The Total Account
The Total Account
padeluun
In the past, surveillance made a sound.
A crackle in the line.
An unremarkable car near the door.
A man in a trench coat
reading for slightly too long
the same newspaper.
In the past, at least you knew:
Someone’s watching.
Today, nobody is watching.
Today, everything is watching.
The camera.
The smartphone.
The cell tower.
The car.
The database.
The algorithm.1
And somewhere it says:
Hit.
Welcome
to the the total surveillance account.2
We start small.
Subscriber data enquiry.3
Who is behind this number?
This e-mail address?
This IP?4
Only metadata.5
Not the contents!
Only:
Who to whom?
When?
For how long?
From where?
How often?
So, only:
Your life
around it.
Then:
Data retention.6
Mobile cell enquiry.7
IMSI catcher.8
Licence plate scanners.9
Facial recognition.10
Source telecommunications surveillance.11
State trojan.12
Remote device searches.13
And eventually
we will connect everything.
Phone number.
Address.
Car.
Face.
Location.
Travel.
Bank account.
Friends.
Contact of a contact.
Contact of a contact
of a contact.
A point.
A line.
A point.
A line.
Databases turn
into power bases.14
[Pause]
And we have been saying this
not just since yesterday.
For decades we have been saying:
Stop doing that.
We write statements.
We explain.
We protest.
We sue.
Often we even win.
Then a court declares
measures to be unlawful.
And soon
comes the next idea.
New name.
New law.
New justification.
Old wine.
New wineskins.
New crisis.
And surprisingly often
the same answer:
More data.
More powers.
More surveillance.
Because real solutions
require more effort.
Prevention.
Counselling.
Education.
Investigation.
Well-equipped agencies.
Social infrastructure.
People
with the time
to do a good job.
That costs money.
Personnel.
Patience.
Political work.
Surveillance, in contrast,
promises a button.
Press it.
Hit.
[increase tempo]
Data retention.
Mobile cell request.
IMSI catcher.
Licence plate scanners.
Air passenger data.15
Account requests.16
Telecommunications surveillance.17
Source telecommunications surveillance.
State trojan.
Remote device searches.
Full-scale surveillance.18
Dragnet investigation.19
Facial recognition.
Voice recognition.20
DNA matching.21
Internet manhunt.22
OSINT.23
Network analysis.24
Profiling.25
Risk scoring.26
Predictive policing.27
Palantir.28
[further increase]
Chat control.29
Client-side scanning.30
Upload filters.31
Network blockage.32
Age verification.33
Content analysis.34
Pattern matching.35
Behavioural analysis.36
Collect.
Store.
Scan.
Compare.
Identify.
Localise.
Link.
Correlate.37
Sort.
Assess.
Score.38
Mark.
Profile.39
Predict.40
Suspect.
[very fast]
Which IP?
Which cell?41
Which SIM?42
Which licence plate?
Which route?
Which flight?
Which bank account?
Which message?
Which face?
Which voice?
Which DNA?
Which contact?
Which protest?
Which group?
Which organisation?
Which donation?
Which website?
Which chat?
Which opinion?
Which risk?
Which hit?
[abrupt pause]
And now we imagine:
all this takes place under the rule of law.
With courts.
With data protection.
With strict purpose limitation.43
With opposition.
With press.
And then one morning
the technology does not change.
Not the camera.
Not the IMSI catcher.
Not the trojan.
Not Palantir.
Not the database.
What changes is
only
the government.
[pause]
No.
We do not have to
imagine this any more.
Saxony-Anhalt.
6 September 2026.
43.8 percent.
39 seats out of 83.
Three seats
short of an absolute majority.
For a party
whose regional organisation’s
right-wing extremism
has been determined.
Three seats.
Three other elections since
with large shares for right-wing extremists.
And suddenly the question
is no longer:
What if
all these tools
fall into the wrong hands?
But rather:
Whoever
built these tools?
Who approved them?
Who paid for them?
Who placed them
year over year
in the toolbox?
Because this toolbox
has not just been built by those
of which we warn today.
Many of these instruments:
democratic governments
created them.
Despite our warnings.
Despite the protests.
Despite legal action.
Despite court rulings.
And those who wish to put
the press,
protests,
civil society,
and opposition
under pressure,
do then not have to start
at zero.
[pause]
It won’t even be necessary
immediately
to abolish all basic rights.
It will suffice
when people start
to watch themselves.
Maybe today I
will not go to the protest.
Maybe better if I
do not sign.
Maybe for this
constitutional complaint I
will not give my support.
Maybe this time I
will not donate.
Maybe I’d better
say nothing.
Because they do know
where I have been.
With whom.
What I read.
Whom I help.
What I think.
What I feel.
Where my family lives.
Then there is no need for
a man in a trench coat.
No car at the door.
Perhaps not even
a camera.
Because the most efficient
surveillance apparatus
is sitting
here.
In my own head.
[pause]
And this is precisely why
this here is
not a eulogy.
Because none of this
is natural.
No scanner
grows on trees.
No state trojan
falls from the skies.
No surveillance law
passes itself.
Humans decide that.
And humans
can decide differently.
This is why we object.
This is why we sue.
This is why we annoy.
This is why we add up
what is individually sold
to us as harmless.
