[Cryptography] Ranking what draws surveillance attention

[Ken Rumments]

I saw Kent Borg post and i could not resist saying something. I too am a nobody (and like Cinderfella kind of like it that way).
My wife and I were travelling to see her family as she was from Indonesia, and of course its such a long long flight and it stops for a short time in Hong Kong airport before continuing. I am the kind of person who notices a lot but says not much. Today on the same trip i would have to log who i spoke with and other things, but back then I was just working doing software for medical research.
So we go through customs, me noting some things, and noticing how they were so keen on making sure to take down the serial number of an epi pen we bought just in case for the trip. Then we went into the main area. Quite nice, lots of foods we like, and interesting things to wander around. For some reason we were talking and I mentioned to my wife that we were under surveillance. She was like nah, why us? to which i explained given the kind of place we were in, everyone is under surveillance, and I asked if she wanted me to prove it to her. Being the kind of lady I married she said yes.
It was pretty simple. When we were slowly making our way to where we would eventually board, I said wait here a second while she watched what luggage we had and me. She watched me walk out onto the open floor, and pretend like I was heading some way, then looked confused realizing it was the wrong way and acted like I wanted to go somewhere but wasn't sure of where it was that I wanted to go. No one in the airport paid me any heed. Cleaners kept cleaning, visitors kept dashing around to where they were going to go, security personnel were busy on the lines that they were tasked at.
However right on cue, out of nowhere (familiar experience as Mr Borg), a Chinese person in a suit appeared and in perfect English came up to me and addressed me as they were concerned I needed help. I explained what i was looking for, and they were quite polite and nice and directed me straight to it and offered to keep my wife company who was no where near me. I said thank you in Chinese, they were pleased and went to where they pointed. When i came back my wife was quite surprised as she watched the whole thing from a distance. He came out of a door and went straight to me which is how he 'appeared', and not from some other area like a helpful person noticing.
I knew they were watching everything everyone was doing (from what i hear so are the British given the amount of cameras now in London). My wife is Chinese and since i declined his offer he politely did not keep her company and would have had small talk. I was certain this was all going on when i realized all the people working the customs area entry were military. Besides their formality, they had a very interesting habit i caught. after they took my serial number on a device that could be used by assassins if you had imagination (had it been full of something other than epinephrine) more than once more than one had a peculiar habit of polishing the tops of their shoes with the back of their calves. They also all had the same shoes. This behavior i have only ever seen among military people who get inspected, it kept their shoes looking polished so that if someone checked, they were always shiny.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and I did not play with them on the return. Once was enough.
They were not the first, where i worked in med research there were a few curious characters but mostly nationals who never realized that when they went back home, they would be politely asked about their stay and the information on different people they casually knew would be collected.
I guess my family being from Latvia during the diaspora and all those who came gave me a bit of unusual knowing.
Thanks for the great story Mr. Borg it was nice to be reminded of a wonderful trip.

P.S. They never got to my electronics. My laptop then used virtual boot so it would not have been easy as the actual system was on what they used to call a "card sucker" that I used when I did professional photography on the side when I was signed. Used Linux to boot from thumbnail and copy the system over then rebooted. 

P.S.S Mr. Borg said "And I'm still just a nobody. But I caught their attention." Its fair to know that given their resources and the type of government everyone catches their attention. 
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