comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

AR transmissions are so easy to eavesdrop on, employees in the
new AR world have no privacy at work or at home. Of course,
most wageslaves have no idea of how closely their corporate masters
are watching. I certainly am not going to be the one to break
the news.
AR technology has also allowed corporations to better deploy
their personnel in dangerous or difficult environments, such
as mining, underwater environments, and even construction. By
using RFID tags and AR, corporations can reduce risk through
constant surveillance of every worker, warning him of dangerous
zones, preventing entry into unsecured areas, and monitoring vital
signs and productivity.
> More and more corporations are taking cheap (read: disposable)
labor and slapping some shoddy skillwires into them, creating
workers overnight. It makes for great flexibility, since the corp can
download new skills/training into their workforce at any time. Much
more cost-efficient than investing years of training, education, and
time into employees.
> Aufheben
> The skillwires are substandard, the healthcare non-existent, and
the corp charges the employee for the cost of the surgery and gear,
taking it out of their wages. The employee is an unpaid slave for
months, if not years, once they tack on interest and all the extra
costs of care, upgrades, and routine maintenance.
> Nephrine
> I don’t know what’s worse, seeing so many sign away their bodies
and souls just to survive on the pitiful wages offered, or seeing even
more of the unskilled workers displaced by the fully automated factories
and cheap drone labor that so many corps rely upon, leaving
metahuman workers with the choice between polluting their bodies
or watching their families starve.
> Fatima
> Drones are easy to build, easy to control, and you don’t get the
costly screw-ups inherent in a metahuman workforce. It’s the way of
the world. If the poor SOBs want to get out, they can. I did.
> Butch
> While the ethics lecture is entertaining, I’d rather spend my time
productively. Drone workforces are a fact of life. A smart runner
knows how to use them to his advantage. If your hacker can get
into the system, they can control the place. Talk about a great advantage.
> 2XL
> Shit, what’s scary is that some of these places have security hackers
and riggers on duty. Nothing worse than getting a team into a
place only to realize there’s a spider—a security rigger—who can jump
into the security system and “become” the building. A few weeks
back I got into a lab full of skillwired grunts and an alarm got set
off. While our hacker was fighting through the building’s system
and the rest of us were trying to deal with the security drones, the
damn spider downloaded a new set of skillsofts into the grunts.
Transformed the bunch from lab grunts to trained security forces. In
Unwired
wHo are YoU?: i.d.
in tHe wireLeSS worLd
Your System Identification Number is a unique
identifier issued to you at birth or any time you
change national or corporate citizenship. This
identifier (which is not just alpha-numeric) contains
basic information, such as your birthdate,
birthplace, and other data, encoded within the
identifier. If issued at birth, your SIN will be linked
to basic biometric data, such as a DNA sample,
retinal scan, and finger prints. As you age, additional
biometrics such as voice patterns, facial
patterns, and hand measurements can be added.
Your SIN is registered with your country or corporation
of citizenship as well as with the Global
SIN Registry. Following the Crash, most governments
and corporations began requiring multiple
backup databases that can be accessed in case of
national emergency.
Your id contains all the data necessary to interact
with other citizens, government/corporate
agencies, and physical or online retailers. Although
every issuing country/corp embeds different data
on a citizen’s ID, they generally contain your name,
age, metatype, a physical description, a current
photo, licenses, and are frequently linked to your
bank account. Many countries also require IDs to
contain your status if you are Awakened or a technomancer
along with registries of any cyber- or
bioware you have.
Your SIN is linked to biometric data and proves
you are a citizen. Your ID is who you are. Together,
they allow you to exist in today’s world.
a matter of seconds, we had 100-plus orks who suddenly knew a hell
of a lot about kicking our asses. Needless to say, we left.
> DangerSensei
The other big business interest in AR is selling stuff to all those
wageslaves (and you). Lots and lots of stuff. With the ability to track
every purchase you make, real-time. Every store you enter, every
restaurant you patronize, right down to the soymilk you added to
your coffee this morning … well, let’s just say, the system knows more
about you and your preferences, than you do. It didn’t take long for
corporations to realize what a lucrative business market-data tracking
is. There’s some seriously heavy competition out there for your buying
patterns, and everyone with a SIN and disposable income is targeted.
You walk down the street and get bombarded with restaurants reciting
their daily specials, stores advertising sales of your preferred brand
of underwear, street side vendors blasting you with viral ad-software,
entertainment parlors flashing neon AR signs to get your attention …
it is impossible to escape the constant data assault in any commercial
center. Any time you actually show interest in one of the ads, your
attention is noted and compiled with the rest of your consumer profile.
Corporate interests have ensured that turning your commlink to
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
9
Matrix overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .