=Surveillance Rules=
This section provides rules for many of the possibilities discussed on the [[Surveillance]] page.
==Caught In The Act==
Given the ubiquity of sensor systems, surveillance, and sousveillance, it is almost inevitable that Eclipse Phase characters will get caught on camera doing something illegal or questionable. This does not mean that alarms will trigger and security will immediately rappel down on every character that litters, pulls out a banned device, or acts squirrely. Even criminals and lawbreakers still have leeway to act in public, especially if they are smart about it.
There are many factors that may work in a character’s favor. In older habitats or run-down areas, sensor systems may be decrepit, non-functioning, or prone to disruptions. They may get lucky and happen to be in a blind spot or area with very little coverage. They may be in view of sensors, but at a time when no one is watching, avoiding an immediate alarm. Or the voyeurs who happen to be watching may be distracted by the last minutes of their local sports team playoffs or simply may not care about the beatdown they run across when they have metacelebrities to stalk. Others may record what they see without alerting authorities, hoping to score some rep by releasing it virally—giving the characters get-away time, but creating complications later. The characters may also be acting in an area where the police have bigger problems to deal with or simply don’t care, or they may be in an autonomist habitat where people stay out of each other’s affairs unless somehow contracted or obligated to intervene.
===Making It Random===
Gamemasters that want to leave it to chance can make a roll whenever the characters break the law in public or otherwise do something that might draw attention. Take the lowest Moxie score of the player characters involved and multiply it by 10. Make a test using this as the target number. If the test succeeds, the event goes without drawing immediate attention/intervention. If it fails, someone has noticed. If it fails with an MoF of 30+, someone has noticed and triggered an alarm. The gamemaster can apply modifiers to this test based on the severity of the situation: +10 if weapons are visible, +20 if there is obvious illegal activity, +30 if there is major violence, −10 if in an area with light sensor coverage, −20 for bad neighborhoods, −30 is there is a major distraction elsewhere, etc.
Gamemasters should make sure to consider the circumstances when determining the response. A colony security AI might decide that suspicious activity is simply something to be ﬂagged for analysis and investigation later, when more personnel or resources or available. A high-security hypercorp station is likely to respond to any unusual activity with more surveillance drones right away, if not active intervention. On an anarchist habitat, the local community defense collective may be alerted, bringing a mob of armed volunteers to investigate. On an Extropian station, a legal AI might be alerted to assess the situation, note anyone involved who has contracted with a security provider, and summon that contractor if the person is in need of aid. Other responses might activate vigilantes, local gangs offering community protection services, additional surveillance measures, live broadcasting via a media outlet, or more voyeurs in to view.
===The Cost of High Reputation===
Characters with very high rep scores (60+) tend to draw more attention. Any high-rep characters who are not keeping their public proﬁles hidden in privacy mode or who are visibly identiﬁable are more likely to be watched over by voyeurs. In this case, apply a +10 modiﬁer for every 10 points of rep over 60 (+10 at 70+, +20 at 80+, +30 at 90+) when making tests to determine if activity is noticed.
===What Sensors When===
One challenge the gamemaster faces is deciding the type of sensors that happen to be covering a particular area at any given time. With so many sensor systems available, this can be a daunting task. As a rule, cameras and microphones operating at standard wavelengths are ubiquitous and can be found in almost every situation. Beyond this, the types of sensor are quite often determined by the immediate environment. In large public habitat thoroughfares, infrared is likely to be available as well.
In warehouses and storerooms, lidar will be used to track goods. In security access corridors and portals, electrical sense, infrared, and motion detectors are favored to detect anyone’s passage. At major security checkpoints, x-ray, terahertz, and chem sniffers will be deployed. Along external approaches, radar, infrared, and seismic/ultrasound are used to detect approaching people and vehicles.
There are two main points for gamemaster to remember. First, any particular security system is likely to use the same technology throughout, both for cost purposes and ease of maintenance. Thus a habitat that uses t-rays and odor sniffers as access control in one area is likely to use the same sensor systems in most others. The same is true for private installations and residences. Second, gamemasters should tailor the situation for their players and their characters’ abilities while remembering to mix it up. If the characters commonly use an invisibility cloak to foil cameras, throw them up against radar or seismic sensors once in a while.
==Private Sensors==
Sometimes the characters may be trying to track someone or something through available sensors networks. In these cases, the publicam networks may not always come through with the information or level of detail needed. At the gamemaster’s discretion, however, private sensor networks seeded through public areas may provide the coverage desired. This is an additional expense (See 
[[Services#Private%20Sensor%20Feeds|PrivateSensor Feeds]]), but at the gamemaster’s discretion, incorporating these additional networks into a search may apply a +10 to +30 modiﬁer to [[Research]] Tests, depending on circumstances. Alternatively, the gamemaster can decide that the information the characters seek simply isn’t available via public nets, and they must ﬁnd the right private sensor feed instead (requiring a Research Test to locate the proper provider).
