Surveillance Society

from the are-you-still-paranoid-if-they-are-watching-you? dept

Yet another story about how more and more places are having surveillance cameras installed (especially since last September 11th), with an increasing percentage using face recognition technology. The article discusses some of the privacy problems, but doesn't talk much about the technology problems of face recognition technology. They do say that there have been a lot fewer objections to surveillance cameras than from before the terrorist attacks. The article also points out that minorities and women (for "voyeuristic reasons") are more likely to be targeted by people using surveillance cameras. One thing that I found odd in the article is the quote from EPIC saying that video surveillance is the same thing as allowing someone to "go through your home without a warrant". I'm not sure I see the connection. The video surveillance cameras either cover public places where everyone knows they're in public, or private property where the owners of the property themselves have installed the cameras (which seems to be a legal right). There's also a story near the end of the article about an airport that is using facial scanning on a "volunteer" basis. Not quite sure what the point is there, when people have to volunteer to be scanned. I doubt you'll find many criminals and terrorists volunteering. This could actually be worse, if suddenly anyone who says they'd prefer not to be scanned is suddenly considered a criminal.

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