Sinner System-Chapter 34: Privacy

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Privacy
"Looks like we’re almost out of time, so let’s end today’s class here and pick up where we left off tomorrow. Have a good afternoon, everyone," Remarked Ellyse, as she glanced at the time before wrapping up the session.
Sweet, there’s still ten minutes left, I can use that time to chill before today’s Practical Training session.
"Woah, check this out."
"Is that for real? Yikes, scary."
Hm? I glanced back curiously as the students in the row behind me caught my attention, peering at something displayed on one of their I-Watches.
"Sorry to interrupt, has something happened?" I asked them.
"Yeah, I’ll say. Have a look," Replied one of them, before showing me his display.
Alright, let’s see here...oh, wow.
It was a news article, ing about a party of Freelance Hunters. They had recently been discovered to have been murdering other Hunters in the Dungeon raids they took on.
According to the investigation, it was determined that they did this for their own sick, twisted amusement. They covered their tracks by feeding the remains of their victims to the Monsters, thereby leaving no evidence of their crimes.
Death is a fairly commonplace occurrence for Hunters, so initially, they got away with it.
But eventually, the Hunters Union noticed that this party was having an unusually high number of casualties, especially since their regular members always survived while other Freelancers they’d recruit would be the only victims.
Their crimes were confirmed after the Union detained one of their members and interrogated him, but it seems the others caught on to the fact that they were under investigation, and have gone into hiding.
What amateurs...if they really wanted to get away with this, they should’ve had a few raids in between their kills where they made sure no one died. That way, they’d have Hunters to vouch for them.
I mean, I don’t condone what they did, of course, I’m just saying.
<If you were to encounter these criminals, would you use your Gluttony Skills on them?>
Hm? Oh, good question.
Considering my past life, I have absolutely no sympathy for these kinds of people, they deserve to suffer.
So, to answer your question, if I were to come across these people, then yes, I absolutely would kill them...well, provided that there are no witnesses around.
According to the article, they’re all Q-Ranked, and there’s five of them, I probably won’t gain much from using my Gluttony Skills on them, but it’s bound to be non-zero, at least.
Of course, the chances of me randomly running into them is pretty slim, it’s probably not the best idea to go wandering through shady areas to search for them or whatever.
Hm, but maybe I can spam Appraisal whenever I’m outside, they’ll probably wear disguises or at least something like a cap or hood, to avoid being recognized.
But disguises mean nothing to my Appraisal Skill, I’ll have to remember their names, there is a possibility that I might run into them.
They can’t hide out forever, after all, they’ll need to go out to get food and other supplies. Wait, would they be able to pay for stuff? I’d imagine that their accounts are being monitored, right?
<Unlikely, privacy is taken very seriously in this era>
<It is impossible to access someone else’s personal or sensitive information unless the individual authorizes it>
<I-Watches are highly secure, they are effectively impossible to hack, and even attempting to do so is a serious crime>
<Even the government cannot access the personal information stored on I-Watches, which includes your Credit balances and transactions, only the wearer can view such details>
<And with the way I-Watches are secured, even if the government wanted to access or monitor an individual’s activity, they would have no way of doing so>
<I have told you all of this before, by the way>
Yeah, it does sound vaguely familiar.
In the era I used to live in, digital privacy was always such a hot topic, and I’m sure most people from that era would’ve been on-board with the way things are in this era.
But it looks like there are positives and negatives either way. While it is great to have this level of privacy over your personal info, it also means that you can’t track criminals as quickly as you’d otherwise be able to.
<Well, it is not as if all personal information is kept private>
<The government do maintain records such as names, ages, appearance, biometric data and so on, for the purposes of identification and such>
<Private information that they cannot access includes details such as your Credits, browsing history, current location and things like that>
Hm...the browsing history one is kinda concerning. Sounds like a dream come true for pedophiles and people who share stuff like snuff films and rape videos and other vile shit.
<Well, there are highly advanced AI programs that regulate every piece of content uploaded to the internet, any such content will be flagged and restricted immediately, and an investigation will be conducted to locate the culprit>
Yeah, but since I-Watches can’t be remotely accessed or tracked, it sounds like it’d be pretty easy to get away with.
<Yes, the current system is far from flawless, but based on statistical evidence, it appears to be significantly more effective that in your previous era>
If I remember right, you mentioned that public areas are heavily surveiled, right?
<Correct>
<There are hidden security cameras in most public places, equipped with facial recognition functions, but there are still several blind spots>
<Anyone who is aware of where the blind spots in the public surveillance network are would be able to avoid them>
<And even if they were not aware, so long as they managed to keep their faces hidden from the cameras, they can avoid being noticed>
True, they wouldn’t even necessarily need to cover their faces, simply keeping their gazes low and avoiding facing the cameras directly could be enough to avoid detection.
And considering that most public areas have security cameras, there’s got to be an insane amount of footage recorded, it’d be pretty much impossible to manually go through all that.
Wait, why are we discussing this again? I mean, it’s fascinating and all, but not really relevant to me since I have no intention of committing any crimes.
<Because you asked me about how these criminals could avoid being caught>
Oh, right.
<You need to sharpen your memory>
Yeah, I suppose I do.