Transparent Life Path

Interesting or not, but fascinating. Your life can be traced back and probably will be 100% traceable in the near future. Due to power of all the electronic gadgets, computers, payment and banking systems, security systems, and any other tracking and recording system or devices out there, I think we can put our daily, monthly, annual or life path on the Google map, lol, that may also include photos; and with that I think that we can also have our daily routine outlined to minute detail and exact location.

Let see how this can happen by looking at this extreme example.

It is Monday morning April 29, 2007. Jane woke up and noticed that she is late for work. She picked up up her Blackberry and sent a text message at 9:00 am to her co-worker letting her know that she will be in the office pass 12:00 pm. Jane's work place is about 75 km away from home. She got ready, but then she also realized that there are few errands to do. During breakfast, she made a quick list of her errands, one of them she needed to change her dental appointment. At 9:45 am she called dental office to make a change - costs her extra 10 cents for this call, I think in the near future it is time to look for another dentist closer to home. She also made one more call. Jane called jewelry store which she decided to visit on the way to work. Right after she left her apartment, and headed for the toll highway entering around 10:15 am, and she got off about 10:45 am heading for the Central Mall. She needed to get a gift for her friends birthday for this coming weekend. She goes to jewelry store, picked nice gold necklace and paid with the Master Card. On the way from the mall she decided to get a cup of Tim Horton coffee, she ensured to take the receipt so she can get her money back from work. Jane is now back on the toll highway at 11:30 am heading for work, she is going to make it for 12 pm. Well, well, major accident on the next exit, and she is now moving slow in traffic. At 11:45 am Jane passed by the accident scene, wow was a major one, so Jane took her digital camera and snapped few pictures to show at work. Finally she got off the highway at 12:15 pm, and headed for the parking garage about 5 minutes away - fully secured. She entered first set of the security gates where three cameras pointed at her car, and then she entered second security gate where she swiped her security pass exactly 12:22 pm. It takes Jane about 7 minutes to get to her office desk that included 2 more security pass card readers. Jane finally arrived at work, she logins to her computer at 12:30 pm. She only worked to 5:00 pm, because after work she took customer out for dinner. Through out the day she wrote few emails back and forth, sent some text messages, and created few reports. Exactly at 5:00 pm Jane left from the office exactly same way out as she came in. The restaurant is mid point between her work place and home. Her reservation was for 6:00 pm. Dinner was really nice and it ended at 8:00 pm, she paid with her Corporate Visa Card. Jane headed home, same route she took to work. She got home, her apartment is on the 10th floor, and since it is now after hours, she had to use special security gates with cameras, and press special access code to enter. She got home, sent quick text message to her boss that the dinner meeting was successful. Day turned out to be very busy for Jane, however, she still had time to make for herself cup of tea, and blog for a while. She ensured that she was in bed by 11:00 pm so she can get up and get to work on time.

Now to make this story more exciting, Jane is a crime suspect and the crime investigation team is looking into Jane's day routine for April 29, 2007. They were able to get access to her security pass login records, credit card information, computer at work and at home, and everything else like phone records, toll highway records or security camera videos. The following is Jane's day routine based on the external electronic records and Jane's brief description of her day to the police. The task force submitted the following report to the team leader of this investigation.

