Spies can’t hide

David Ignatius of The Washington Post writes that new technology has made it almost impossible for spies to hide:

Aaron Brown was working as a CIA case officer in 2018 when he wrote a post for an agency blog warning about what he called “gait recognition.” He cautioned his fellow officers that computer algorithms would soon be able to identify people not just by their faces, or fingerprints, or DNA — but by the unique ways they walked.

Many of his colleagues, trained in the traditional arts of disguise and concealment, were skeptical. One called it “threat porn.” But Brown’s forecast was chillingly accurate. A study published in May reported that a model called FarSight, using gait, body and face recognition, was 83 percent accurate in verifying an individual at up to 1,000 meters, and was 65 percent accurate even when the face was obscured. “It’s hard to overstate how powerful that is,” Brown said.

Brown’s story illustrates a profound transformation that is taking place in the world of intelligence. For spies, there is literally no place to hide. Millions of cameras around the world record every movement and catalogue it forever. Every action leaves digital tracks that can be studied and linked with others. Your cellphone and social media accounts tell the world precisely who and where you are.