It's similar to scheduling programs like "Daytimer Organizer" or "Outlook" etc. Seems like a great idea, right? Except the United States Government in conjunction with the Military wants to get into "your" Lifelog. In fact, they have put in a bid request to further enhance the Lifelog concept. In the presolicitation notice Dr. Douglas Gage of the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) describes it as,

"The objective of this "LifeLog" concept is to be able to trace the "threads" of an individual's life in terms of events, states, and relationships. Functionally, the LifeLog (sub)system consists of three components: data capture and storage, representation and abstraction, and data access and user interface. LifeLog accepts as input a number of raw physical and transactional data streams. Through inference and reasoning, LifeLog generates multiple layers of representation at increasing levels of abstraction. The input data streams are abstracted into sequences of events and states, which are aggregated into threads and episodes to produce a timeline that constitutes an "episodic memory" for the individual. Patterns of events in the timeline support the identification of routines, relationships, and habits. Preferences, plans, goals, and other markers of intentionally are at the highest level. LifeLog is interested in three major data categories: physical data, transactional data, and context or media data. "
(http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/Solicitations/index.html, Dr. Douglas Gage, Program Manager, DARPA/ITO)

Even though the Administration denies that it has a desire to pry into citizens lives and data mine, the Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable. The proposal states, "Anywere, Anytime, capture of physical data might be provided by hardware worn by the LifeLog user. Visual, aural, and possibly even haptic sensors capture what the user sees, hears, and feels. GPS, digital compass, and inertial sensors capture the user's orientation and movements." This ties directly in with the Electronic Monitoring Device known as the VeriChip.

VeriChip is an injectable identification chip that can be inserted under the skin of a human being to provide biometric verification. VeriChip, manufactured by Applied Digital Solutions, is about the size of a grain of rice. It holds 126 characters of information, an electromagnetic coil for transmitting data, and a tuning capacitor; the components are enclosed inside a silicon and glass container that is compatible with human tissue. The chip, which uses an RFID (wireless transmission) technology similar to the injectable ID chips used by animal shelters to tag pets, can be read by a scanner up to four feet away.

VeriChip was originally intended to function in much the same way a medical alert bracelet does by giving medical personnel life-saving information about a patient's history. Its potential use has been extended in recent months, however, and it is now expected to be used for security, as well as medical, purposes.

The US Government and makers of these chips, want you to use the chip willingly. In an attempt to show the world the usefulness of the chip and to promote its benefits, the Jacobs family of Boca Raton, Florida, became the first family to receive the chip, an event covered by hordes of media from around the world.

During a demonstration after Leslie Jacobs was implanted, Applied Digital Solutions CTO Keith Bolton ran a scanner over her arm and the scanner displayed her name, her telephone number, and a condition known as "mitral valve prolapse," a heart murmur. This was information, Bolton said, that could be helpful to medical professionals "in the event that she can't speak, to save her life." (ABC News, May 17, 2002)

Nefariously, and in an about face, Applied Digital now is "promoting VeriChip as a universal means of identification. We expect it to be used in a variety of applications including financial and transportation security, residential and commercial building access, military and government security."

Using Homeland Security as a starting point for this technology, Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary of Border and Transportation Security said May 19 2003, that the US VISIT system -- to be installed at U.S. Airports and seaports by January 1, 2004 -- will be based on visas that include biometric features such as fingerprints and photographs to permit identification of foreign visitors when they arrive.

He said this information would be available at U.S. Ports of entry as well as throughout the entire immigration enforcement system. "Through this 'virtual border,' we will know who violates our entry requirements, who overstays or violates the terms of their stay, and who should be welcome again". This is the same technology that is being used in the CAPPS II Program to track American Citizens as they travel.

The Integration Stages

But this monitoring as you well know did not start after September 11, 2001. State and Federal correction agencies trying to curb a prison population that is expected to grow to 3.5 million by 2005 (Bureau of Justice Statistics) in an attempt to alleviate the problem implemented a GPs based tracking system.

Conventional house-arrest electronic monitoring systems use a miniature transmitter locked around the offender's ankle. The device communicates with a modem attached to the telephone. When the individual comes home, the transmitter instructs the modem to send a "time-in" message to a central monitoring facility. If the subject goes beyond, say, 150 feet from the house, the modem automatically transmits a "time-out" message. The information is relayed to the supervising agency, where it goes into a database of case files. Correction or parole officers can bring up a file at any time to see if the subject is abiding by the prescribed home-confinement hours.

The program detailed above may have reached its limit technologically speaking with the advent of the Verichip. Verichip could very well replace the outdated system of ankle bracelets in the correctional system, along with keeping your data (and asking you to accept it willingly), putting you in the same category as "criminals" or even a "terrorist" as the data is kept in government and military warehouse databases.

It could even replace the Combat Survivor Evader Locator (CSEL). When Serbian missile fire shot down Capt. Scott O'Grady's F-16 from the skies over Bosnia June 2, 1995 his survival equipment, helped bring the pilot home safely. He was carrying a Flight Mate Global Positioning System (GPs) receiver. By using both his standard AN/PRC-112 and the GPs receiver, O'Grady was able to transmit his nearly exact location to his rescuers.

The CSEL's not only has the ability to communicate messages over the horizon, but also to transmit them worldwide. Canned messages such as "Capture is imminent," or "Injured but can move," along with GPs-derived location, can be sent to rescue response cells anywhere in the world via communication satellites. Also planned is the ability of these rescue response cells to communicate a message back to the downed aircrew member. Imagine if this were Verichip instead, embedded under your skin. Tracking your every move. It's light, you cant lose it. It finds lost personnel. It saves lives.

U.S. Military Coup, "TIA CUBED"

Now your thinking...ok...how does this tie in with Lifelog? As we detailed in the beginning of this article, In the private sector, a number of LifeLog-like efforts already are underway to digitally archive one's life -- to create a "surrogate memory," as minicomputer pioneer Gordon Bell calls it. Bell, now with Microsoft, scans all his letters and memos, records his conversations, saves all the Web pages he's visited and e-mails he's received and puts them into an electronic storehouse dubbed MyLifeBits.

DARPA's LifeLog would take this concept several steps further by tracking where people go and what they see.

With its controversial Total Information Awareness database project, DARPA already is planning to track all of an individual's "transactional data" -- like what we buy and who gets our e-mail. Lifelog looks like an outgrowth of Total Information Awareness and other DARPA homeland security surveillance programs.

While the parameters of the project have not yet been determined,Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists said he believes LifeLog could go far beyond TIA's scope, adding physical information (like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this transactional data.

It also could become a way to profile suspected terrorists, said Cory Doctorow, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In other words, Osama bin Laden's agent takes a walk around the block at 10 each morning, buys a bagel and a newspaper at the corner store and then calls his mother. You do the same things -- so maybe you're an al Qaeda member, too!" The program may even be able to "predict" what you will do in a given event.

"LifeLog has the potential to become something like 'TIA cubed,'" he said.

"Even if you want to frisk somebody on the street, you have to show reasonable suspicion. That's not the case here. This is 'We'll gather information on everyone -- just in case we need it later.'"

The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read.

All of this -- and more -- would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPs transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health.

This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to "trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.

This is the beginning of our life histories, our purchases, our trips or vacations, our drivers licenses etc. being recorded by the government under the "ruse" of protecting the citizens of the United States from terrorists. Now, don't get me wrong, there may be a lawful use for these technologies, but to take my personal information about me without my consent...or at least a court order somehow does not seem right. However with the new Homeland Security it is now legal. Big Brother is alive and well and getting stronger.

What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?