Secret On Whose side? by Ian Hughes/Epredator
James Bond has always been a fantastic near-science fiction reference for the use of technology in surveillance. Tracking the bad guys, showing early radio transmitters that detect direction and position, communications technology and wearable computing all feature heavily in the movies. In ‘Live and Let Die’ and ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’, tobacco chewing southern state Sheriff J.W. Pepper was famous for saying those profound words “Secret Agent? On whose side?” Recent revelations about the levels
of potential surveillance by large government funded organisations have caused quite a stir but it’s almost impossible to say what is right and what is wrong. Do we have the right to counter measures to such technology, beyond any legal protection we have?
Turn on the taps Many films and TV shows feature the tense scenes where a phone call is traced to a particular place in the world. Inevitably there is a time limit between the call coming in, the