The US surveillance state is big enough that most Americans are already well aware that they are being watched. A new revelation from WikiLeaks’ Stratfor Emails leak suggests it is even bigger than we thought.
According to those leaked emails, civilian CCTV cameras are being used by the Department of Homeland Security through a system called TrapWire, to spy on the whereabouts of everybody, all the time.
TrapWire is supposed to be “predictive” software, capable of telling just by looking at you if you’re a terrorist or not, and if you’re about to do something. The details of how it does that are scarce, as are details about the CIA-linked company Abraxas that created it.
Secretive programs involving secretive software with few details aren’t much to go by, but the reports are fueling considerable concern, in no small part because in this era of ever-increasing surveillance, virtually any intrusion on Americans’ privacy by the government is entirely plausible.
