If it waddles and quacks, it may be a duck
From the abundance of their hearts, ministers of government have spoken. We have been warned and forewarned. We can be tracked, and most likely, we are being tracked.
Whether through telephone access, voters’ identification information, social media posts, or any other data gathering and analytic mechanisms known or unknown, the tracking of the Jamaican people by their government seems to be in full swing. Such tracking systems and methodologies could also be secretly utilised by private companies for profit.
If this is not so, then some ministers of government have a lot of explaining to do since, in anger, chests have been beaten, desks have been slapped, and loose lips have uttered truths that they cannot walk back.
It is not unusual for agents of government to brag about their access to the personal data of citizens. It is a new kind of unbridled power that they wield over ordinary folk.
While the police would use trackability to identify and bring criminals, particularly those on social media, to justice, a trend has emerged where tracking down persons who post tirades against the prime minister also seems to be a favoured past-time. This phenomenon has been the reality of communist states like China and North Korea for decades, but it has only emerged in Jamaica since the advent of the COVID-19 plandemic and the plethora of States of Public Emergencies.
One cannot be sure if the tracking methodologies employed by the security forces are the same ones that power-frightened politicians brag about. But, be sure of this: if the feathered and beaked creature in your backyard waddles and quacks like a duck, chances are, it is a duck.
Only two years ago, the official Twitter (X) account of Robert Morgan, who was then the minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for information, warned his social media detractors that he had access to their personal data and could locate them if they made disparaging remarks defaming him.
The tweet made it known that the minister had access to IP addresses for Flow & Digicel, as well as agreements with Twitter, FB, and IG.
Earlier this year, while speaking during a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) youth conference in St. Ann, the prime minister himself advised a wide and encompassing group he called purveyors of “fake news” that perpetrators will be tracked and their identities discovered.
Also this year, Daryl Vaz, Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications, and Transport, told the nation that “nothing is private or secret.”
Just to note that government tracking its citizens is not a new thing for nations. Social media has become a significant source of information for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the State Department are among the many federal agencies that routinely monitor social media platforms for purposes ranging from conducting investigations to identifying threats to screening travellers and immigrants.
In China, citizens cannot post a comment on major social media services or buy something online without first using their national identification or phone number to register with the platforms. That allows the services and the government to keep tabs on what people are doing online. It helps the authorities to find people who criticise China’s ruler, Xi Jinping, as well as provide internet firms with consumer data for their own financial gain.
Mining personal data gives a massive advantage to marketers, whether in politics or in the commercial sector. Data analytics plays a pivotal role in shaping marketing strategies as it provides a precise understanding of customers’ demographics, spending patterns, likes, and dislikes by providing purchasing history, areas of interest, and browsing behaviour. It also helps organisations understand customers’ behavioural changes and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly.
Similarly, politicians use data analytics to develop profiles of voters and figure out how to target them and design a convincing narrative around social issues based on their interests, likes, dislikes, and how they spend their time and money.
Social media and online transactions capture a tonne of private data, which builds up an accurate composite of who we are. Most Jamaicans, especially in the rural parts, are not as online as their counterparts in well-populated urban centres and are therefore not as easily trackable. The government’s heavy investment in giving free wifi access to rural folk in recent years will welcome country folk into the wealth of data harvest in short order.
The Data Protection Act, which was passed into law last year, demands that every agency, company, church, or other establishment must collect and preserve the private information of all citizens who interact with them as paid employees, members, or volunteers.
All these agencies will create a massive, manicured network of personal information under strict and monitored programmes that promise safety and specify that the data can only be used for the purpose for which it was collected. Every data controller and data processor employed to satisfy the Data Protection Act requirements must be on tenterhooks as they face the fearless, relentless, and unseen forces of global hackers minutely.
Hackers live in luxury off their illicit activities, and they have no regard for rules and regulations. No data set, regardless of where it is located or who may control it, is totally safe. Those who are determined to access your data will cross borders, decipher encrypted files, unlock passwords, circumvent firewalls, and even bribe usually trusted officials to get to it.
In Jamaica alone, there were 43 million attempted cyberattacks in 2023, according to data from FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s threat intelligence and analysis laboratory. The Latin American and Caribbean region suffered 200 billion attempted attacks in 2023, accounting for 14.5 percent of the total reported globally last year.
Neither private nor public data sets have been spared. The financial sector has been hit hard over the past few years; in Jamaica, some $12 billion is lost to cybercriminals annually. Jamaica’s customs and immigration paperless entry system was hacked by scammers less than a week after it was launched last September.
The Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) suffered a ransomware attack that cost the agency upwards of US$231,900, or J$36.1 million, to procure the services of two international companies to recover and secure its information and communications technology (ICT) structure.
The website of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), www.jadco.gov.jm, was hacked, resulting in the loss of crucial information.
Programmes promising to protect personal data from diligent hackers are still in their experimental stages, but the ways governments and private sector companies use data for their own advantage at polls and at cash registers are well tried, tested, proven, and constantly employed.
As the end times advance, the culling and control of populations are crucial agenda items for the full rollout of the beast system across the globe. Data collection is the backbone behind the beast. It assigns a number to each individual, establishes a global network, and allows for the tracking and monitoring of money, movement, and all activities. It places ultimate control of the masses and resources into the hands of a few. Read the book of Revelation; without a number assigned to each of us and our acceptance of the new ways of the world, we will not be able to participate in the formal economy. Things are taking shape. Pray for discernment.