New World Order

Surveillance society

Introduction

The articles within the 'New World Order' part of our Resource Hub have been written to make readers aware of the global trends which have shaped, and are shaping, our world. All have their part to play in the formation of the one world government and religion which will emerge at the end of the age.

According to Grant R Jeffrey:

The trends we see unfolding in our day represent the greatest threats ever presented to the freedom and privacy of humanity.

We have entered an era of shadow government - powerful agencies collect data on every one of us. They observe our private lives and record the information on computer files. Government authorities, national security agencies and businesses that market and sell consumer products know far more about us than even our close friends and family.

They know where we live, the type of property we live in, our mortgage details, our medical history, our educational background, employment status, vehicle ownership, driving record, criminal record, credit rating, tax records, what we watch on pay-TV, our financial assets and in some cases our fingerprint and DNA information. They track our movements and monitor every telephone call, fax, Internet search and email transmission we make.

Big Brother already knows and it's virtually impossible to retrieve your privacy.

Justification

They justify this invasion of privacy by reminding us of the threat posed by international terrorists, organised crime, illegal immigrants, welfare cheats and tax evaders. Tragically the average individual is blissfully unaware. High-tech surveillance methods are stealing one of our most basic human rights - the right to privacy and the right to be left alone.

UK experience

The former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith exercised political control over all UK counterintelligence operations, including Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, the security service (MI5) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British government's global eavesdropping operation. She had worked to develop an enormous computer database that would collect for analysis every telephone call, all Internet searches and all emails being transmitted within or outside of the UK. Recent estimates by British authorities suggest that citizens will be captured on CCTV cameras on average 500 times a day.

1984 and George Orwell?

CCTV today is far more invasive than any of us could have imagined when it first came into use. Although the cameras have displaced violent crime rather than suppressed it, there were 4.2 million CCTV cameras being used in the surveillance of UK citizens and tourists back in 2008. Despite the phenomenal financial cost, the UK Home Office has reported that street lighting is seven times more effective in preventing crime.

Not only is CCTV used in public places, it is used to promote safety and control crime on private property. Companies use it to keep an eye on employees during work hours, to combat theft and industrial espionage. We live in an environment not unlike that described by George Orwell in his book, '1984.' Computer technologies have created a daily environment far more threatening than he ever envisaged.

Micro-technology

Virtually invisible pinhole cameras with infra-red readings and cameras with recording devices hidden in mobile phones are being used ever more widely to hear and see what goes on in private conversations, along with remote monitoring devices and micro-transmitters. The miniaturization of cameras, microphones and recording devices has stolen what was left of our privacy. By trying to guard our privacy by using software on our computers, we’re simply alerting intelligence agencies that we have something to hide.

Credit cards

The magnetic strip on a credit card will one day be replaced with an RFID chip, capable of storing millions of times more digital information about the card owner. With details unique to the individual, a secure smart card would be virtually immune to counterfeiting or attacks by hackers. While there are benefits, the smart card would make it possible for government, police and intelligence agencies to track our activities, our communications, our financial transactions and status, and our location at any given point in time.

Data protection

There are regulations restricting the use of data, but in reality the attacks on our personal security are overwhelming the limits that are in place.

What about encryption?

To safe-guard high-security communications, between governments, for example, highly complex and expensive encryption systems have been in place for decades. But it came to light fairly recently that throughout the years of the cold war, NSA (National Security Agency), the largest intelligence agency in the world, had secretly embedded a decryption key within the cipher text. This rendered the secret messages from most of the world’s governments and large international corporations as easy to read as any ordinary open message. This development on a global scale is an indication of the way in which governments will have all their secrecy removed in the days leading up to the final events of the Tribulation, when the Anti-Christ will use the information to fuel the final global conflict.

The internet

Unbeknown to the majority, personal and business emails, even deleted ones, can be intercepted and used against an individual or company. Many internet service providers (ISPs) share our so-called private messages with law enforcement agencies around the world. NSA and police computers look for keywords, addresses, names, images, voices and numeric sequences, which not only violate our privacy but can also be used pejoratively.

Bruce Schneier, a consultant on computer encryption wrote in ‘The Electronic Privacy Papers’:

The odd thing is, we perceive the Net as a conversation and not as public record, and it turns out to be public record to a larger extent than people are aware of . . .you can easily imagine in 20 years a candidate being asked about a conversation he had in a chat room while he was in college. We’re becoming a world where everything is recorded.

