And the eyes are always on us

“One can't help thinking wistfully of our father's day, when the world hadn't grown so small. But one could move about in it without being watched so closely. Nowadays, we're treated like demented or delinquent children. And the eyes are always on us,” said Orson Welles in 1955.

Since then, much has happened.  Technology has allowed free speech to spread as easily as the seasonal flu.  It has also allowed governments to track individuals like never before.  Despite this tracking, those who would do others harm seem to have little obstruction to causing that harm.

The terror shock of September 11 gave even moderate governments cause to consider their approach to freedom and to increase their scrutiny of free movement.  Airport security queues are testament to this increased vigilance.

On 26 December, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam was about to land in Detroit when ordinary operations were disrupted by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who attempted to set off a bomb strapped around his waist.

I’ve been through Schiphol a few times and it is one of my least favourite airports.  Each departure gate has its own security system and requires you to pass your luggage through an x-ray device as well as yourself through a full body scanner.  Those of you who travel regularly and have not been subjected to this treatment are in for certain delight.  This is the infamous “stripper” machine that allows security staff to view you naked.

Even with all this heavy security, Abdulmutallab managed to slip through.

In the same way, governments have demanded rights to monitor telephone communications and Internet traffic.  All of this is supposedly with a view to protecting the public.  The UK has recently passed legislation demanding that Internet Service Providers store deep records on their customers, including messages passed via Facebook and other social media.

It is possible, using today’s technology, to put a device into every car that would immediately alert the authorities should you exceed the speed limit.  This would only affect the honest citizen.  Dishonest citizens would disable it immediately.

The regular tripe handed out when our actions are monitored in this way is that “those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.”  Except the rules change and what was acceptable one day is used against you another.

I mention all of this because the Chinese government has demanded the ability to meter all internet traffic that passes through its borders.  China, the country of the Great Firewall.  China, which has jailed and executed numerous citizens for expressing opinions in blogs and online articles contrary to the opinions of its government.

China now wants to monitor not just its own citizens but also any traffic that happens to flow through its pipes.  The nature of the Internet means that traffic flows through the best available path.  Sometimes the shortest distance from Cape Town to London is via China.

And what works for China will work everywhere else.  China has exported their monitoring systems as widely as Zimbabwe and Iran.

Companies will hire consultants and install software to massively increase security and information encryption.  The costs will be passed on in higher prices, the inconvenience in lost jobs.

Individuals will be left explaining to their governments how one of their 753 Facebook friends happens to be an “undesireable”.

The Internet has revolutionised communications and generated millions of jobs precisely because it is a brave new frontier where the only limit is the imagination. Crippling it by monitoring every one of the trillions of bits that pass through its pipes each second will harm everyone.

“But the regulations do pile up. Forms keep coming in ... The bureaucrat is really like a blackmailer. You can never pay him off. The more you give him, the more he'll demand. If you fill in one form, he'll give you ten.”