Giving the Man his due, and cutting in everyone else

["Dude VanWinkle" <dudevanwinkle () gmail com>]

from: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/10/surveillance_as.html

October 27, 2006
Surveillance as Performance Art

Hasan Elahi has been making his every movement public, after being
detained by the FBI (and then cleared) when entering the country:

   For the next few months, every trip Elahi took, he'd call his FBI
agent and give the routing, so he didn't get detained along the way.
He realized, after a point -- why just tell the FBI -- why not tell
everyone?

   So he hacked his cellphone into a tracking bracelet which he wears
on his ankle, reporting his movements on a map -- log onto his site
and you can see that he's in Camden. But he's gone further, trying to
document his life in a series of photos: the airports he passes
through, the meals he eats, the bathrooms he uses. The result is a
photographic record of his daily life which would be very hard to
falsify. We all know photos can be digitally altered... but altering
as many photos as Elahi puts online would require a whole team trying
to build this alternative path through the world.

   Elahi also puts other apsects of his life online, including his
banking records. This gives a record of his purchases, which
complements the photographs. He doesn't put the phone records online,
because it would compromise the privacy of the people he talks with,
and some friends have asked him to stop visiting, but he views the
self-surveillance both as an art form and as his perpetual alibi for
the next time the FBI questions him.

   At the same time, he's stretching the limits of surveillance
systems, taking advantage of non-places. He flew to Singapore for four
days and never left the airport, never clearing customs. For four
days, he was noplace -- he'd fallen off the map, which is precisely
what the FBI and others worry about. But he documented every noodle
and every toilet along the way.

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