Even the best of us have moments of weakness.
Maybe you secretly enjoy listening to Justin Bieber, you can’t stop eating cookies, or
you’re a jealous lover who dreams of tracking every movement of your partner.
You know the feeling.
First your boyfriend liked a photo of Kendall Jenner on Instagram, then he had a late-night
phone call with a coworker that he claimed was about a new company deck, and now he’s
started to come back home late from work a few times a week.
You’ve weighed up the evidence and you can only come to one conclusion: he must be cheating
on you.
Probably with someone who doesn’t eat cookies or listen to Justin Bieber.
So, you did what any self-respecting female would do.
You went through his phone whilst he was sleeping.
You consulted your horoscope.
You even asked the opinion of a Tarot card reader.
You found nothing.
But still, you can’t shake that feeling from the back of your mind.
If only there was some kind of solution, some way to verify what was really going on…
Then one day, as you were walking down the street, some bald old guy with sunglasses
and his hood up approached you and muttered something that sounded like: “want some
spy dust?”
“Spy dust, huh,” you think to yourself; “is that what the kids are calling it these
days?”
You shake your head and move on quickly.
This area has really gone downhill recently…
“Are you sure you don’t want any?
You can use it to track the movements of anyone and see everything – or everyone – they’ve
touched.”
Wait, what?
You stop and turn your head.
Dust that can track people?
It sounds like a dream come true – except he’s probably talking a load of rubbish.
Maybe he’s inhaled some of this spy dust himself and is now hallucinating.
But still…you can’t help but feel intrigued.
“That’s what I thought,” the man smirks at you.
He pulls a small bag out from the inside of his coat.
“What is it?” you ask him.
Spy dust is the name of a chemical marking material.
As far as we know, it was invented in England back in the 1930s.
A bunch of forensic scientists were playing around with radioactive isotopes one day and
trying to use them as tracers on paper and money.
Obviously, the idea was that anyone who stole money could be traced.
It was then brought into common use by the KGB.
Yep – the Russian secret police from back in the Soviet era.
They used it to track their officers and keep an eye on whether they were up to any monkey
business.
KGB officers would stealthily place it on the doorknob or steering wheel of the person
they wanted to track so the dust would rub on to them and everything they touched.
In one famous case, an agent placed the dust on his umbrella and prodded the victim with
it on the street.
Sometimes users would dissolve the dust in methanol so they could spray it in liquid
form, which was slightly more practical than sprinkling powder.
So, technically it’s not dust – but, hey, spy dust sounds way cooler than spy liquid.
You pause for a moment.
This guy might be delusional, but somehow, he’s starting to convince you.
And what about if he is telling the truth?
Is he really suggesting that you, a respectable woman and lawful citizen, would want to use
a chemical popularized by the KGB to check on what your partner is up to?
Still, you want to find out more.
“So, it tracks a person by sticking to them?”
“Yes, exactly.
When you touch someone with the dust, it leaves a trace and means they can be identified.”
“But how is that even possible?”
Well, the technical name for spy dust is nitrophenyl pentadiene.
Sorry, I had to show off that I can pronounce nitrophenyl pentadiene – most people just
call it NPPD.
NPPD is what’s known as an invisible tracking agent, which means it can’t be seen by the
naked eye unless it’s used in very large quantities.
But it becomes visible under ultraviolet rays.
Basically, it’s perfect for spying on people.
For example, the KGB used it to check that members of the US Embassy in Moscow and journalists
weren’t in contact with dissidents.
If anyone had been in contact, the dust would leave a very obvious trace and the officers
would know they were conspiring against the Soviet regime.
Clever, right?
To make this plan completely foolproof, the dust was sometimes mixed with luminol too.
You might have seen luminol sprayed in forensic investigations on crime dramas – it makes
blood stains magically appear on a seemingly clean surface in a neon blue and green color
once the lights are switched off.
How?
A chemical reaction between the luminol and the haemoglobin in blood makes the molecules
break down and the atoms rearrange.
It’s kind of complicated, but basically the luminol helps ensure the dust remains
visible.
Even if it’s been cleaned or brushed off, a trace will remain.
Okay, you have to admit it – if you were a fish, you’d have eaten the bait.
Hook, line, and sinker.
You can’t help but think that a handful of this stuff could solve all your problems.
You’d just need to spray a tiny bit on your boyfriend whilst he was asleep, and you could
trace his every movement.
All you’d need would be an ultraviolet light and you could go around town identifying everyone
he’d ever made contact with by shining it at them.
Hmm, yeah, hang on a minute – suddenly this isn’t sounding very practical at all.
How on earth do people use this stuff?
“Has anyone ever managed to use it successfully?
I don’t see how you’d be able to find out anything useful from this spy dust if
you have to carry a UV light everywhere,” you point out.
But the man just smirks.
He knows he’s starting to break you…
Don’t worry, that’s not the only way you can track people.
For example, the Stasi, the secret police from East Germany, got pretty creative with
the stuff.
In the 1970s, a physicist called Franz Laederisch ended up using spy dust to create a type of
air gun.
Instead of shooting bullets to kill, it would shoot a radioactive bullet that could track
something, typically used to track car tires.
