Just before Christmas, when I went to check my bank balance, I got one of those annoying ‘do what we want before you do what you want’ dialogue boxes. My bank wanted to ‘confirm my details’. As we all do when inconveniences like that come up, I huffed and muttered a bit – one minute they’re telling you to guard your info, and not give out this and that, the next they’re asking you to fill in this and that and…

I started filling in the form – name, date of birth, address… and then they started asking questions like how much do I earn, and who puts money into my bank account. I screeched to a halt. I don’t have a loan or a mortgage, so this is information my bank does not know – how is giving them new information ‘confirming my details’?

For your information…

I went down to the bank and asked. At the first shot, the cashier started a spiel about how if someone tried to take out a loan in my name, the bank could check their info against mine to see if it’s really me. I politely stepped in and said, but you’re creating a huge, new database, and if it’s hacked then of course the thief will be able to give you this information. She looked a bit sceptical so I said look, if you are granting a loan and you need to check you’re dealing with me, why not contact me by a different route and say ‘is it you doing this?’

I’ve just bought some premium bonds, and the NS&I managed to do precisely that – you do something online, they email or write to you to confirm details. My bank can’t do this apparently. Ergo, my bank are really crap at security.

But rules are changing. Laws are changing. We have an information-hungry government. I said to the cashier, is this really your new security idea or is it a legal requirement? She then dropped her tale of security and said yes, the law is changing. There are already measures in place that allow HMRC and DWP to ask questions of your bank, or to receive notification of ‘unusual activity’ so clearly, the bank need you to tell them all about your usual activity so they can tell the difference, if it’s really their job to report such things.

Of course, says the government website, the myriad staff who will be involved in all this will be super-well trained to do it all properly and securely… and then I think about how many appalling mistakes government offices have made over the years, and then someone tells me an MP told her they’re talking about giving landlords that kind of access…

Someone told me someone told them something…?

Everyone’s talking about AI

And just like everything everyone talks about, you don’t have to know the first thing about it to start opining and worrying. I’ll tell you one thing I do know though, our UK armed forces are flying out of Cyprus every day, helping Israel with something mysterious to do with drones and data-collection, and Israel has a system called “Where’s Daddy?” which uses information gathered from mobile phones to figure out when (they’d say terrorists but) whoever they fancy killing is at home with their family and you know what? It’s amazing how many families of Palestinian journalists and medics have died that way.

Deus ex machina

And there’s an article in my local paper called Deus Ex Machina. It’s by Robin Holtom, and is a fascinating short history of people asking of machines, who’s feeding whom. It goes right back to Samuel Butler’s comments on early steam engines. From that day to this, people will scoff at such concerns and say ‘okay, the machine requires coal (then) or information (now) but look at the benefits we get out of it.’

And others will reply well, the company owners and wealthy users may be getting benefits out of it but it’s pretty hard graft for those who feed the machines – from the coal miners to the engine drivers back then to you and I, taking extra time trying to do our Christmas prep because of all these information systems that are forever popping up in dialogue boxes getting us to help them with their data gathering.

Who are ‘they’? Well, for one example: I remember people asking, why on earth would someone as wealthy as Rishi Sunak want to do a rubbish job like being a Tory PM, when he earns more than a PM’s salary just for sitting watching his investment payouts pile up?

Lots of info out there (!) Here are some snips from a three-second search…

Never forget, we are confused, overloaded with information, wallowing in fake information whenever we go online. That is intentional. That nice Mr Bannon explained the process.

In short, passing on information – real or fake – has become a service we do for the rich and the powerful. We have no sure way of knowing what governments and their friends in big business might be doing with the information we meekly gather and put online for them. 

As for my bank – ah well – it’s only money. I will simply stop trusting my bank, and if I have money (which doesn’t often happen) I’ll think twice about where I keep it (it’s not as if I’m rich enough to hold onto any for long). Meantime – don’t rely on t’internet, stay as independent as you can and speak your real secrets face-to-face. Life’s more fun that way, anyway.

Above all though, let’s stay awake and #Resist every step of the way, to defend our humanity. One person can’t make much difference – oppressors thrive on publicizing that fact, to make us lose hope but one million people taking half a dozen small steps a day makes a huge difference, just as a million #FreePalestine lapel badges add up to a major pressure on politicians, and a few thousand missing avocados make supermarkets re-think dumping all their staff. Every time someone questions intrusion, every time someone stops and thinks ‘what can I do about this?’ and does one little thing, like pointing out to a cashier that you’re not fooled by the ‘this is for your security’ line, we help to make a significant difference.  

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