At the Southern California headquarters of Rock West Solutions, sensor technology experts work hard to develop signal processing for defense applications. What they do is highly technical and very necessary, yet it is only one part of the military intelligence equation. There are other less technical ways of gathering intelligence data, ways that might surprise you.
A case in point is the smartphone. In case you haven’t heard, one of the most recent entries into the smartphone chat space is a UAE product known as ToTok. But ToTok is not just another innocuous app that connects people online. It’s also a spying tool.
While the good people at Rock West Solutions do some amazing things for national defense with their technology, app developers in the UAE have found an easier and more affordable way to gather sensitive intelligence data. What they have done is quite simple, rather effective, and even a bit elegant.
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Choosing Convenience Over Privacy
You might wonder how a sovereign nation could so easily spy on people from around the world with little more than a smartphone. In truth, we consumers have made it incredibly easy. We have a bad habit of choosing convenience over everything else – including privacy and security. All they have done in the UAE is take advantage of that.
ToTok is no different than any other chat app in principle. You download it to your device, connect with your friends, and chat away. It keeps track of all of your contacts and, if you sign in using Facebook, integrates with that platform as well. Those who take the time to read the user agreement carefully discover that ToTok has permission to share your information with ‘group companies’.
ToTok also has a friendly little feature that keeps track of the weather for you. Just give it permission to access your location and you are all set. Here’s the thing: every time you run the app, the people who monitor it know where you are, what you’re talking about in your conversations, and who all of your contacts are.
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Simplicity Is Sometimes Best
According to the folks at Rock West Solutions, defense and intelligence applications sometimes require cutting-edge technology. Sometimes military applications require highly advanced sensors and sophisticated signal processing. At other times though, simplicity is the best way to go.
In the case of ToTok, no high-tech signal processing or sensors are necessary. There is no need to go high-tech to gather intelligence when so many people are so willing to give it away. Think about that for just a minute. By choosing convenience over privacy and security, we are actually giving app developers – both private and government-backed – permission to spy on us.
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The State of Technology
If all of this seems just a bit Orwellian, it is. In 1949, Orwell wrote of a Big Brother environment in the 1980s. This was an environment in which no one had any privacy thanks to the ever-watchful eye of government. His predictions didn’t prove true in 1984, but they have now. Big Brother is out there, and he is living on our smartphones.
Both Apple and Google dropped ToTok once its status as a UAE spy tool was revealed. Those who already have it on their phones can continue to use it unabated. In all likelihood, there will soon be websites offering manual downloads of the app to anyone who wants it.
Such is the state of modern technology. Thanks to our thirst for convenience, those who wish to spy on us do not have to work so hard anymore.