You're Toast. Raytheon's RIOT Has Your Number

Leading U.S. defence contractor, Raytheon, has developed RIOT, the  Rapid Overlay Information Technology software programme that can gather, sort, digest and analyze all your social media telltales.  It can even predict where you'll be and what you'll be doing in the future.

The Guardian recently got their hands on a copy of this Raytheon video describing RIOT



Notice what the reviewer talked about?  RIOT let him know this fellow would be working out in the gym every morning from 6 till 7.   And with that he quipped what better time to get the fellow's laptop or at least access it.  Raytheon's own guy can't talk about RIOT for more than 3-minutes without contemplating how it could be used for a criminal purpose.

The most disturbing aspect to RIOT is how few people are likely to find it disturbing.  If the majority acquiesce to the wholesale surrender of their privacy without a fight, and events of the past decade give no reason to conclude otherwise, then those who wish to protect their privacy will have to fight for it and become ever more vigilant in its defence.

Imagine if a company or a political party or a rival of any sort finds you troublesome, they can track you, analyze you, find out where you go, when and where you're likely to be, identify those whom you contact, their numbers and names and what makes you vulnerable even if you don't know it.

Because I probably haven't said it clearly or eloquently enough, James Ball adds his two shillings worth.

It's easy to believe those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear – and most of us are essentially decent people, with frankly boring social network profiles. But, of course, to (say) a petty official with a grudge, almost anything is enough: a skive from work, using the wrong bins, anything. Everyone's got something someone could use against them, even if only for a series of annoyances.

It's also tempting to believe that with good privacy settings and tech savvy, we can protect ourselves. Other people might be caught, but we're far too self-aware for that. But stop and think. Do you trust every friend you have to lock their privacy settings down? Your mum? Your grandad? Do they know to strip location data from photos? Not to tag you in public posts? Our privacy relies on the weakest point of each of our networks – and that won't hold.

Surveillance is getting cheaper and easier by the day, which in turn proves almost irresistible – for those with good and bad intentions – to make more use of it.

The only way to prevent such a shift is to group together, raise funds, and lobby hard for real legal safeguards, fast, before the culture shift is irreversible. Anything less is acquiescence.