The Science of Conspiracy Theories

The ultimate spying conspiracy

The ultimate spying conspiracy

There are several theories about how governments will use technology to control us. Many of these theories propose that the government is trying to listen to our conversations, read our e-mails, texts and messages, and track our whereabouts using various methods including RFID chips. This is not to be confused with the apocalyptic conspiracy about world domination.

This line of conspiracy theories has been brought to the forefront by Edward Snowden's 2013 disclosures from hacked NSA government data that revealed that the secret government organization was collecting massive amounts of e-mail, voice, text and video chats of American citizens, supposedly to prevent a terrorist attack. The amount of data collected by the NSA is staggering and disturbing. The German (BND) also collects data, which is shared with the NSA. It seems that the U.K., Sweden, Australia, Canada, France and the Dutch also contribute (or conduct similar surveillance) to this conspiracy plot. As for the NSA program, they had corporation from Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google to mind data on American citizens.

Of course the U.S. government charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government documents, but he applied for asylum in Russia.

Much of the phone data is called metadata, which records the pertinent information about the time, the callers and where they were at the time. It doesn't record the actual conversations. However, there is reason to believe that they do record some conversations even though they would require a court order for that.

The most egregious information revealed so far is that the Unites States has been listening in on the phone conversations of world leaders, including the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

To put things in perspective, spy organizations from most countries spy on leaders of other countries as well as pertinent people in their governments. This has been going on for many decades, and most governments do it to discover covert plots. That's the spy business.

Now, it's one thing for these governments to spy on other spies and government leaders, it's another thing for our government to spy on us citizens. Admittedly, this practice skyrocketed after 9/11, but most people don't like being spied upon.

The above are the facts of spying on citizens. What are the conspiracies? Let's start with RFID.

RFID stands for Radio-frequency identification. This is a wireless tag or chip that is placed on or in objects to transfer data. This idea is commonly used in stores that sell clothing, and in items that are relatively expensive and small like razor blades, electronic accessories, and things like smart phones. Basically, it's an electronic tag that identifies the object it's attached to and even can indicate its location. RFID has been used to determine location of NASCAR racecars on the track, airport baggage, tracking of goods, animals and persons, toll collection, and Smartdust, which is a way to sense light, temperature, movement, magnetism and chemicals. They are typically used in robots and sensor devices.

These tags have been miniaturized and are being used ever more in this technological world that we're in. The conspiracy theory is that they are being placed in people (under the skin) to not only track them but also to control them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved RFID chips for use in humans. The bad news about this isn't the fact that they can be implanted in humans, but rather the fact that they can be hacked. It turns out nothing is hack proof. This opens up a Pandora's box of privacy issues.
The fact is that schools are using them in uniforms, clothing and backpacks. Hospitals, Museums and many other institutions have begun using them. RIFD tags are slowly replacing barcodes as a method of material tracking.

As far as I am concerned, privacy is the main concern for RIFD tags. They are being inserted into passports, credit cards, and even smartphones. They represent another avenue for information theft by hackers. Could they be used for government control? That's a good question that's hard to answer without more definitive data. They answer is that they could be, but only in the sense of loss of rights, not physical control. I'm sure that in the future we'll see more tracking things like this used in everything. It's the evil part of technological advancement.

Thanks for reading.