Privacy is Leaving the Building

It's six minutes to midnight: does the government know where you are? You can be assured that with the total surveillance society, it probably does.

Today, Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project, announced the launch of our Surveillance Clock, a graphic illustration of just how close Americans are to a total loss of privacy. On The Huffington Post, he writes:

How is this happening? First there's the technology. We've got RFID tags, biometrics, DNA, data mining, surveillance cameras - even spy satellites trained on Americans. We're all living our lives more and more electronically, making everyone easier and easier to track - and our security agencies aren't being shy about taking advantage of the fact.

About the only thing happening faster than the development of technology for spying on people is the speed with which our privacy laws have been dismantled in the past seven years.

We launched the clock to coincide with the release to our new report, "Even Bigger, Even Weaker: The Emerging Surveillance Society" the sequel to our 2003 report "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains." And we're also debuting a new video about this loss of privacy by performance artists Steve Connell and Sekou (tha misfit) called "Monsters Among Us."

And for anyone who doubts that the total surveillance society is upon us, you need only read the news.

Believe us now?