Searching for Minority

We knew this day was coming. The day the cats in blue were gonna be able to go all 'Minority Report' and predict crime before it happens.

We’re not at the point where psychic “precogs� lie floating, tethered to computers in the bowels of some secret police headquarters, slipping your name to Tom Cruise so he can drop through your roof and arrest you for pre-crimes... yet.

It's almost a decade ago now that the 2002 film Minority Report showed the moral majority what the future will look like in 2054 when mobility, geo-location and targeted content technologies merge. While the movie looks at various elements of the digital future, the biggest 'ah ha' moment for both privacy advocates and marketers alike happens when John Anderton (Tom Cruise) has his retinas scanned as he exists the train and a digital billboard displays "John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right now."

The ACLU sues a Missouri public library that blocks access to information on "minority viewpoints on spirituality."

Welcome to Minority Report in real life as police are being increasingly federalized by Homeland Security and taken deeper into the intelligence apparatus to hunt homegrown terrorists. Some police are armed with cutting edge crime detection tools. In New Jersey, cops can shine a red pre-crime spotlight to mark people up to a block away before they might commit a crime. The NYPD are testing a gun-scanning technology called Terahertz Imaging Detection. You could secretly be scanned to see if you are packing heat and not even know it.

In a straight-out-of-science-fiction move, a new ad campaign can scan you face, determine your gender, and deliver a specific message if you are a women. It's hard to not make a reference to Minority Report, the 2002 Tom Cruise movie, when describing this technology.