Rants and raves about stuff happening in and around my life in Singapore

Monday, July 20, 2015

I Spy Someone Spying

I always have a good laugh when I see a headline online or in the news about such and such a country found spying on such and such as fact. The latest doing the rounds is of course the one claiming the US spied on 3 French presidents.



I mean in what world do people think this isn't happening? What country in the world is not actively spying on its neighbour or wheeling and dealing behind the scenes to gain some sort of political advantage. What country isn't looking to obtain secrets in one way or another? This isn't a big conspiracy theory, I mean we already have internet and satellites and God knows what levels of access governments can achieve with all of the latest technology available to them. And you can rest assured that whatever technology they have available is way ahead of what the public has knowledge of.

So why is anyone surprised when some of this knowledge becomes fact.

Rest assured if you are a public figure, or a politician or anyone of interest (for which the definition is no doubt ever changing as the search algorithms get ever more advanced) you can pretty much be certain that someone, somewhere, somehow is looking over your shoulder. The espionage business is no doubt a booming one, in fact its progress probably outstrips every other technology achievement globally. But of course we'll never know for sure, and we can only guess at the millions upon millions spent on this secret industry.

We will only get hints from whistle blowers or as suspicions become proven in fact and then begins the public outcry, or in espionage circles no doubt it becomes a walk of shame, after all if you where any good you wouldn't have got caught would you. So if the claim that the US spied on 3 French presidents is actually proven, then you have got to ask what are they doing that we don't know anything about. And if the US Are doing it  well you can rest assured that pretty much every country in the world is.

Yes espionage exists throughout the globe, whether its governments spying on governments or governments spying on their own citizens, and what we hear is certainly only the merest tip of the iceberg.

So when some of that becomes known I don't understand why anyone is surprised.