The end of subterfuge

The time is at hand where every spoken and written word you transmit digitally will be intercepted in milliseconds by surveillance computers anywhere in the world.  This is not because you personally are being targeted – nobody is interested in you specifically.  It is because the sponsors of the surveillance systems are looking for potential threats to their interests^[1].

Your digital communications will be automatically scanned for key words and phrases from the obvious to the oblique.  Once you utter one of these words or phrases, no matter what the context, you will be marked as a person of interest, and the surveillance of you and your networks may become more intensive.  It is unlikely that your name will ever be deleted from these covert databases^[2].  You will not know you are a person of interest until you are denied entry at a border for no reason, or PayPal unilaterally cancels your account without explanation or right of appeal.

You have nothing to worry about if you are a mainstream citizen going about your everyday life whether in the USA, in China or anywhere else.  The individuals and groups that need to be worried are those that dissent, those that question any status quo^[3].  Dissent is not the same as subversion but for many upholders of any status quo the distinction is too subtle, or they will not take the risk of dissent turning into subversion.

What constitutes dissent will vary from regime to regime, and you will not know when you have crossed a boundary that is likely to have been defined by groups with different world views and priorities from your own.  Chinese communist party functionaries or CIA spooks will not be characterised by their tolerance and breadth of vision and values.

The answer to having nowhere to hide is not to hide.

Be completely open about your thoughts and your intentions.  Let all the world see everything.  Communicate and act out in the open as if the whole world knows. Subterfuge and secrecy are pointless.  Let us all pray that the end of subterfuge will not also mark the end of dissent.