V for Vendetta - what creeped me out... (spoiler?)

[QuestionAll...]

besides the obvious.
could be a spoiler so please don't read the scroll down.













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the part where how 'public opinion' was arrived at - the listening in of conversations in peoples homes with surveillance gadgets just driving up and down streets...

oiy, I'd be in big trouble with all the cussing I do against you-know-whose.

thought I read something about this a while back - that technology is here that can actually do this. anyone have info?

[pooja]

1. of course, just watch that stupid show... cheaters... they have

the ability to hear conversations into homes, etc.

[QuestionAll...]

2. have never seen Cheaters...

thanks for the info tho, I think.... (shudders)

[MuseRider]

3. Well they are going

to get an ear full at my house! Between my husband and myself it is bad enough but when my two sons come home....LOL. I hope their ears fall off.

[porphyrian]

4. The technology for doing so is real and widely available.

Law enforcement agencies also have infrared cameras which can monitor your every move indoors from outside. Privacy, like security, is an illusion. They exist only as long as no one really puts any effort into invading yours.

[Lisa]

5. it's also a twist on the British "television license detector vans"

A friend in the UK pointed this out to me. Over there, you pay a tax in order to receive TV signals via cable or aerial. The money goes to the BBC (which admittedly has received international recognition for its programming, so those of us in other countries who are enjoying it, even with the international rebroadcast fees, are getting some kind of indirect benefit from the British taxpayers).

http://www.taith.org.uk/tv/faq.htm


They can figure out who has paid their tax, by monitoring records to see who's paid -- and by going up and down the street in vans with detectors which can pick up signals from TVs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/06_june/24/licensing_detector_vans.shtml

Not surprisingly this is controversial, and a number of people feel this is rather intrusive (even if, as some claim, that the vans actually do not work and are only a deterrent). In any case it seems that list-keeping would be more cost efficient, since database searches can be done for entire cities in only a few minutes.
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom


The "V for Vendetta" twist is that the new regime is using vans for eavesdropping on people's conversations, not checking for tax dodgers. So it's rather clever, tweaking an existing situation which irritates some Britons, and would likely freak out a lot of North Americans who aren't familiar with the TV tax.