They are watching you

Bob Tickler’s post that he is eschewing all forms of technology based on the Internet may not seems as luddite as it sounds.

Last Monday on Radio 4 the programmme File on Four explained the latest advances in surveillance and the problems these pose.

The Israelis are at the forefront of this cyber technology.

The programme began with the arrest of the notorious Mexican gangster El Chapo after he escaped from prison through a mile long tunnel dug under the shower room.

He gave a supposedly secure mobile to an actress but, with the aid of software called Pegasus formulated by the Israelis, the government penetrated it and could shadow the mobster.

Not only with such technology do you have access to everything on the mobile but it turns into a watching device on the unsuspecting suspect. However problems arise when the Mexican government used it for surveillance on human rights activists.

It transpired that the Emirates and Saudi Arabia – both unlikely bedfellows with Israel- did much the same with this technology.

The Israeli Defence Force have a Unit 8200 dedicated to surveillance but those serving within it did not stay long as they are soon recruited privately.

Our very own web designer commented that Alexa can be so employed.

In a recent programme on the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Box robbery one of the gang – the son of a Cambridge Professor – had no mobile or any other means of tracing him other then the CCTV surveillance.

There is no doubt that such technology is invaluable in the fight against terrorism and crime but the programme was right to express its concern about its unfettered use.