Private sensor networks have other advantages. Many cover areas that are off-limits to public sensors nets. Sometimes these are legit, such as land-owners who don’t mind selling their private sensor feeds as a way of making some extra income or security services that cover private installations and sell exterior sensor feeds at their client’s permission, giving them a cut of the take. Others are not legit: private sensor networks seeded by hackers or criminal syndicates, often hidden, that are sold on the black market at higher rates. Many of these private net holders are willing to deactivate their sensors or erase recordings if the offer is high enough.
==Countersurveillance Tricks==
These rules detail some of the tricks that may be employed to avoid or impair surveillance.
===Mapping Sensors===
Knowing what sensors are out there enables a character to devise countermeasures. There are many tools characters can deploy to map out the sensor coverage in an area: smart dust, lens spotters, electrical sense—not to mention just looking or pinging local wireless signals. In some scenarios, this may be treated as a puzzle by the gamemaster: will the characters deploy the right tech to ﬁnd all of the sensors the gamemaster has planned out, or will they leave themselves vulnerable to a system they missed? In others, the gamemaster may wish to resolve this with a simple test to keep game play moving. In this case, have the character attempting to map out sensor coverage make an Investigation Test, applying appropriate modifiers based on the detection tools used and the sensors they are hoping to map. If successful, the character has mapped out the sensor coverage in a given area (for the time being!) and may even have located a blind spot (perhaps with an MoS of 30+).
===Clearing Blind Spots===
Sometimes defeating sensors is too risky. In this case, clearing a blind spot or route is an alternative option. As above with mapping sensors, the gamemaster can treat this as a tech-race puzzle or boil it down to an Investigation Test to locate and destroy them, assuming they have appropriate tools. Doing this without being recorded in the act can be challenging (perhaps requiring an Inﬁltration Test)—but this is also what bughunter bots and saboteur nanoswarms are for.
===Avoiding Recognition===
People wishing to avoid recognition of their morph can deploy a number of disguise modifications. Skinﬂex and synthetic mask are by far the best options, but sex switch, gait masking, skeletal masking, and chameleon skin can also be beneﬁcial, as well as standard [[Disguise]] skill. If acceptable to local customs, a shroud provides complete personal anonymity. For biomorphs, one easy way to change looks is a simple hour in a healing vat for facial bodysculpting.
For those that want or have the opportunity to change their looks, there is one final option for avoiding facial recognition. The pattern-matching algorithms of facial recognition software are vulnerable to certain makeup or visual patterns (via chameleon skin), simply because the patterns foil their ability to make a match. Such makeup or patterns are visibly distinctive, however, and may arouse suspicion—though they are fashionable in some social circles, particularly among some media icons and celebrities that prefer to deter stalkers. When applying such makeup or patterns, apply a +20 modiﬁer to Disguise Tests to avoid facial/image recognition.
===Skipjacking===
Skipjacking is the art of using the [[Inﬁltration]] skill to time one’s movements through a place that is under ubiquitous surveillance. This involves using other people, vehicles, and objects as cover, timing the movement of drones and cameras, and similar tricks to minimize one’s proﬁle and exposure to sensors—all while avoiding suspicion. Skipjacking is quite difﬁcult to pull off, especially in areas with crowded sensor coverage, but it may at least prolong detection or add uncertainty. Treat this as a Variable Opposed Test between the skipjacker’s Inﬁltration skill and the [[Perception]] of any monitors. Apply a −30 modiﬁer to the skipjacker, perhaps less if the sensors are fewer or easier to avoid. If the skipjacker succeeds and the monitor fails, they avoid detection. If both succeed, the skipjacker has been detected, but not with absolute certainty.
===Secure Communication===
Outside of quantum and encrypted communication methods, there are a few ways for individuals to communicate face-to-face without fear of eavesdropping: skinlink, a wired connection between access jacks, or tight-beam laser links or hypersonic communicators.
===Invisible Doors===
One trick employed by criminal groups and others wishing to foil surveillance and physical tailing is to use so-called “invisible doors.” These are physical gateways that use the same metamaterials as invisibility cloaks, literally bending light waves around the doorway. When strategically placed with crafty architecture, these can be made to look like a standard corner or alcove—only people can walk right through them. Others are cleverly turned to reﬂect light, making them look like full-length mirrors. In either case, these portals will not be physical to the touch. They can be detected with radar or x-rays, but are otherwise invisible to the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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