What the future holds for Technology in Governments
The smart phone has been a revolutionary game changer to how we communicate, how we share information, and how we interface with the world around us. Long gone are the days where the mobile phone was just a phone for making & receiving calls, and shortly after, short text messages. When the mobile phone first become commercially available, it was big, heavy, had terrible battery life and was a single function device. If, like today’s smart phones, you wanted a digital camera, a portable computer, a personal music listening device, calculator, calendar, compass, etc, like the phone of the past, you would have had to carry each of these devices separately.
The conveniences smart phones bring to our lives include access & communications far beyond the imagination of the average person back then, and few notable predictions were made over the last hundred years or so. Conveniences such as access to voice calls, sms messages, video calls, emails, private & secure messaging, sharing of images, video and sound, GPS and other location services, sharing of files & information with other computer systems, payment processing services, and not to mention the greatest achievements to date: access to social media and console-grade gaming – all on a flat touch screen device that slips into your pocket, runs all day and longer on a single battery charge, and for many, has replaced many everyday items around their house! Who uses a rolladex anymore? I haven’t seen one of these in use for around 15 years.
The camera technologies are advancing all the time, thanks to continuous sensor & optics developments & tweaking, not to mention, adding some level of artificial intelligence to the image processor for further on-the-fly image stability & enhancements. Many have shelved their old cameras and only carry a smart phone, leaving the bulky DSLR cameras to the professionals and hobyists alike.
So what’s next? What in your home or work environments could you see your smart phone replacing? Some have embraced the ‘smart home’ technologies available from a plethora of vendors – allowing users to control lights, heating & cooling, door access, and various appliances all from their phone – never having to touch a light switch again. Some companies have embraced the smart phone, beyond the expectation of their employees to stay connected via email, through other technologies like building access, computer access (using the phone to unlock their work PCs), and various other technologies. Look at many delivery drivers today – they use their phones to scan in packages and scan them out when delivered – taking pictures of POD for proof they’ve dropped the package off somewhere.
But that surely can’t be the end of it all… How are smart phones used by governments? Well in many countries, citizens can access various government and health services through their phones. Recently I signed up for MyGov services just so I can access the taxation office to monitor my superannuation investment portfolio. When I enrolled, numerous other services were available and more were coming. How else are Governments planning to use its citizens’ smart phones?
Well, there have been numerous papers and theories, some considered conspiracy theories about the use of smart phone technologies by governments and large organisations alike. We are already seeing an absolute rise in user tracking & data mining by tech companies and advertising giants alike, and when you look much deeper into this, it can be quite intrusive – yet the lay person doesn’t know, or seemingly doesn’t want to know or doesn’t care. What is strange to me, if these same tech giants installed cameras, listening devices, and secret access doorways into their users’ homes, for sure, there would be an uproar, and many would close their accounts with these companies to regain their privacy, yet, consumers are buying up on these home smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Nest – which have an always on, always listening set of microphones – they hear every sound and every conversation that goes on – and, ok, they may not have cameras in them, they pick up way more than people are led to believe. They don’t start listening when you say ‘okay Google’. How would they hear you saying the magic phrase if they aren’t always listening?
When a camera is pointed into a room, it can only see what’s within its field of view – often the camera will need to be in clear view of the inhabitants in the room, yet, place a microphone somewhere conspicuous in the same room, it can hear everything in that room – and depending on the microphone technology, the construction of the walls, carpets, etc, that same inconspicuous microphone may be able to pickup on what’s going on in an adjacent room! No more private conversations in your own home… Imagine a world where technology is used in your home, listening to everything you say, and when certain key words or phrases are heard, the recordings are sent to authorities to investigate, and possibly arest you… Sound outlandish? Just take a good long look at China, and remember, our leaders commend China for doing what it has done – these radicals have turned the country around on a dime converting China from basically poverty to being a financial super power, and they listen to, watch, and control their citizens all day and all night!
A local electronics store I used to frequent sold parabolic microphones. If you’ve never had the pleasure of using a parabolic microphone, they really are next level microphone technology. I took their demo parabolic microphone outside the shopfront, put on the headphones, and pointed it at the icecream shop directly across the highway from where I was standing, and it just blew my mind away – through the icecreamery shopfront glass window, across the 6 lanes of traffic, I could clearly hear the conversations inside the shop – I could hear the man placing his order! And to think, this was a fairly budget parabolic microphone! Regretably, I didn’t purchase it, and they no longer sell them (weren’t very good sellers).
So back to the question I posed earlier – So what’s next?
Well, I want to propose a few things, make a few predictions:
I believe as governments start to de-boomerfy, that is, start to embrace technology more, they will look to leverage smart phone technology. Governments will look to smart phone manufacterers and social media giants to leverage government only backdoor access to devices and online accounts. They will use this to gather as much data on citizens as possible, including tracking information. This will help with couter terrorism, assist with anti-trafficking of humans and drugs, and may even be used to prove or disprove evidence in court cases. A suspect, allaby, or witness in the stand can have their location information cooberated against their claims in court as a measure of proof.
We may even see these technologies being used to replace passports for travel, and God forbid the states put up their boarders in Australia – requiring passports, they will make their way onto the smart phone. Eventually your drivers license and other idenfication documents will be moved to the smart phone – not in itself all a bad thing, but if the technology isn’t built properly without holes, offline access, security, and various other aspects considered in the design, then there will be a portion of the population that will have reduced access to services for lack of being tech-savvy enough, having poor network coverage when in rural areas, or when (not if), services are compromised by bad design, hackers, or data leaks, then important, personally identifiable information will end up in the wrong hands, as is so often the case with virtually all other online services.
What if there’s martial law introduced in areas due to natural disasters, pandemics, terrorism, or major financial crisis? I firmly believe governments will scramble to get these technologies online, leveraging 3rd party developers, at budgets beyond comprehension, rushed out without proper security auditing – and unlike when a tech giant [company] has a massive data breach landing them in courts with millions in settlement costs & fees, governments will wash their hands of these issues, pointing the finger at the developers, the opposition party, or even at its own citizens – as a way to boycot the blame and use a scape goat instead, as is tradition with governments that tend to double down on their stupidity, deniability, and inability to do things properly.
Class actions can be taken against a company that practices faul play against its users, but governments almost always manage to weasel their way our of a lawsuit of any kind, so where does this leave you? Are you ready for whats next?
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