EU: First Galileo satellite launched
01 November 2005
On 28 December 2005 the launch of Giove-A, the test satellite for the EU's Galileo system, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, was celebrated for paving the way for future independence for Europe from the US controlled GPS (global positioning system). The celebrations mask a far more insidious future - a future in which the 4 billion euros that Galileo will cost can only be recouped through the sale and deployment of unprecedented surveillance technologies.
The UK, which already leads the EU as far a surveillance policy and practise is concerned will pioneer many of the new technologies. The much vaunted "road-pricing system" in which every single car journey in Britain will be monitored and recorded so as to bill the driver for using the road network was always going to use Galileo and the government already appears committed to its introduction. It is hard to think of a more intrusive way of making people pay for the privilege of using the roads in their country.
At the same time, Galileo will bring many benefits to those with access to the technology. As the European Commission puts it:
Individuals, companies and administrations will all be able to benefit, whether on the roads, railways, in the skies or at sea: hikers will be able to find their way, and tourists will be able to find the museum or restaurant they are looking for, and taxi drivers will arrive at the right destination.
And for this reason, Galileo will be presented as a technological triumph - its surveillance capabilities will at best be ignored and at worst repackaged and sold as progress to a tech-hungry world.
This, of course, is the fundamental flaw in the prevailing wisdom. "More and more often", asserts the Commission, "it will become necessary to ascertain one's precise position in space and time in a reliable manner". But necessary for whom? Given that most sane people are perfectly well aware of exactly where they are in both time and space could it rather be that it is governments and corporations who want to know exactly where their citizens and customers are?
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4555298.stm; European Commission: "Galileo: European Satellite Navigation System" http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm