They're watching

IN George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother used a system of two-way television for spying on people in their homes. This outrageous device is not yet practical, but Keith Laidler says that the police, using what he calls "visibuilding" technology, will soon be able to scan through the walls of your house to find you in any room and observe your most private activities.

Spying has come a long way since the days when privacy was considered a feature of a democratic society. In his plain but well-informed guide book, Laidler says that every mobile phone, whether it's switched on or off, can be remotely made to transmit its position data every five minutes.

All telecom traffic, phone, mobile, fax and email, is recorded by the Echelon satellite system, which is run by the US National Security Agency, using three main optical networks routed by BT into the US base at Menwith Hill. It's said to be an anti-terrorist measure. However, al-Qaida usually avoids these systems and sends couriers to deliver orders to its groups.

Likewise, we have about 4.2 million cameras situated every 400 yards on the main motorways, but there is little evidence that they reduce crime. They are, however, a profitable growth industry.

Big Brother further demands a national identity register, the idea being that it will hold at least 50 pieces of information on everybody, with a legal requirement to provide and update all relevant facts. A national DNA computer database has operated since 1995 and the aim is to register the genetic traits of most of the population. Other biometric traits include iris scans and finger prints, both of which it is possible to counterfeit, as criminals and terrorists are no doubt aware.

Laidler provides evidence that the fingerprinting of school children, from three-year-olds upwards, is under way. It is like compulsory vaccination without the health benefits.

Then there is the ID card. David Blunkett admitted that it won't stop terrorism, since two-thirds of terrorist offences are carried out without the assistance of false identities. Will it stop benefit fraud? Hardly, since false identity fraud represents only 2.5 per cent of all fraudulent claims. Any gains would be a tiny fraction of the estimated £20 billion installation and running costs.

Nor will the ID card stop illegal migrants, most of whom come from countries so poor that they do not operate biometric or other detailed identity cards. But many activities in everyday life could become subject to ID card inspection by officials, ranging from the police to traffic wardens.

Who doubts that disproportionate stopping of black citizens and the ominous Gestapo question, "Your papers, please," would increase racial tensions?

Who doubts that details of a citizen's job, medical history, political and sexual leanings would become accessible to policemen on the beat and to a multitude of officials?

As the problems of capitalism increase, at home and abroad, it's not hard to imagine that arrogant new Labour and the capitalist state would welcome new instruments of control to defeat nonconformity and dissent.

We are not on the threshold of fascism and a US senator quoted by Laidler was too defeatist when he said that, if a dictatorship ever took over the US, "the NSA could enable it to impose total tyranny and there would be no way to fight back."

But this warning is worth remembering. The values of our democracy were fought for over centuries by many generations of labour and progressive movements.

They must be defended when the successors of those from whom they were wrested seek to take them away.