The Man knows where you are, scary RL example Options

[Sengir]

A German MP successfully sued for the release of data retained about him under a former German law (see the spoiler), which was the basis for this nifty visualisation:
http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-vorratsdaten
I think the control elements should be fairly intuitive, just remember all dates are in DD:MM:YY notation. On the right you can see additional info about the number of his incoming and outgoing calls (eingehende Anrufe/ausgehende Anrufe) and text messages (eingehende Nachrichten/ausgehende Nachrichten).


And that's just what LS or KE could figure out based on a single commcode. Now factor in three dozen customer profiles, surveillance drones, material links, logfiles of various nodes you interacted with...They know where you are. They also know who was there at the same time, and which SIN exhibited the same patterns when your regular SIN apparently did nothing...

I think my characters need more thermite bars (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[ Spoiler ]

The law in question was based on a EU directive and required telcos to store a bunch of data about each customer for six months:
- Which IP addresses you were assigned
- Caller's and callee's number, duration and accessed cell towers for each phone call and text message
- Source and destination mail address and IP for each email
- IPs used to access a mail account
- All that with timestamps
It was summarily declared null and void by our highest court one year ago, although the usual suspects are of course lobbying to for a slightly modified version.

PS: Also, remember what the TOS say about politics. I know it's tempting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Mardrax]

Yeah. It is rather scary how much is actually kept on log.
Imagine crosslinking that with, say, Google's search history. The customer cards you'll have at your local chain of supermarkets. Etc.
Scary, somehow.

The sheer ammount of information tends to make it fairly useless, unless someone wants to find someone in particular though.

[Ol' Scratch]

And yet, where's Osama Bin Laden? Or the nearly countless number of missing/kidnapped/hiding people around the world?

If people don't want to be found, it's entirely possible. So yes, the police can find you if you're running around making yourself known. Is that really that shocking?

[Mardrax]

And yet, where's Osama Bin Laden? Or the nearly countless number of missing/kidnapped/hiding people around the world?

Cursing about the lack of cellphone reception in whatever mountain chain/jungle they're in. Or better yet, power outlets to plug the charger into. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Sengir]

The sheer ammount of information tends to make it fairly useless, unless someone wants to find someone in particular though.

Today certainly, but with a small army of agents or even code sprites...

[Fortinbras]

A friend who plays a mage in my game works for a collection agency tracking down folks who have defaulted on their cars. He often claims he can find anybody, so I dared him to see what info he could get on me.
He came back a week later with records of my home, my credit history, my relatives, their addresses, my work history, the whole nine.
All of it wrong! We were both shocked to learn that not only was I dead, but I was making payments on several homes out of state and I had been married three times. While being a zombie, land baron polygamist sounds dandy, it would really cut into my gaming schedule.

The main disadvantage of the tracking everyone system all the time is that the human operator always assumes the computer is right, because they have no basis for comparison. I don't want to think about someone who was actively trying to evade The Man would do.

[CanRay]

Add to that the mistakes official clerks make. I used to be one, and oy, the typos!

Also, a lot of places still use names rather than numbers for issues. And the sheer number of names some people have... It astounds the mind.

[jaellot]

While being a zombie, land baron polygamist sounds dandy, it would really cut into my gaming schedule.

I'll take that job!

As far as RL is concerned, yeah, The Man knows more about me than I do myself. Doesn't stop me from looking at gaming forums, webcomics, and weird porn all the time.

As far as SR is concerned, it's pretty much a matter of how bad did your runners cheese off The Man? If the cost of finding you is worth the damage you caused, or could cause, They will find you. I make sure to keep it "reasonable" when tracking people down; legwork, questioning, bribes, Matrix and Astral tracking, and then generally give it an amount of time it takes to pin them down.

I do pretty much ignore the nigh-infinite amount of RFID tags out there, especially aftter the passage in Unwired about the tag in your candy bar triggering an alert when breaking in because its not part of your PAN or some crap.

[CanRay]

And yet, where's Osama Bin Laden?

Hooked up to his dialysis machine, apparently. Thing is, there's a lot of caves and places to hide in the Middle East.

Or, who knows, smuggled to some other country and living comfortably with a cave sound stage for his recordings.

[Fix-it]

Hooked up to his dialysis machine, apparently. Thing is, there's a lot of caves and places to hide in the Middle East.

