Have you been a good citizen? Photo: KIK

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

New ‘solutions’ that combine biometrics with popular coronavirus technologies, such as body temperature scanning, are predicted to soon be launched in Australia.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 saga, a range of companies have been selling thermal cameras for fever detection — you may have seen some at select businesses.

Surveillance startups quickly launched new products and websites to jump on the opportunity to sell high-tech solutions to businesses who were desperate to get back to work.

Similar types of systems have slowly been implemented across the world, for things like scanning workplace access control and entrances to locations (such as stadiums and pubs).

Now, as the ‘crisis’ escalates in Australia, facial recognition is being offered as an enhancement to support contact-free payments, temperature checks, mask-detection and surveillance.

The mainstream media have already begun pushing this potential notion on their programming:

We have already seen this begin in Australia: Companies such as 7/11 have already introduced facial recognition in their stores and cashless Woolworths stores will soon begin transitioning to an Amazon Go model. CCTV surveillance is already being rolled out at self-serve checkouts.

This is despite ‘experts’ saying that facial recognition is not effective in the detection of fevers just months ago. More double-speak contradiction, much like the ever-changing ‘advice’ on mask wearing.

Mark Ryski, Founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation, spoke on his concerns with these moves:

“Facial-recognition is a slippery slope, and retailers should be cautious about deploying this type of technology. While facial recognition may be helpful during the pandemic, there are other methods for ensuring a safe store environment that don’t rely on facial recognition technology.
The pandemic has most certainly accelerated the acceptance of all sorts of new processes and protocols, but I don’t believe the benefits outweigh the potential risks with facial recognition.”

The rise in demand for thermal cameras and facial recognition is predicted to increase in the near future, and comes as governments are looking for new ways to track who is sick, including turning to smartphone location data. It is only a matter of time before the masses cry out for this ‘solution’.

When they do, the systems are already well in place to ensure a seamless transition to a highly-monitored, tracked society. This type of technology has been waiting in the wings.

BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE

The world is certainly changing at an unprecedented rate. Advancements in technological capabilities and systems have developed to a point where digital systems are creating a biometric dystopia.

To this end, Biometrics Research Group Inc. projects that the international law enforcement biometrics market will grow to $18 billion this year, from its 2015 value of $7.5 billion.

In Australia, sweeping legislative changes and broad anti-terror laws introduced since 9/11 have sanctioned the rise of unaccounted surveillance methods, including the development of vast biometric capabilities for government and the private sector.

Facial scans taken for passports, driver’s licences or nightclub entry are stored in police and spy agency databases, while new CCTV and smart technology is being developed to monitor all activities.

This includes a significant increase in the use of biometric systems in Australia, including in CBD districts, airports, schools, public transport, supermarkets and more.

Coupled with the Australian government’s “Smart Cities Plan”, which sets out the government’s vision for ‘productive and livable cities’ that ‘encourage innovation and growth’.

Concerns have already been raised by privacy groups and technology experts on the details of smart infrastructure plans, which are live in locations such as Perth, Newcastle, Melbourne and more.

Moreover, new forms of tracking and analysis are already emerging, including biometrics based on brain and heart signals, such as electroencephalogram and electrocardiogram, as well as finger vein recognition. This uses pattern-recognition techniques, based on images of human vascular patterns.

Indeed, the walls have already been built around an unsuspecting public, once again under the false pretext of ‘safety’ and ‘security’. Waiting to be weaponised and used against this very same group.

Beneath the surface, a network of technocratic ministries have risen to consolidate control of these systems for themselves, while developing greater means of surveillance and oppression.

Soon, with advancements in neurotechnology and augmented reality beginning to break ground now today, our reality and our way of lives may very well never look the same.

What is the ‘end game’ of all of this, you ask? All of these systems are being carefully designed to lay the foundation of an approaching Western social credit system.

SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM

In early 2019, we wrote about how China’s ‘Social Credit System’ will soon reach Australia, and through the use of new technologies and applications, is only set to increase in the future.

China has developed what some are describing as a ‘chilling digital dictatorship’, with a new national system that monitors all citizens on a 24/7 basis and ranks them on their behaviours.

Under the plan, a person’s ‘social score’ is continuously analysed and can move up and down depending on their behaviour in society. Tens of millions are currently subjected to it.

Individuals are rated across four areas, including “honesty in government affairs”, “commercial integrity”, “societal integrity” and “judicial credibility”.

Importantly, underpinning the agenda, points are lost and gained based on readings from a sophisticated network of 200 million surveillance cameras.

Currently, over 13.7 million people are classified as ‘untrustworthy’ under the system, resulting in millions of plane and train tickets being suspended and activities in society restricted.

The Chinese system’s monitoring of citizens’ behaviour has been widely condemned as ‘Orwellian’, with frequent comparisons to the dystopian near-future sci-fi of Black Mirror.

Now let’s put the dots together. Staying inside and social distancing are both now being painted as ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’ behaviour, while facial recognition is expanding to modes of travel, accompanying existing surveillance system infrastructure. You can see what is implied here.

The exact same system, under a different design, is being rolled out under our noses. The City of Darwin has already adapted elements of the Chinese social credit system for use in Australia. Darwin’s Mayor also dismissed ‘conspiracy theorists’, much like Dan Andrews is now.

All the authorities needed was a ‘catalyst’ and COVID-19 lockdown restrictions serve this purpose.

Social distancing will soon be used as means to monitor all local areas and councils, ranking citizen behaviours with an underlying CCTV facial recognition system to enforce the new agenda.

By the end of the decade, networks with highly sophisticated biometric capabilities will connect a smart city grid, where a national facial recognition database will function as the surveillance mechanism behind CCTV lenses. You must keep your fellow Australian safe, citizen!

From this point, anything is possible. Nowhere will be left private — not even the inside of your head — to escape the eyes of Big Brother on every corner, train, airport and even discussion.

Social distancing is just the beginning. Wait until the coronavirus vaccine finally is released.

What will you do when the ‘solutions’ come? Have you considered whether it will be via coercion or force? What moves have you taken to protect yourself from the system? Time is ticking, prepare now.