08:59 Jane woke up (location: home; time estimated)
09:00 Jane sent text message (location: home; source: Blackberry)
09:45 Jane called dental office (location: home; source: Long Distance Telephone Bill)
09:50 Jane called gift store (location: home; source: Police obtained Telephone Records)
09:55 Jane enters parking garage (location: home parking garage; source: Garage Security Camera)
10:15 Jane enters toll highway (location: 100; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
10:45 Jane exited toll highway (location: exit 101; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
11:00 Jane paid for the gold necklace (location: Central Mall; source: Master Card Records)
11:05 Jane paid for Tim Horton Coffee (location: Central Mall; source: Tim Horton Receipt)
11:20 Jane left Central Mall parking garage (location: Central Mall; source: Parking Security System)
11:30 Jane entered toll highway (location: 110; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
11:45 Jane took photo of the accident scene (location 111; source: Digital Camera)
12:15 Jane exited toll highway (location: 112; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
12:20 Jane entered workplace parking garage (location: workplace; source: Parking Security System)
12:22 Jane passed 1st security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
12:25 Jane passed 2nd security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
12:27 Jane passed 3rd security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
12:30 Jane login into her work computer (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
13:00 Jane received text message 1 (location: workplace; source: Blackberry)
13:15 Jane created office memo 1 (location: workplace; source: MSWord File Date and Time Code)
13:30 Jane sent email to customer (location: workplace; source: Outlook Date and Time Code)
15:00 Jane wrote customer report 1 (location: workplace; source: PowerPoint Date and Time Code)
16:05 Jane wrote customer report 2 (location: workplace; source: PowerPoint Date and Time Code)
16:45 Jane send personal email from yahoo (location: workplace; source: Yahoo Email Date and Time Code)
16:50 Jane send text message to customer that she is meeting for dinner (location: workplace; source: Blackberry)
17:00 Jane logout from her work computer (location: workplace; source: Workplace Network System)
17:04 Jane passed 1st security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
17:07 Jane passed 2nd security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
17:11 Jane passed 3rd security check (location: workplace; source: Workplace Access Security System)
17:20 Jane exited workplace parking garage (location: workplace; source: Parking Security System)
17:25 Jane entered toll highway (location: 113; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
17:45 Jane exited toll highway (location: 114; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
17:55 Jane arrived at the restaurant (location: Mamma's Place; source: Parking Security System)
18:00 Jane met with customer (location: Mamma's Place; source: Reservation Log)
20:05 Jane paid for dinner (location: Mamma's Place; source: Corporate Visa Card Records)
20:10 Jane left parking lot (location: Mamma's Place; source: Parking Security System)
20:30 Jane entered toll highway (location: 115; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
20:10 Jane exited toll highway (location: 116; source: Toll Highway Electronic System)
21:15 Jane arrived apartment garage (location: home; source: Garage Security Camera System) 22:00 Jane sent text message to their boss (location: home; source: Blackberry)
22:05 Jane logins to her home computer (location: home; source: Personal Computer)
22:20 Jane posted on her blog (location: home; source: Blogger)
22:45 Jane commented on blog 1 (location: home; source: Blogger)
22:55 Jane commented on blog 2 (location: home; source: Wordpress)
23:00 Jane headed for bed (location: home; source: Jane's word)

Since the estimated time for the crime was between 5:00 and 6:00 pm, it could not have been Jane as per above investigated outline, and the location was way out. Jane is cleared from the crime suspect list.

Imagine that. Yes your life can be traced, may be not like Jane's, but similarly. Indirect data about you can be obtained from your computer records, from your photo images (date and time code), your blog posts so make sure you don't' post during work hours, lol, your credit/debit cards, your banking, your cash receipts if you keep them, your created files (date and time code), medical office log books, reservation logs, toll highways, mobile phones, telephone records, emails, mail packages, and other records such diplomas received, your notes, neighbors notes, others photos, other witnesses. And I am not mentioning search engine tracking your searching habits, cookies, online purchases, online banking, etrading, logins, posts, discussion posts and many many other Internet activities. Yes the list is big, and yes we are very transparent. The question is do we want to be that transparent? For me it really doesn't matter, as long as all my personal stuff is secured. However, as far as knowing my life routine, I don't really care if someone is watching, I am sure someone would want to dig if I was only famous.

Therefore, only if you hide away from the society the transparency goes away, however, that one photo snap by someone else can place you in exact location, exact date and time. So no, you cannot get away 100%.

Lastly, did you know that your computer data is never removed from the computer, even when you deleted all the files you don't want someone to see. Only physical destruction of the computer will destroy everything - like hammering or subjecting your computer to very strong magnetic fields.