By the early 1990s the Internet had become the largest communications system in history. We’re all increasingly dependent on it, and that makes it easy for intelligence agencies to monitor billions of communications every day as they search for a specific target or type of communication.

Today, every new website has to be registered, and in the US one company has sole control of all registrations. This exclusive arrangement implies full control by that company. There are checks and balances in place to provide a measure of confidence that major privacy violations will be limited. But if a future dictatorial government were to take over, it would be almost impossible to escape the control of totalitarian police, since every email, chat room conversation, web search and other internet communications can be analysed by intelligence authorities.

Google

The Google search engine alone enables more than 330 million searches daily. Google has stated that it stores its users email messages and the history of its customer’s Internet searches for 18 months. Google probably has a pretty good picture of the life, health, finances, reading interests, political and religious interests, relationships and employment of each of us right now.

The Internet is a virtually indispensible tool for research, business and communication these days. We use it to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues, for research, for making purchases, etc. It’s not hard to imagine, however, what would happen if it came into the control of a global evil dictator. This could happen in the days before Jesus’ return, as Revelation 13:16 implies.

RFID chips

A radio frequency identification chip (RFID) is implanted in billions of individual consumer products without our knowledge, enabling the retailer, manufacturer or intelligence agency to track the product (and the purchaser) within a certain distance of the device. At the heart of the RFID system is the Electronic Product Code (EPC) which identifies every individual item manufactured in any nation in the world, down to the most trivial items imaginable.

By 2004 more than 60,000 US corporations were putting RFID chips into every item they manufactured and distributed globally. They claim theft and fraud is drastically reduced. Libraries use RFID to track and recover lost books. Scanners can be hidden virtually anywhere and technology is improving so that soon RFID will be read even by satellite. IBM, an early promoter of RFID, has admitted:

The widespread use of RFID tags on merchandise such as clothing would make it possible for the locations of people, animals and objects to be tracked on a global scale – a privacy invasion of Orwellian proportions.

Depending on who gains access to the information provided by a RCID chip, we could all be secretly monitored in all our personal activities by unknown agencies.

Multi-application RFID cards

A single card which incorporated credit/debit card, driver’s licence, car registration, insurances, prepaid travel card, medical card, etc has the advantage that it would provide a higher level of security than individual personal documents. Indeed, smart cards are being used in some form in many parts of the world, replacing cash if not other items.

Today about 97% of financial transactions globally are cashless, and the figure is set to rise as people become more comfortable with smart cards. But cards greatly endanger our privacy. The sophisticated smart card may protect us from traditional forms of fraud but a successful hacker would have access to vast amounts of confidential information. Illegal information, as well as endangering the individual, could also be used to target political or religious groups.

If you decide to avoid the dangers by using only cash, be aware that both Japan and the EU have proposed adding RFID chips to their new currency so banknotes can be tracked.

Mobile phones

Mobile phones are so common these days it’s hard to imagine how we lived without them. Many people use them exclusively, and no longer have a landline in their home. Phones at the top end of the market now have an RFID chip allowing phone users to buy consumer products by holding the RFID-equipped telephone near the store’s cash register, which is linked to their credit/debit card. This labour-saving device will, however, accelerate the invasion of our privacy. Any smart phone can be tracked.

Passports

RFID chips are embedded in all modern UK passports (plus other nations) enabling immigration and customs officers to process the entry of passengers into the country more efficiently. Again, the chip allows each passenger to be tracked.

ID cards

In order to avoid illegal immigration, from time to time our government calls for ID cards. Another benefit of the ID card is helping to guard against benefit fraud. Eventually, a uniform national ID card could replace identification papers including passports, licences, birth certificates, etc. A smart card with a unique ID number is the likely way it would be implemented.

The Associate Director of the Auto-ID Center, a major promoter of the universal commercial adoption of RFID technology says:

The Auto-ID Center has a clear vision – to create a world where every object – from jumbo jets to sewing needles – is linked to the Internet. Compelling as this vision is, it is only achievable if the center’s system is adopted by everyone elsewhere. Success will be nothing less than global adoption.

The philosopher C P Snow remarked in an article in the New York Times back in 1971:

Technology . . . is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

It isn’t much of a leap to see that smart cards could be replaced by a micro-chip implanted under people’s skin. This mark would remove all privacy from the individual and be the means of buying and selling. Perhaps the fact that such a thing is not inconceivable is an indication that we live in the End-Times when John foresaw individuals being completely robbed of their freedom and unable to buy or sell without the ‘mark of the Beast’ (Revelation 13:17-18).