Or, who knows, smuggled to some other country and living comfortably with a cave sound stage for his recordings.

OBL has been confirmed dead by pretty reliable sources since December 2001.. the fact that the US stopped looking in 2k5 is also a big hint.

[CanRay]

OBL has been confirmed dead by pretty reliable sources since December 2001.. the fact that the US stopped looking in 2k5 is also a big hint.

And here I thought Bruce Willis killed him...

[CanRay]

OBL has been confirmed dead by pretty reliable sources since December 2001.. the fact that the US stopped looking in 2k5 is also a big hint.

And here I thought Bruce Willis killed him... Twice. Because Bruce Willis is that bad ass.

Ran him over in his 1968 Chevrolet El Camino. Then backed over him again, probably.

[toturi]

And here I thought Bruce Willis killed him... Twice. Because Bruce Willis is that bad ass.

Ran him over in his 1968 Chevrolet El Camino. Then backed over him again, probably.

No, no. Chuck Norris with a roundhouse kick.

[Faraday]

No, no. Chuck Norris with a roundhouse kick.

It's ALWAYS Chuck Norris with a roundhouse kick, though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[CanRay]

No, I'm pretty sure I remember Bruce Willis saying he killed OBL, and the US Government was pissed off as he wasn't supposed to have been the one to do it...

[Fortinbras]

Chuck Norris is like 3 and a half feet tall. I auditioned for an under 5 on Texas Ranger and was told I was too tall, and would make Chuck look short...when I was 15! Stupid midget pseudo Christian!

[Sengir]

I do pretty much ignore the nigh-infinite amount of RFID tags out there, especially aftter the passage in Unwired about the tag in your candy bar triggering an alert when breaking in because its not part of your PAN or some crap.

Yep, that's more or less the only option. IF you crank up the "surveillance society" theme to the maximum there are few ways to hide - especially since the corps will probably be satisfied if the list of suspects can be narrowed down to something like ten people. If there are ten Sarah Connors and you don't know which is the one you are looking for, though luck for nine of them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[CanRay]

And they'd use a phone book, too.

[Wounded Ronin]

A friend who plays a mage in my game works for a collection agency tracking down folks who have defaulted on their cars. He often claims he can find anybody, so I dared him to see what info he could get on me.
He came back a week later with records of my home, my credit history, my relatives, their addresses, my work history, the whole nine.
All of it wrong! We were both shocked to learn that not only was I dead, but I was making payments on several homes out of state and I had been married three times. While being a zombie, land baron polygamist sounds dandy, it would really cut into my gaming schedule.

The main disadvantage of the tracking everyone system all the time is that the human operator always assumes the computer is right, because they have no basis for comparison. I don't want to think about someone who was actively trying to evade The Man would do.

Story of my life. I'm an investigator and that lexis shit is often times dead wrong or misleading.

[SecGuard]

Yep, that's more or less the only option. IF you crank up the "surveillance society" theme to the maximum there are few ways to hide - especially since the corps will probably be satisfied if the list of suspects can be narrowed down to something like ten people. If there are ten Sarah Connors and you don't know which is the one you are looking for, though luck for nine of them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

In Shadowrun this is what would happen, in RL well it depends which country you're in i guess.

[CanRay]

Well, to give an example of how inadequate omniscient surveillance is... Graffiti has been put up in London (The city with the most Anti-Crime Cameras in the world!) proclaiming "Big Brother is Watching" and other such 1984-references.

One is a huge mural (Admittedly stencil spray-painted, but still) that was done in view of the camera it was referencing, and police are baffled as to who did it. (Well, except for the artist's "Tag", they still don't know who the blighter is. He's been on the scene for decades.).

[TheOOB]

RC has a good spiel on it, summed up "Yes everything is recorded, and it's very unlikely to be terribly useful to anyone unless you're stupid"

[Tyro]

RC has a good spiel on it, summed up "Yes everything is recorded, and it's very unlikely to be terribly useful to anyone unless you're stupid"

A little bit of net chaff goes a long way.

[CanRay]

Chaff, ECM, and flares if you do it right.

[Tyro]

Chaff, ECM, and flares if you do it right.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for using the Oxford comma!

Seriously, I'm OCD about that sort of thing in an almost clinical sense.