Facial recognition at every transit gate, but only “for security theater.” + Phone microphones listening for emergency keywords — also for “personalized ads.” + Work chat logs archived indefinitely “for compliance.” + Your car’s location history sold to insurers, then to data brokers, then to… who checks? + Civic scoring via purchase history: organic kale + library visits = green. Payday loans + vape pens = yellow. + Police pre-crime algorithms with 74% accuracy — good enough to ruin lives, bad enough to deny bias.
Big Brother 0.13 doesn’t need to break down your door. You already invited him in. He’s just… quiet. Standing in the corner of the room. Taking notes. big brother 0.13
The unaware. No idea the coffee shop WiFi is logging their MAC address. No clue the fitness tracker sold their sleep apnea to a life insurer. They think “surveillance” means a guard at a camera feed. They are the majority. Facial recognition at every transit gate, but only
And that’s exactly how 0.13 survives. Meet three users of the beta: + Police pre-crime algorithms with 74% accuracy —
The believer. “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” They post their daily location to a social map. They rate their neighbors’ recycling compliance. They report a “suspicious backpack” at the park. They sleep fine.
The optimizer. They know the system is watching. So they play it. Fake keystrokes to look busy. VPNs for everything. Burner phones. They’re not hiding a crime — just the mess of being human. Exhausted. Clever. One slip from yellow status.
Because right now, the repo is closed source. The contributors are corporations and states. And the end user is you.