FREEDOM CODE: THE INVISIBLE WAR FOR HUMANITY’S FUTURE: Chapter 5 The Living Dossier

Imagining our future with ChatGPT 4o mini

Chapter 5 The Living Dossier

Scene 1: Uneasy Experiments

Prof. David sat in front of his laptop, his fingers over the keyboard, hesitating. The encrypted data Mia had uncovered seemed impossibly vast. They’d been exploring it for hours—days actually—and yet, every time they thought they understood the scale, they uncovered something even more chilling. This wasn’t just a static document, this looked like a living dossier, changing over the day as they lived their lives!

Beate sat beside him, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “It’s not just health data. It’s... everything.”

David’s heart sank as he scrolled through the file again. His initial shock had subsided into a quiet, gnawing dread. It wasn’t just his medical records. There was everything—personal details, lifestyle choices, financial transactions, social connections, even romantic affairs. It was all there, captured, analyzed, and stored forever.

“I mean, look at this,” Beate said, pointing to the screen. “There’s a list of every place I’ve been to in the last month, even the cafes I’ve visited, the drinks I’ve had, even the calories I’ve consumed. And it’s not just the usual locations I frequent. It noticed when I took a random detour through a park yesterday.”

Prof. David leaned in closer, scrolling down the page. There was an entire section dedicated to spending habits. The favourite stores, the preferred brands, the products he had returned, how often he ate meet, even the frequency at which he afforded certain luxuries—like the haute cuisine restaurant where he had celebrated his birthday a few months ago.

“We can’t be the only ones with this much information on us, can we?” David muttered. “There must be millions, perhaps even billions of dossiers out there, tracking every move, every action, every choice.”

Beate turned to him, her face pale. “This is beyond anything I’ve ever seen—and beyond everything I could imagine. It’s like we’re being watched continuously and in real time. It knows what we’re doing, even when we’re not online. I have checked: even when our phones are off.”

Prof. David felt his pulse quicken. “How is that even possible?”

Scene 2: The Digital Twin

They began testing the file, clicking through various sections and trying to make changes to see how the dossier would respond. Beate left her phone at home and went to a café on the other side of the city, while David stayed behind to run an experiment of his own. They were both curious—what would happen if they didn’t have their phones with them? Would their locations still be tracked? What if they used private browsing? Would their identity still be revealed?

When Beate returned, she checked her file. The location data still reflected the café she had visited. There were even references to the specific table she had sat at. Was that based on the sensors in the building or perhaps due to the Wi-Fi network in the room?

Beate’s eyes widened. “This isn’t just tracking through phones, is it? This is ... this is really something else. Something we don’t understand. Something we don’t have a clue about.”

Prof. David nodded. He had experimented with private browsing, in fact, using four different browsers. As it turned out, his living dossier contained entries about all of this. The system had figured out, who he was.

“But how is this working?” asked Beate.

“It must be using more than just phones.” Prof. David scratched his head. An incredible idea came to his mind. “It could be nano-sensors, or something embedded in the environment around us.”

“Nano-sensors?”, Beate asked, her eyes wide open.

Prof. David turned to presentation mode: “You have probably heard of the ‘Internet of Things’. This is about small measurement sensors connected to the Internet, collecting data about their environment. There are many millions of them around us, in smartphones, TV sets, cars, fridges, toasters… Over the years, these sensors have become smaller and smaller. In the meantime, there are sensors not bigger than 100 nanometres in size, i.e. one ten-thousandth of a millimetre. Such nano-sensors are much smaller than the diameter of a hair, in fact, invisible to the human eye!”

Beate thought about it for a long moment. “Indeed, I have recently seen a freaky TikTok video about technologies being developed to turn everyday objects into self-aware, intelligent entities. A table or toaster could be smarter than you, having philosophical debates with your guests. Given this, they could be using any number of technologies we don’t even know about. Things in our clothes, in our homes...”

“And, one day, in our bodies, too”, added Prof. David.

Beate looked up sharply. “Are you saying they could be tracking us through nano-particles?”

David didn’t answer, but he felt a chill creeping up his spine.

Scene 3: The Digital ID

As the hours passed, they dug deeper into the dossier, which seemed to grow more personal with every discovery.

“I’m starting to think it’s not just a record of my movements or activities,” Beate said. “It’s a record of who I am. My personality, my very identity.”

David stared at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

She pointed to a section they had previously overlooked—a section on biometric data. It seemed as expected at first—fingerprints, retinal scans, the usual stuff—but then there was something else, which looked like an intricate map of their bodies. It wasn’t just their height, weight, or health history—it was a blueprint. Their blood type, DNA sequence, even neurological patterns—they had all been catalogued, stored, and analyzed.

“I think this is what they mean when they talk about the ‘digital twin,’” Prof. David said, with a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. “Your physical body, your identity—it’s all in here, tied to this system. You could be identified anywhere, at any time, with just your body. A digital ID that doesn’t need a password, doesn’t need anything other than you.”

Beates mind raced. It was so much more than just convenience or security—this was total surveillance, more totalitarian than what she ever had imagined!

“You’re telling me that they track me, trace me, and control me—just based on my body?” Beate shouted, her voice thick with disbelief. “Even though our body is our password and our passport, we are not in control? It’s others! There is not even a need to chip people!”

Prof. David nodded. “Yes, we were fooled.”

“And look at this. That’s not all.” Beate scrolled to another section. Banking information, financial transactions, tied directly to the digital ID.

“It’s all connected. Your bank account, your passport, even your health insurance—it’s all embedded in one system, in real-time, and obviously linked to your QR code.”

David stared at the screen, his mind spinning. “How is this even possible? How are they gathering this data?”

Beate swallowed hard. “It’s happening because we’ve allowed this to happen. By using smartphones, by accepting ‘smart’ technology, by living in a data-driven world. We should have never trusted our government. Companies even less.”

Prof. David’s thoughts flashed through the many conferences, lectures, and research meetings he’d participated in over the years. He had always known that technology had a dark side, but this? This was a nightmare he had never considered possible!

Scene 4: Unsettling Real-Time Manipulation

David, Beate, and Mia continued to experiment over the next few days. They took deliberate steps to confuse the system, to see how it would respond. Prof. David intentionally skipped meetings in his agenda and did something else in other places. Beate changed her routines, and they both tried to go off grid. They turned their phones off, stayed away from known Wi-Fi hotspots, and made sure to avoid public places.

It did not help. The system still knew everything!

At first, it was a subtle change. When David returned home one evening after deliberately avoiding any major interactions, he opened his dossier. There it was, right at the top: an updated timestamp! The system worked real-time, as if someone would continuously be watching.

Beate clicked through her own file. It was the same. Despite the fact that she hadn’t connected to the Internet and hadn’t used her phone, the system still knew she had gone to the park earlier in the day.

“It’s updating constantly,” Prof. David said in disbelief. “How is that possible without external inputs?”

Mia, who had been following their experiments closely, joined them at Prof. David’s villa late one night. “I think we’re missing something,” she said. “There’s something we haven’t figured out yet.”

But just as she said that, another update arrived in the system. This time, it wasn’t just location data—it was activity data: new choices, new preferences, even random encounters with some people appearing in her dossier!

The system was watching them in ways they had never imagined, even without them doing anything online…