This is why we call names.
And this is exactly why
there is Digitalcourage
and the BigBrotherAwards.
Not to say:
Good night.
That was it.
But rather:
We see you.
We remember.
We uncover
what was meant to stay silent
and become normal.
We make sure
that an attack on basic rights
is not simply called
technical modernisation
and slips through.
And when someone says:
it is just
a small measure,
then we will unpack
the total surveillance account.
The completely banal evil
is not automatic.
It is automated,
by people
who design it,
by people
who order it,
by people
who approve it,
by people
who hear the warnings
and continue regardless.
And sometimes
by a machine
to which, by humans, the evil
is delegated.
Which does not think.
Which does not understand.
Which bears no responsibility.
Only an
Advanced Imitation
of the completely banal evil.
[pause]
But automated
does not mean
inevitable.
The total account
is still open.
And we have
not nearly
finished
presenting it.
Quellen (nur eintragen sofern nicht via [fn] im Text vorhanden, s.u.)
1 An algorithm is a defined sequence of calculation steps and rules, used to process data and generate results.
2 The total surveillance account looks at government surveillance activities not individually, but in their joint effect on freedom and basic rights.
3 A subscriber data enquiry is an official information request regarding ownership of a telecommunications end connection or a user account.
4 An IP address is the technical network address, which allows the tracing of an internet connection to devices or connection end points.
5 Metadata is circumstantial data of a communications connection, such as participants, time, duration or location, but not the contents.
6 Data retention is the storing of data about connections and locations without cause for a potential later access by government agencies.
7 A mobile cell enquiry is the query by a government agency about which mobile devices were in a specific area at a specific time.
8 An IMSI catcher is a device that mimics cell tower transmissions in order to identify mobile devices and, depending on the task, locate the devices as well.
9 Licence plate scanners automatically scan vehicle licence plates and correlate them with wanted-person databases and other data collections.
10 Facial recognition is the automated identification and correlation of persons according to biometric facial features.
11 Source telecommunications surveillance is the surveillance of ongoing communications directly on the end-user device so that encrypted messenger communications can also be captured.
12 A state trojan (“Staatstrojaner”) is spyware deployed by the government, allowing official agencies to gain covert access to computers and smartphones.
13 Remote device searches allow covert government access to data stored on a computer or smartphone.
14 Power bases are databases which, when combined and evaluated, create extensive means for control, analysis and influence.
15 Air passenger data is data about bookings and travels of air travel passengers, which can been stored and then be evaluated by government agencies.
16 Through an account request, agencies can find out which brokerage and bank accounts belong to a person.
17 Telecommunications surveillance is the surveillance of ongoing communications by government agencies.
18 Full-scale surveillance (“Großer Lauschangriff”) means the covert technical surveillance of communications in private settings by government agencies.
19 Dragnet investigation (“Rasterfahndung”) means the large-scale correlation of specific markers in large databases to filter out persons with a certain profile matching a suspicion.
20 Voice recognition is the automated identification or correlation of persons according to certain biometric voice markers.
21 DNA matching compares genetic markers to match persons or traces.
22 In an Internet manhunt, government agencies search for and evaluate so-called (sometimes even private) publicly available information for the purposes of finding a person.
23 OSINT is Open Source Intelligence and means the systematic extraction and evaluation of information from publicly available (including illegitimate) sources.
24 Network analysis evaluates relationships and connections between persons, groups and communications, to uncover structures and patterns.
25 Profiling describes the automated or systematic evaluation of personal data to create profiles of behaviour, interests and risks.
26 Risk scoring is the data-based calculation of a value, supposed to express the purported risk of a person or an activity.
27 Predictive Policing describes data-based methods that can allegedly predict possible future crimes, crime scenes or dangerous persons.
28 Palantir in this context describes software platforms for merging, cross-referencing and analysing large databases, including police databases.
29 Chat control describes plans for the automated search of private digital communications for certain suspicious or illegal content.
30 Client-Side-Scanning searches content which is still on the end-user device, before or during encrypted transmission.
31 Upload filters are an automated content check during upload to enable blocking of publication according to defined criteria.
32 Network blockage is a technical means making access to certain internet content impossible or difficult.
33 Age verification describes procedures for checking the age of a person before granting them access to certain digital offerings, which undermines anonymity for everyone online.
34 Content analysis denotes the systematic, often automatic processing of communication contents, files or other data.
35 Pattern matching is the automatised recognition of repeating, similar or conspicuous structures in data.
36 Behavioural analysis evaluates actions and patterns of behaviour in order to derive characteristics, unusual features or supposed risks.
37 To correlate means to relate different data to one another, to make actual or supposed statistical or inherent relationships visible.
38 Scoring means to assign a prejudicial numerical or risk value to persons or events according to defined data and rules.
39 Profiling means to condense personal data into a behavioural, interest-based or risk-based profile.
40 To predict means to use existing data to make statements about possible future behaviour or impending risks.
41 A cell in this context is a spatial area for the provision of mobile radio services of a base station, and can be used for am approximate localisation of a device.
42 A SIM is the identification module of a mobile radio end-user device, used to authenticate the connection end-point or the device in the mobile network.
43 Purpose limitation in the context of data protection means that personal data can only be processed for the defined and lawfully determined purpose.
