"OnStar, which provides a variety of services including vehicle diagnostics, driving directions and automated 911 calls to owners of mostly GM vehicles, recently announced that it reserves the right to track and sell information about vehicle location and speed even after the driver has cancelled the service. OnStar, which has around 6 million subscribers, relies on GPS tracking and other systems built into to the car. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into the matter."

-- Chicago Tribune

If you don't have OnStar, don't worry. Your cell phone company does the same thing.

Here's a small hovering spybot from Germany with a high-resolution video camera onboard:

"The AirRobot, an exceptionally light and quiet video probe capable of autonomous flight, can be flown without any pilot experience...the pilot can fully concentrate on his exploration mission. Due to its silent electric drive, its diameter of one meter and its weight of less than one kilogram, the AirRobot can also be used in residential areas. Our customers include mainly the police and the army."

-- Air Robot website

It could hover outside your apartment window or over the trees in your backyard and you'd never know it was there. It even has infrared capability in case you forgot to leave the lights on. Isn't technology wonderful?

"The world's smallest and thinnest RFID tags were introduced yesterday by Hitachi. Tiny miracles of miniaturization, these RFID chips measure just 0.05 x 0.05 millimeters..."

These extremely small and inexpensive chips could easily be incorporated into any product, or simply scattered like dust for tracking purposes. Far smaller than a grain of table salt and invisible to the naked eye, you could easily swallow them without even noticing!

See: TechNovelgy article (2007-02)

"Nextel cell phones...were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations... The eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery... "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time...without having physical access to the phone."

A 2003 lawsuit revealed that the FBI was [also] able to surreptitiously turn on the built-in microphones in automotive systems like General Motors' OnStar to snoop on passengers' conversations. When FBI agents remotely activated the system and were listening in, passengers in the vehicle could not tell that their conversations were being monitored."

See: CNET News article (2006-12)

"Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived... The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts... to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you!'."

See: Daily Mail article (2006-09)

A software developer is showing off his new GPS tracking system by reporting the location of his own car-mounted cell phone in real-time for all the world to see. According to him, "People are very willing to give up their privacy... You just have to give them a good reason to do so."

Next step? A webcam in every room of the house and a GPS chip in the arm...

See: Where's Tim?

"After the latest news from London and the United Kingdom regarding [alleged] terrorist plots and airport security, many travelers are unhappy with the no-liquids rule and the barebones carry on-luggage refusal. Many travelers ask, can't there be an easier way?... Business travelers (and their employer corporations) especially may clamor for anything that facilitates shorter delays and more carry-on luggage."

Yet another surveillance system just waiting for the right political opportunity to roll it out on a large scale -- without protest.

See: Melissa Field article (2006-08)

"Every time you use an internet search engine, your inquiry is stored in a huge database. Would you like such personal information to become public knowledge? Yet for thousands of AOL customers, that nightmare has just become a reality... This is knowledge beyond the dreams of any secret police in history."

See: Guardian article (2006-08)

"What were once the tracking tools of spies and private investigators are now being offered to mainstream America, specifically parents who want to keep constant track of their kids in real time. Already, millions of families have discovered the meddlesome capabilities of their children's mobile phones.... [or even] a live tracking device that can be covertly attached to a vehicle. Parents can check online or, depending on the product, even by cellphone to see where the car is."

See: Dallas Star Telegram article (2006-08)

"At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones. With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The trial of the Israeli-developed system represents an effort...to determine whether technology can spot passengers who have "hostile intent."

See: Wall St. Journal article (2006-08)