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Human privacy at stake in the age of AI-based surveillance

Published : Thursday, 13 February, 2025 at 12:00 AM  Count : 810
Major Tanvir Hossain psc
When Computers were nascent technology back in 1970, then people had the apprehension about computers and its capabilities. Initially the computers were built as a huge volume of machine that could store and process lots of information as well as perform little computing also. So, peoples apprehension faded as time gradually passed and people found out that computers became their household appliances. When internet was invented for military purpose and then it was approved for civilians use, then computer along with internet ushered the "Third Industrial Revolution". After 1990, the race to build faster, better, smarter, cheaper computer started and its breakneck speed astonished computers harshest critics and silenced everyone. Fast forward to the year 1997, when a computer named "Deep Blue" defeated World Chess Champion Gary Casparov, which no machine could ever achieve before. Then in the last decade that means in March 2016, when a computer program called "AlphaGo" defeated the then World Go Champion Leo Sedol. "AlphaGo" was developed by British-American companies AI research Lab. At this point some scientists could understand the immense potential of AI. Many startup companies started to hire experts around the world to harness the hidden power of AI. Michael Bhaskar and AI entrepreneur Mustafa Suleyman in their ground breaking book "The Coming Wave" explained the future trends of AI, the power of AI, how AI revolution started and how it will transform the world around us. This will be new beginning of technological transformation age which will surely benefit the people of Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Before the invention of computer, internet and AI, surveillance was done manually. For building surveillance mechanism many countries, government and rulers used to rely on human intelligence. Then the intelligence mechanism was divided into various categories like top-down Intelligence, bottom-up Intelligence, peer to peer Intelligence, Agency based Intelligence, Clandestine Intelligence etc. Whatever may be the form and whichever country or organizations attempted to introduce such systems, those had to rely on a vast network of trained human force and its web of intelligence networks. After analyzing those accumulated information, intelligence came out as the end product. During that time human privacy was respected and kept within a legal framework. Nations Constitutions gave people the right to keep their privacy and failing to do so could result in public embarrassment followed by law suits. This was the traditional narrative.

With the coming of Fourth Industrial Revolution many small computers and devices were invented like Mobile, Satellite Telephone, computers with inbuilt camera, Smart Cameras, Pagers GPS, Night Googles, Night Vision Device, Drones, Surveillance Devices, Spyware etc. These devices and soft wares are capable to make our life easier but at the same time those can also monitor us. Therefore, those equipment's transformed the traditional surveillance landscape. To make my point clear let me give the example of ATM Card or Debit Card. Once we draw money using our ATM card or buy any product using Debit Card that transaction is automatically registered in the concern bank's software and that software let the bank to monitor our transaction and what type of product being purchased. That means in the previous system of buying and selling is practically non-existent. Now everyone in the loop can see what's going on in the name of financial transaction. Even bank intelligence units can ask for written report on some specific persons data or transactions. So, individual's privacy is somehow compromised in a modern state.

Fast forward to 2024, now if we look around us then we will find lots of examples where our privacy is violated and individual is not even notified. Like when a passenger gets an Uber ride then the driver is being monitored by the passenger, mobile, GPS tracker, Uber system itself. When this passenger gives a review to the driver, then he may give a negative comment about the driver which may be harmful for the driver's business and Uber even may blacklist him and throw him out of the system. Modern jails are monitored by automatic smart surveillance devices by 24/7. Escaping a modern jail is out of equation now. Furthermore, modern state has every citizen's personal data in its database. So, even in case of a prison escape that inmate would surely get apprehended once he or she is scanned by any nearby camera. Our planet has a billion CCTV installed presently. That means for every eight person there is one designated CCTV which means that the entire world is being monitored night and day. These all are the examples of Clandestine intelligence where governments use the intelligence system to monitor its citizens.

Now for getting national ID cards, passports or for issuing driving license governments asks its citizens to provide their finger prints, Irish image, facial feature image etc. Even various software in internet asks for lots of data before log-in. These entire data is stored by countries, entities, Tech-Companies to analyze their customer's needs and sometimes to monitor them. Modern Universities use finger print while their employees and students enter the university premises. By doing so they automatically find out who is on time and who arrived late. After that the system can generate absent or present report. Modern corporate offices also apply this method. This system is known as Peer-to-Peer Intelligence. Next example is about a brand dress shop which I visited during my trip to Spain. There I found out that only one sales girl was operating a that shop which sells very costly expensive dress. I asked the sales girl why she kept that store open without keeping a watchman. In reply, she told me that every dress had a magnet attached with it. So, if a burglar, were to take one dress and try to run away then a burglar alarm would automatically go off and notifying the nearby police station. In addition to that multiple CCTV inside the store can easily identify that individual later using facial recognition features. In Denish Football League a club named "Brondby IF" introduced a system of scanning its fans before entering the stadium so that unruly fans can be segregated and earlier marked hooligans can be stopped from entering the stadium facility. This system proved so effective to control unruly fans that UEFA authority accepted this system and now its implemented in many more international stadiums. Last example but not the least is the method applied by state known a "Social Credit System". Under this surveillance system every citizen is monitored and their every move, transaction and every click of mouse is registered in government database to identify citizens behavior. Then citizens are categorized as good, not so good, quite good, responsible, irresponsible, naive or bad. Accordingly, their actions cause them to earn or lose points per month. Ultimately at the end of each month citizens are rewarded or penalized.

Many software started as a benign new-tech but transformed into monster's overtime. We can think of Facebook, You Tube, Instagram, Netflix as well as many other social medial platforms, which assisted people to connect, debate, define ideas or share common knowledge. By the year 2010, these software's primarily monitored humans likes and dislikes by overseeing screentime. By 2020, those software's AI algorithms were dominating human brains by feeding ideas and contents as desired by those AI algorithms. Now human watches drama and music which are feed by You Tube. In the same way Facebook is polarizing people by making preferences for them from food to music. Netflix is also not far behind; it is now telling humans what movies to watch next. Even Elon Mask's company "Neuralink" has gone a step ahead by implanting computer chip in monkeys and rat's brain. This experiment went so well that US Federal Medical Association has permitted that company to implement computer chips in human's brain. Renowned thinkers of present era are postulating that someday these types of computer chips will be able to monitor human neuron, synapses, and amygdala therefore, those chips may control human brains and emotions. If that happens then humans' privacy will be overtaken by tech-companies. Then Tech- companies can monetize our privacy and make a new type of capitalism called "Surveillance Capitalism".

In summary, we can say that with the advancement of Computer and AI surveillance, humans' privacy may become non-existent.
The writer is an army officer



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