'Definitely something to worry about'
The 'Big Brother' satellite, capable of zooming in on anyone, anywhere from space, is scheduled to launch in 2025 — and privacy experts say «We should definitely be worried.» Experts fear that the new close-up satellite will invade people's privacy.
Privacy experts are sounding the alarm about a new satellite that can track your every move, slated for launch in 2025. According to the Daily Mail, the satellite, built by startup company Albedo, is so high-quality it can zoom in on people or license plates from space, prompting fears among experts that it will create a «big brother is always watching you» scenario.
Albedo says the satellite will not have facial recognition software, but does not mention that it will refrain from taking images of people or protecting their privacy.
Albedo signed two separate million-dollar contracts with the Military — the US Air Force and the National Aerospace Intelligence Center to help the government monitor potential threats to US national security.
Last month, the company raised $35 million to commercialize its Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite, adding to the $48 million it raised in September 2022.
Albedo co-founder Topher Haddad said that he and his team hope to eventually have a fleet of 24 spacecraft.
«It's a giant camera in the sky that any government can use at any time without us knowing,» Jennifer Lynch told the New York Times. General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “We should definitely be worried.”
“This brings us one step closer to a world that is being watched by Big Brother,” added Jonathan K. McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard.
Albedo was founded in 2020 and began building its satellites next year. year using close-up technology made possible by the Trump administration's moves to relax government regulations allowing the use of civilian satellites in 2018.
Then-President Donald Trump updated the U.S. standard practices for dealing with orbital debris and developed new guidelines for the design and operation of satellites.
Under previous National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rules, it was illegal to build a satellite that could see less than 30 centimeters — at this distance he could only identify cars and houses, but not individual people.
But under Trump's new directive, satellites were allowed to track objects in space about 10 centimeters in size, which would improve the Air Force's ability to catalog objects.
Most satellites are in orbit between 100 miles and 2,000 miles. km from Earth, and currently all can detect objects with a diameter of about 30 centimeters, writes the Daily Mail.
From this distance, satellites can only see things like street signs and aircraft tail numbers, but Albedo aims to zoom the image even further.
The company's satellites will produce images just 10 centimeters in diameter using telescope mirrors polished to 1/1000th the size of a human hair.
The smaller centimeter image size means the images won't be as pixelated, allowing those who uses satellite, see objects, places and people with greater accuracy.
The satellites will orbit up to 100 miles from the Earth's surface and can be used for life-saving measures, such as helping authorities map disaster zones.
Albedo's satellites use an intuitive interface for monitoring and track trends in existing imagery, and their cloud-native delivery pipeline allows information to be collected in less than an hour.
Haddad raised concerns that the satellites would violate people's right to privacy in a public forum, writing that the company is «acutely aware of the privacy implications and potential for abuse.» and expects it to be «an ongoing, evolving problem over time.»
He confirmed that the satellite's 10cm resolution would allow people to be identified, but said the company would only approve customers on a case-by-case basis and will create «robust internal tools to find bad actors, as well as clear measures to add punitive provisions to our terms and conditions.»
In March 2022, Albedo received a $1.25 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for a second phase of development to determine whether the satellites could identify missile launchers on warships, equipment on electronics vans, and fairings on fighter jets.
The company also said its satellites could help governments «monitor hot spots,» resolve uncertainty and mobilize quickly.
In April 2023, Albedo signed another $1.25 million contract with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, which assesses external threats, to obtain night-time thermal infrared imaging, combining visible and thermal imaging to determine whether an object is active or passive. is it moving or motionless.
“We are committed to enhancing the Air Force and Space Force's ability to understand their effectiveness in meeting our missions and to apply our capabilities in orbit,” said Joseph Rouge, US Space Force deputy director for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Then, in December, the company signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the National Reconnaissance Office to use the satellite's thermal infrared data to provide «geospatial intelligence for climate, food security and the environment through daily surface temperature data and analytics.»
Haddad argued that the technology would help curb climate change by showing which regions are being hit the hardest, and said it «could simultaneously be used to support our national defense mission and mitigate our global environmental/climate crisis.»
The latter consideration raises concerns among experts, who say that while such satellites may be useful in some scenarios, the potential for overuse and human rights violations is a growing concern.
John Pike, director of Global Security.org said New York Times that Albedo downplays the potential consequences of creating a satellite that can distinguish between human forms. «You'll start seeing people,» he told the publication. «You'll see more than dots.»
In the past, private satellites have proven useful for scientific research and commercial use, and have helped governments with issues such as «tracking global oil reserves, measuring deforestation in the Amazon, and identifying illegal fishing boats,» according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The EFF said more detailed satellites could violate human rights: “The same technology that reveals human rights abuses could also be used to perpetuate them.”
Experts fear that this could mean that privacy will be a thing of the past, and government agencies will be able to view anyone, anytime, anywhere without their knowledge. «This is a giant camera in the sky that any government can use at any time without our knowledge,» Jennifer Lynch, general counsel for the EFF, told the New York Times, adding: «We should definitely be concerned.»
Свежие комментарии