Keeping an eye on the watchers

摘要

Privacy advocates say that biometrics has its place — but companies using the technology to safeguard their wares should stay away from centralized databases and keep projects small. In George Orwell's 1984, all of the people living in Oceania are watched by giant two-way TV screens wherever they go. Whether they're at work, at home or out on the streets, they are watched by Big Brother through the ever-present screens. But the surveillance technology of the not-so-distant future may be much more surreptitious than that. We might not know when Big Brother is watching.