Read Data and Goliath for Free Online Page A

activities, and mental health.
     Over two million people have taken that quiz, not realizing that Buzzfeed saves data
     from its quizzes. Similarly, medical information sites like WebMD collect data on
     what pages users search for and read.
    Lest you think it’s only your web browsing, e-mails, phone calls, chats, and other
     electronic communications that are monitored, old-fashioned paper mail is tracked
     as well. Through a program called Isolation Control and Tracking, the US Postal Service
     photographs the exterior, front and back, of every piece of mail sent in the US . That’s about 160 billion pieces annually. This data is available to law enforcement,
     and certainly other government agencies as well.
    Off the Internet, many surveillance technologies are getting smaller and less obtrusive.
     In some cities, video cameras capture our images hundreds of times a day. Some are
     obvious, but we don’t see a CCTV camera embedded in a ceiling light or ATM, or a gigapixel
     camera a block away. Drones are getting smaller and harder to see; they’re now the
     size of insects and soon the size of dust.
    Add identification software to any of these image collection systems, and you have
     an automatic omnipresent surveillance system. Face recognition is the easiest way
     to identify people on camera, and the technology is getting better every year. In
     2014, face recognition algorithms started outperforming people. There are other image
     identification technologies in development: iris scanners that work at a distance,
     gait recognition systems, and so on.
    There’s more hidden surveillance going on in the streets. Those contactless RFID chip
     cards in your wallet can be used to track people. Many retail stores are surreptitiously
     tracking people by the MAC addresses and Bluetooth IDs—which are basically identification
     numbers—broadcast by their smartphones. The goal is to record which aisles they walk
     down, which products they stop to look at, and so on. People can be tracked at public
     events by means of both these approaches.
    In 2014, a senior executive from the Ford Motor Company told an audience at the Consumer
     Electronics Show, “We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you’re doing
     it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing.” This came as a shock and
     surprise, since no one knewFord had its car owners under constant surveillance. The company quickly retracted
     the remarks, but the comments left a lot of wiggle room for Ford to collect data on
     its car owners. We know from a Government Accountability Office report that both automobile
     companies and navigational aid companies collect a lot of location data from their
     users.
    Radar in the terahertz range can detect concealed weapons on people, and objects through
     eight inches of concrete wall. Cameras can “listen” to phone conversations by focusing
     on nearby objects like potato chip bags and measuring their vibrations. The NSA, and
     presumably others, can turn your cell phone’s microphone on remotely, and listen to
     what’s going on around it.
    There are body odor recognition systems under development, too. On the Internet, one
     company is working on identifying people by their typing style. There’s research into
     identifying people by their writing style. Both corporations and governments are harvesting
     tens of millions of voiceprints—yet another way to identify you in real time.
    This is the future. Store clerks will know your name, address, and income level as
     soon as you walk through the door. Billboards will know who you are, and record how
     you respond to them. Grocery store shelves will know what you usually buy, and exactly
     how to entice you to buy more of it. Your car will know who is in it, who is driving,
     and what traffic laws that driver is following or ignoring. Even now, it feels a lot
     like science fiction.
    As surveillance fades into the background, it becomes easier