(h/t to Naked Capitalism)
Thanks to the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as early as 2013, privacy as we used to know it will be history.
Say hello to the Genia Photonics' Picosecond Programmable Laser Scanner. (It's coming soon to a public place near you...at the very least.)
Forget about simple, everyday airport scanning tasks such as looking for trace amounts of explosives, this baby “fires a laser to provide molecular-level feedback at distances of up to 50 meters in just picoseconds…Forget trying to sneak a bottle of water past security…” this machine can tell its user “what you had for breakfast in an instant while you're walking down the hallway.”
If you’re walking past someone smoking a joint and you get some of their pot residue on your shoe shortly before entering into a place where this equipment’s being used, there’s a more than reasonable chance that you could be busted. Yeah, it’s that powerful.
As Gizmodo.com notes it in their article from yesterday, which is linked and excerpted below, it’s “observation without limits.” Put one of these extremely portable bad boys into a police cruiser, or better yet, a drone, which is already coming soon to a neighborhood near you (per my post from April 11th), and you could be zapped by one of these suckers right in the discomfort of your own home (again, without you even knowing it). As the article tells us, this device works through virtually any organic (think: wood-frame house) material…
Hidden Government Scanners Will Instantly Know Everything About You From 164 Feet Away
Gizmodo.com
Jul 10, 2012 9:40 AM
Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.
And without you knowing it.
The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security. In-Q-Tel is a company founded "in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Congress." According to In-Q-Tel, they are the bridge between the Agency and new technology companies.
Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States. The official, stated goal of this arrangement is to be able to quickly identify explosives, dangerous chemicals, or bioweapons at a distance.
The machine is ten million times faster—and one million times more sensitive—than any currently available system. That means that it can be used systematically on everyone passing through airport security, not just suspect or randomly sampled people…
As Gizmodo notes it, there has been no discussion of the personal and/or privacy issues involved as far as the implementation of this technology’s concerned. It’s self-evident that it may be readily extended beyond airports and border crossings to
“…police cars, with officers looking for people on the street with increased levels of adrenaline in their system to detain in order to prevent potential violent outbursts.”
The author asks: ”…will your car be scanned at stoplights for any trace amounts of suspicious substances? Would all this information be recorded anywhere?"
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Some of my most recent posts, from just the past six months, on our rapidly growing surveillance state…
Wired’s Mind-Blowing Scoop On “Stellar Wind” And The “Enormity” of U.S. Domestic Spying 3/17/12
NYT's Orwellian Lead: AG Holder Officially Signs Off On "Total Information Awareness" For All 3/23/12
NYT Lead: ACLU Documents Rampant, Warrantless Phone-Tracking By Police Throughout U.S. 4/1/12
Police Drone Surveillance Of Virtually Every U.S. Neighborhood Within The Next Five Years? 4/11/12
NYT Lead: U.S. Law Enforcement Made 1.3 Million+ Surveillance Requests Of Cell Carriers In 2011 7/9/12