We see so many events on our screens and the one which will stay with people for a long time who saw it live, is the coverage of the planes going into the twin towers. Those acts of terror changed society in so many ways. Apart from fear and outrage, countries went to war again. And Governments drafted and passed legislation without opposition, which gave these democratically elected governments the same powers which dictatorship governments exhibited.

And so it began.

Spying on their own people and building a database of information without any context. Fast forward another 15 years and the invasion of our privacy is even more severe. We are now tracked on our daily commute, at work, online, in car parks, at airports, in shopping centres and even when we walk the streets.

All in the name of profit as our data is a $US19 billion dollar industry. Companies collect our data, interpret it and then sell it to advertising companies, sell it to government agencies, sell it to corporations to increase workplace productivity and sell it to anyone else who wants to pay. Nothing is private anymore even when privacy means “freedom from disturbance or intrusion.”

Read the article to see the many ways companies and governments are spying.

Amazon knows our shopping habits and Google knows our search history and Facebook knows everything about us.

When you search for something on Google, its stored forever, on a database. Even those searches for nude people and sex fantasies. Private searches in Google are not private to Google and advertisers. They knew exactly what you are doing and saving it.

Every single “internet/web of things” user has a database of ruin.

And companies want to know; who is planning to start a family, who has a family, who is trying to lose weight and everything else that goes with big life changes, like marriage and divorce and buying a home or selling a home.

Even at night, when we sleep, our phone apps are sending out information.

If you live in a building with swipe cards to get in and out or pin codes to access the building, the buildings strata collects and stores this data, along with the electricity you use. They know when you are home and when you aren’t.

Police have all of our faces in a database. Airports use facial recognition to get us through customs. Private companies are building a database of faces, which it sells to government enforcement agencies so they would be able to track where we go and what we do.

Every time we check our emails, our personal data is sent back to the email sender, which makes it a prime target for hackers. Facebook and Instagram and Twitter make money from the data they store on us. Its why these services are free to us. We pay with our personal information.

That new car you purchased is tracking the weight of the passengers and the trip. Go for a walk and if you have a phone on you, expect to be tracked by the GPS technology and in major cities by the cameras present on light poles and street corners.

And now it’s time for some RATT.

“You take the midway subway train”