Predictive Technology: A New Tool For The Thought PoliceNicholas West Until this point, it has been a very tech-heavy subject inclined to produce glazed eyes when addressed. However, the viral story of Facebook using their algorithms to go beyond surveillance and actually manipulate the emotions of users as a type of psychology experiment has thrust these practices into the mainstream. Certainly this experiment being conducted without the knowledge or consent of those involved is a huge breach of privacy and ethics. However, when it comes to policing and health, things really are turning Orwellian as thought crimes are now detectable with predictive technology. The emergence of predictive policing and predictive healthcare has a single benefit that the Facebook example does not: the PR push that their tools are making people safer. Thus, the notion of Minority Report-style pre-crime has become a reality in both Illinois and California with no where near the pushback that is being expressed toward Facebook. Concurrently, the medical field is merging with an array of wearable gadgetry that is flooding the consumer marketplace with millions of sensors to track vital signs in real time. Through the promise of both personal health attainment and medical threat alerts, people are embracing this tech in droves. Now imagine giving them real-time data about your vital signs on top of that. As Jon Rappoport detailed, this type of information is irresistible to control systems that are ripe for corruption. Embedded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), there lies disturbing verbiage indicating that the personal options arising from wearable gadgets and consumer behavior may become government mandated in the near future. He cites two key quotes from a Managed Care article, More Data in Health Care Will Enable Predictive Modeling Advances. Mental health, of course, would not be excluded. This is where the entire surveillance-security-health complex begins to merge. Rappoport envisions the following scenario: A recent report by NBC made the above fiction plausible. In a stunning admission, NBC reveals that Arizona police have a Mental Health Support Team that is prepared to involuntarily lock up people who seem likely to snap and commit acts of violence. These mental health police units look to harvest everything from medical records to gun purchases to online posts. Now armed with data brokers, artificial intelligence algorithms, health databases merged with police, and the political will to implement all of it, we arrive at the latest: Smartphone App May Revolutionize Mental Health Treatment. The app has been developed by Tel Aviv University in Israel. The full press release must be read to be believed, as it reveals the crux of where all of this is heading (emphasis and parentheses mine). The concluding patient privacy statement is riddled with every falsehood that we already know about how digital data is used by anyone who wishes to gain access. The communications gadgets that we have purchased already have opened the door to our personal lives. But social engineers know that for the final prison grid to be built they must have full access to our minds. Now that these new tools are coming on the market, the full scope of their applications are being revealed. Recently by Nicholas West: 