Safe to say that Bureau Noir agents in the field or working a secondment would have an AR halo that provides false/proxy data or presents details of their cover (assuming they are undercover - which would seem to be pretty SOP on assignment)?
I assume that Fake IDs include fake AR halo informations, too. So that is very common for O12 Bureau Noir agents on a mission.
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As a fake ID would be extremely obvious if it wasnāt accompanied by a supporting AR halo, it should be assumed that any decent fake identity, cover, or other alias would necessarily contain AR information thatās sufficiently detailed to pass whatever level of inspection the identity will be subject to. The higher-quality the fake ID, the more detailed and real-seeming the info is, and the more likely itāll stand up to scrutiny like background checks.
A cheap/low quality ID may only have surface-level details, enough to pass a quick check but not a detailed investigation. Higher-quality ID would be created as and when needed, as itās complicated.
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I think even agents working in official capacity would have either fake halo or halo not revealing anything personal.
Yep. A switch to trigger their āprofessional haloā mode when in an official capacity. I would guess that the police would have something similar when in uniform (or, for detectives, on duty).
Awesome - thanks for the replies.
Just wanted to make sure I was thinking about it in the right way. Definitely interesting to imagine a world so connected that a PC is leaving a footprint everywhere you go (imagine? kind of like today, no?!).
I assumed that having a null halo would be even more of a risk than having a proxy.
Also, in the scenario I have in mind - a Bureau Noir on secondment with another bureau but running a side mission for Bureau Toth, seems like the agent would want several identities in order to keep his cover in the field.
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The Advanced Infowar chapter in the Aleph book covers subjects related to this in a bit more detail, if youāve not already looked in there.
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Like today, but even moreso. Imagine that your social media presence is visible as an aura around you in Augmented Reality at all times. Imagine never needing to ask a stranger their name, because itās visible to you the moment you see them. Imagine that every location you visit, and every object you interact with, has a record of your presence. The āinternetā and the real world are synonymous, overlaid across one another, bleeding into one another.
Atop that all, youāve got your Geist, an adaptive AI personal assistant which has been with you for most of your life, and which anticipates your needs with minimal commands from you because it has learned your behaviours across a lifetimeā¦ it may as well be a virtual extension of yourself, and it governs much of what you experience in augmented reality - it sifts through search results, collates and presents information you need, keeps your appointments, handles the calls and messages you receive, orders your groceries based on the contents of your fridge, handles your financesā¦ and countless other activities.
This is covered in the ALEPH book, but yeah. Imagine looking at someone in AR - which you basically always are unless youāre some kind of luddite - and seeing nothing. No connections, no AR halo, no digital āhandshakeā, no virtual business card, just a whole lot of ā404 Not Foundā.
That kind of anonymity stands out. When everyone can see who you are, hiding means being unremarkable, rather than anonymous.
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I would add that being subjected to such invasive tracking probably means that people aware enough are probably better at avoiding it than we are. With both better awarness and better hardware/software. For this reason i donāt pester my players too much with the big brother idea, assuming they can bypass mundane tracking on a daily basis if they want to, only requiering special attention when total discretion is needed.
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Yep - while it would be a big challenge for the players, the characters are probably going to be fully used to handling it. So not necessarily worth diving into detail - unless itās going to be a big point of your plot, or a situation where the characterās ālegendā is going to be investigated in a lot more detail than normal.
(That said, if youāve got an Ariadnan visiting a PanO living city for the first time, definitely worth noting the possible culture shock!)
True, iāve not used much of ariadna since itās my least favourite part of the lore, but for an ariadnan to be on another major planet or for outsiders to be on ariadna could prove distressing.
I believe the term is āAtekā in the Human Sphere for the equivalent of a Ludditeā¦ but more importantly a bunch of people with Null-Haloās and just a single ā404 Not Foundā error code is either a Bakunin Module of the monthā¦ a socialist movement or an amazing concept of a e-terrorist groupā¦or all of the above.
in any event its a cool adventure seed for a Team to have to investigate.
Having said all thatā¦ In a couple of my games I have used the idea that incredibly rich and private individuals within the Human Sphere will often run Security Geists that scramble their meme-cloud information. Essentially āblurringā out their personal data to the general public, while your average Joe on the street probably shows off their space-twitter so you can follow them the Hyper-Elite who want to remain private will run programs that make sure their private info canāt be recorded/observed unless they want.
it wouldnāt be subtle though, the sort of thing that attracts notice by its presence. But privacy is privacyā¦ and the hacker in your group needs something to do as a hobby.
- Raith
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