Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Someone Is Watching You

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy From Chicago

All over the world people are doing something that is good, bad or ugly every second.  There is no escaping whatever you are doing or whatever place you are, and with whomsoever you are in any situation you might be in.  Some is watching you, every second of your life.  As I write every time, the emails or text messages, and probably every call that is made, even a missed call or an unanswered call; every one of them has a track and someone has a way of monitoring the communications.

For those who like music, the song “Eye in the Sky” from Alan Parson’s Project from1982 is a wonderful recollection and reminder of someone is watching you.  Perhaps the wonderful song captured what was to come with the communications revolution of the last 30 years with mobile and internet, and telephony and video and any which way we have developed the ability to communicate with each other.  The ability to reach each other by voice or video, or find someone immediately or instantly is an opportunity for people who want to be in touch, and need to communicate.  Much of the communications between people personal and most times frivolous and are done in media that is inexpensive, and people simply want to talk and talk and even see one another constantly.  With unlimited calling plans and cheap and fast internet available to everyone, face time and Skype and the messengers and many other communications media has become as common as drinking water or eating a snack.  There is constant use of the mobile phone and internet based chat systems is as common as watching TV these days.

The airwaves and internet pipes are full of chatter both voice and video, along with words being sent across without abandon.  In the olden days when communism was prevalent there was a constant watch on the people who lived under the communist regimes, and there was governments looking into groups or individuals for antinational activities in democratic societies.  While the communists monitored their populations openly and aggressively, the democratic societies were not so open in admitting to the snooping of its people.  Many years, sometimes decades after the actual incidents things were out in the open, and only when people who participated in the activity were no longer living and or the statute of limitations were expired.

It should be no surprise that the governments are watching just about every call you make or every message you write.  The reason might be to look at extremism or terrorism; which might lead to destruction.  It is also likely that they have specific target groups of people that might instigate anti-national activities or international disturbance which will impact the overall well being of societies.  Sometimes the governments have been in successful in preventing incidents that would have caused major damages to both property and life.  In face governments probably prevent thousands of such activities unknown to the public or will never make them public in the best interest of the society in general.  Snooping is a part of counter-intelligence and has been since the beginning of time, and has been helpful in preventing anti-social elements from destabilizing the societies.

There is no secret to what the governments are doing in trying to track unsavory elements and preventing the loss of life and property.  Also, if some act of terror or espionage is forced on the countries they use the eyes watching to catch the perpetrators.  The last few global incidents that have caused harm have been quickly and successfully been traced to the perpetrators, and governments being successful in catching the bad guys.
 
If the utility of the man watching from above is for the purpose of benefitting the society and catching the bad guys, it is commendable.  There are thousands of incidents that have been prevented because of the eye in the sky.  For someone who is simply communicating and has no intention of wrongdoing there should be no worry on the eye in the sky, and also assuming that the governments and the intelligence agencies are tracking communications to stop the bad guys.  We as a society has always known that someone is watching what we do, and now with the continued evolution of communications, we should have no doubt that someone is watching us.

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