically cut off from vital communications.

The excellent signal propagation proper-ties of the 700 mHz band overcome the limitations of higher frequency devices. In that respect, it's a very good thing that part of the FCC's rules for use of 700 mHz require that in exchange for commercial use of the spectrum, the licensee must also build out and support the infrastructure for emergency and public safety communications. Where our freedom and privacy are at stake depends on the form that the consumer technology that operates over 700 mHz wireless takes.

The most likely application for 700 mHz is as a medium to carry digital broadband Internet Protocol (IP) based services that includes digital data, video, voice, at a very high speed, what some are calling "Internet II." Internet II uses a different numbering system to refer to devices attached to the network, called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). The internet that we've all become accustomed to has a relatively finite number of possible IP addresses. Under the present Internet Protocol, version 4 (IPv4) addresses take the "dotted quad" format many may recognize, i.e. 192.168.11.0 that defines a 32 bit address. In IPv4, the total number of possible addresses is less than the total of 255*255*255*255 (4,228,250, 625), since some of the space is reserved for special purposes. At the current rate of growth of internet users, IPv4 space will be exhausted in the near future. In contrast,
the IPv6 address space is magnitudes larger than IPv4, with its 128 bit address. Using so-called "hexidecimal" notation, IPv6 addresses look something like this: 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf. Hexidecimal uses the characters 0-9, A-F to express large numbers with fewer digits.

IPv6 space contains 2^128=340,282,366, 920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 total theoretically assignable addresses. To understand just how large that number is, recognize that the surface area of the earth is usually considered to be about 196,950, 000 square miles. There are 5280*5280 square feet in a square mile, and 12*12 square inches in a square foot. Multiplying 196,950,000*5280*5280*12*12, we find that the approximate surface area of the earth is 790,653,726,720,000,000 square inches.

If you divide 340,282,366,920,938,463, 463,374,607,431,768,211,456 (the upper bound on the number of IPv6 addresses) by 790,653,726,720,000,000 (the approximate surface area of the earth in square inches) that implies you can assign over 3.7x10**21 addresses per square inch of the earth's surface! [Source: <http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews/spring2001/whatsipv6.html>]

Now, with that many addresses possible, combined with smaller and smaller micro-processors (MIT has developed a paint-on parallel computer) it is conceivable that every product we buy, even every button on our shirts, could have a unique address and be active on a wireless network, especially
a very pervasive one made possible using 700 mHz as a carrier. The very fabric the clothes on your back are made from could have a unique ID that is always recognized by the network, and could track literally your every move. Connecting the device back to its owner starts at the moment it is purchased using a credit card--besides the transaction that links the purchase to your name is also the cash register transaction if you purchase from a physical shop, correlated with the surveillance video time-stamped in sync with your credit card purchase. All this fed into the "Total Information Awareness" database culminates in the total disintegration of any possibility for "Fourth Amendment Rights" once this invisible, marketed as helpful and benign, technology takes root and is embraced by all.

What can we do?

Call for an END to the AUCTION of 700 mHz spectrum. Release the 700 mHz spectrum entirely for unlicensed use by private citizens. Now, this is not something that the U.S. Government will do without some convincing--but in the long view, more funds can be raised creatively through other means than by a one-shot auction. The positive economic impact and the degree of innovation and invention that will result from free and open use of 700 mHz will outstrip the benefits of creating a monopoly by auctioning off the spectrum to a single (even if it's only a regional) licensee. Otherwise, whomever owns the 700 mHz license in your area will have a monopoly on delivering high speed wireless broad-band and will own and control the equipment at the point of connection to the net-work.

Why this matters is that surveillance begins at the point a so-called "initiating device" connects to the network. In the case of WiFi hotspots for example, anyone can own and operate a WiFi access point because it operates in a piece of spectrum set aside by the 1996 Telecom Act for unlicensed industrial, scientific, and medical use (ISM) in the 2.4 gigaHertz (2.4 gHz) microwave band. Because the owner of a WiFi access point can mask the hardware identifiers of computers connected to it from the outside world, it is very difficult to trace an initiating device back from the server
that it connected to. If a monopoly exists whereby all the devices operating on 700 mHz are owned only by a corporate entity, there is no assurance that knowledge of the unique identity of user hardware will be protected and not disclosed without due process, nor recorded and stored potentially to track and surveil individuals.

While the potential is great that every-thing you've ever seen that has a barcode on it could become a uniquely identified object with a continuous, live audit trail from the point of manufacture to the real time position, and even condition of the milk carton, hat, glasses, shoes, shampoo, computer, cell phone, you name it, there remain some areas where our consumer awareness and good habits can help reduce the adverse effects of the digital panopticon and the corporate-government abuses of our privacy and freedom.

First, do not buy anything you know or suspect to have any "smart" features built in to them. Buy fair trade and organic goods, as much as possible, as they are unlikely to be "embedded" with any tracking technology.

Use whatever unlicensed spectrum is available to build local networks that are locally owned and controlled. Unlicensed spectrum is actually abundant and more is becoming available in the future. WiFi (2.4 gHz) WiMax (5.x gHz) are in a sense the "Citizens Band of the Internet" because nodes can be owned and operated by individuals for free without any license nor fees, governed by the FCC's Part 15 rules (the device can't cause harmful interference...) Other unlicensed spectrum in the 60-70 gHz range can be freely used to construct over the air network connections that rival the speed of fiber optic lines.

Combining backbone and client delivery methods using all available unlicensed spectrum is key to maintaining a buffer between the corporate-spook-government-controlled network space and our individual freedom to communicate and research privately and in peace.

Although the corporations who support and participate in the psy-ops for endless warfare own and control most of the media we all use and are subjected to every day, it is possible to carve out an oasis here and there, and even better, by forming economic blocks that invest in alternative media infrastructure that in the end serves and benefits its stakeholders and the greater good without continuing to feed the corporate beast that violates and consumes us. Drain the corporate swamp by building alternatives, don't let the corporations drain your wallet!

Be smart, be aware, and don't give Big Brother a helping hand, your money, nor the value of your work...and certainly don't give Big Brother the shirt on your back!

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A Few Words About "MySpace":

MySpace is "PIG SPACE." For real. MySpace is not only owned by the pig Rupert Murdoch, but pigs in every flavor, from NYPD to FBI to some sheriff from Macon County, are all over and even inside MySpace, with full co-operation to get whatever information they want without needing a warrant nor subpoena. MySpace is enticing, but don't be fooled. PIGS like Murdoch are making BILLIONS from YOUR CONTENT and spending it to FUCK YOUR MINDS on FOX News, in favor of Bush and his war. You are in effect funding this asshole and making all whom you connect with there subject to one-stop shopping police surveillance. Sometimes there is a greater price to pay when something is "FREE." Think about it.

--Paul Garrin