Handbook of Surveillance Technologies (3rd Ed) - The Real Faces of ...

Handbook of Surveillance Technologies
Many organizations have developed the definitions and jurisdictions of their INTs over a
period of decades and they have become intrinsically linked to many carefully developed policies
and departments. For this reason, it’s difficult to sort out and change existing INT designations
to modernize them. However, for newer technologies, it may be useful to put them in some
sort of logical order related to their physical properties. One possible scheme for organizing
common TECHINT-related surveillance technologies is shown in the preceding chart.
Widely Used Technologies
The most widely used surveillance technologies are visual, chemical, and acoustical (particularly
audio, radio, and sonar). Aerial surveillance is based primarily on electromagnetic
technologies and is covered in a separate chapter due to its growing importance. Radar is also
widely used, and infrared is steadily increasing in both aerial- and ground-based applications.
This text concentrates more heavily on the more prevalent technologies, but does not overlook
some less-used but valuable fields, including magnetic, animal, and cryptologic surveillance.
Biometric surveillance is not yet a large field, but it is growing, and genetic surveillance may
be the most significant technology of all. The technology that you ultimately choose depends
upon what you need to know, what is lawful, and the specific environment in which the information-gathering
devices will be used.
3. Context
Surveillance is very context-sensitive—the technology may be incidental or highly important.
A homeowner checking on a housekeeper who is suspected of stealing might use a simple
pinhole camera hidden in a smoke detector. A private detective observing a client’s spouse in
a crowded shopping mall can usually accomplish the task with discretion and an unobtrusive
camera. Some forms of surveillance, however, require careful planning and highly sophisticated
technology.
In Sherlock Holmes’ day, a detective would search mainly for visual clues (or convenient
gossip) to solve a crime. Now, crime scene investigators and forensic labs utilize chemical dyes
and powders, infrared and ultraviolet sensors, DNA sampling kits, bullet-analysis techniques
and access to extensive databases of profiles, mug shots, fingerprints, and bullet casings to solve
cases. Traditional low-tech materials are sometimes combined with high tech. For example, if
a news correspondent or foreign agent is sent to gather information on potential hostilities or
human rights abuses in foreign territory, then specialized clothing, cosmetics, contact lenses,
language classes, wireless recorders, aerial photographs of the region, maps, telegraph transmissions,
satellite-modem-equipped notebook computers, accomplices, and a boat tucked away
under a dock, may all assist in achieving the desired ends.
Aerial images were once expensive and grainy ($4,000 per image in the early 1990s). They
were primarily sold to researchers, large corporations, and military analysts. Now that highresolution
satellite images can be purchased for less than $25 per square mile, or viewed for
free with Google Maps, there’s been a dramatic shift in how these images are used.
The human nervous system is still the most important surveillance ‘technology’. All the
sophisticated inventions in the world are worthless without strategies, data analysis, and accurate
interpretation of the results. The technological developments and devices introduced in this
text are only effective if carefully selected and correctly installed. As they say in the computer
programming industry, garbage in, garbage out. If the surveillance data is irrelevant or inaccurate
(or absent altogether, due to faulty components or incorrect usage), it is of little value.
18