The car would then be traced using emitters.
If you remember anything from your high school science classes, you’ll know that a Geiger
Counter is used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation, so it can be used to track
anyone who has the bullet or the dust on them.
Of course, gamma and beta emitters are stronger and more penetrating than alpha emitters.
If you use an alpha emitter, the tracker is going to be so weak that you can stop it with
a piece of paper.
So, yeah, it’s basically useless.
But if you use a gamma or beta emitter, you can actually track people from quite far away.
You could even get a device you can place under your armpits or place in your hand,
so that if you pass anyone who has the dust on them, it will start vibrating and you’ll
know about it.
This was sometimes used to find people who had stolen things.
If that’s not your style, the KGB used a sniffer dog to do the tracing.
One of the most famous cases of the use of spy dust was when a Russian mole was identified.
There was a guy called Colonel Popov, a Soviet military intelligence officer, who began contact
with the CIA whilst stationed abroad in Vienna.
Even when Popov returned to Russia, he continued to pass information on to the CIA through
another intelligence officer posing as a diplomat.
The Russians were understandably worried about the existence of any double agents who might
be passing on their secrets and threatening nationals security, but it was difficult to
prove who was communicating with the other side.
Until the introduction of spy dust.
In 1959 poor Popov got caught out.
Allegedly, a maid working for the CIA officer Popov was passing information on to sprinkled
his shoes with the dust, so his movements and everyone he came into contact with could
be tracked.
A sniffer dog managed to track down Popov’s mailbox after the agent passed on a letter
to Popov, which proved the two of them had been in contact.
Clever, right?
As a result, the KGB caught the sneaky pair exchanging a note on a bus one day.
They were both swiftly arrested and Popov was later executed.
It took a while for the West to figure out how this discovery had been possible.
They suspected some kind of tracking agent had been responsible and that maybe spy dust
had been involved, but couldn’t prove anything.
We found out in 1964 through a defector that it was indeed the dust that was used, but
it took another twenty years for the US to actually get their hands on a sample of the
stuff.
Then, in 1986, the term spy dust was finally coined.
Obviously, you’re not going to be able to trace people who are miles away, even if you
use Gamma emitter.
But still, it’s pretty impressive.
Wait a minute, did you hear that right?
Did he just say something about ionizing radiation?
Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.
You confront the man, who seems happy to hold the bag of dust in his hands and keep it in
his pocket.
“Well, it depends who you ask.
When the news first got out that the KGB were using this stuff against some Americans, the
American government freaked out at the thought it might cause cancer, but they later decided
it wasn’t dangerous.
Since then, some people have argued it is carcinogenic after all.
NPPD is a mutagen – that’s a chemical agent that alters living cells.
So, it’s possibly radioactive and might be linked to cancer.
Many dissidents of the Soviet regime, who were likely to have been previously tracked,
ended up getting cancer.
But hey, we can’t prove anything…
”
“What!
Get that stuff away from me!
I can’t believe you almost made me touch it.”
Surely there must be a better solution in this day and age – something that can track
people without needing an ultraviolet light, sniffer dog, or Geiger counter.
Something that doesn’t cause cancer.
Well, you might just be in luck.
Now there’s a new guy on the block, RFID, or radio-frequency identification.
This uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags to objects – so, no need
for sniffer dogs, Geiger counters, or UV lights.
RFID basically uses intelligent bar codes that talk to a networked system.
It was originally used to track cattle but has since come to be used for everything from
vehicles, airlines, and Alzheimer’s patients.
Of course, you need to have a bar code placed on you to be tracked.
But come on, that’s probably not so difficult.
RFID is a game changer because it’s far easier to scan.
If you’ve ever tried to scan a QR code that’s not quite too big or too small, or a bar code
of a carton that’s been squished, you’ll know how annoying this can be.
But RFID scanners don’t need to be in line with the code to scan it – they can scan
the code from a few feet away, or even 20 feet high in the air.
The code can even be embedded inside an object or person.
This means a person could be completely clueless they’re even being scanned.
Even though RFID has been around for at least fifty years, use of the technology is still
in its early days – we’re not even using it for store products yet, let alone people.
Industry regulation needs to be in place first, and there are still some technical issues
like overlapping systems.
Of course, there are also some serious privacy concerns.
At least, that’s what they want us to think…
So, it’s probably a bit extreme to use spy dust to check on what your significant other
is up to, unless you want to end up exposing hundreds or thousands of unwitting people
to potential radiation poisoning.
You’ll also be pleased to know that there’s no evidence of NPPD being used in modern times
– there’s no way to know what the government is up to for sure, but it seems like this
invention has been left firmly behind in the modern times.
But let’s get real here.
Who needs spy dust when Google knows your deepest fears, darkest fantasies, where you
had lunch today, and was probably listening in on your conversation with your best friend
yesterday.
Unless you’re living off-grid with no technology, you’re probably being tracked already.
And once RFID becomes mainstream, even living offgrid won’t save you.
Does this freak you out a little?
Good, that’s our job.
If you want to feel even more uneasy about your lack of privacy, why not watch our video
about US secret underwater spy technology or whether the CIA or KGB were better during
the Cold War?