:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 ::

Who's Watching You?

A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months, the BBC has learned.

Thousands of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras are already operating on Britain's roads. Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer.

John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town.

It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.

"I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?"

Sussex police would not talk about the case.

The police say they do not know how many cameras there are in total, and they say that for operational reasons they will not say where the fixed cameras are positioned.

The police themselves say they have nothing to hide and would welcome the introduction of a regulatory code. But that seems some way off - and for now this secretive system continues to watch us and continues to grow.

It's nice that the Police acknowledge the need for regulation but shouldn't that be in place BEFORE the system goes live, not after it goes wrong?

Labels: CCTV, ID, Politics, Secuirty

:: Dan 26.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

E&T visits three Toronto men who have created a functioning camera eye – an invention with far-reaching applications.



"In an unremarkable townhouse in suburban Toronto, Canada, one-eyed film maker Rob Spence questioned why, if something as compact as a mobile phone could encase a digital camera, his eye socket couldn’t do the same. His answer was to replace his optical prosthesis for one with a video camera; the result could form the background of a revolution in optical technology.

"“My face is the medium, the message, the problem and the solution,” says Spence. “For a documentary film maker, a camera eye opens up a whole new point of view that is closer to the human experience.” Intimate conversations that rely on body language, eye contact and the assumption of privacy may never be the same again.

"Feeling uncomfortable? That is Spence’s original objective. By turning himself into a Little Brother, he wanted to highlight people’s concern (or lack of it) for issues of privacy and surveillance. The City of Toronto is planning to install 12,000 surveillance cameras without much fanfare, public discussion or debate. However, those who have heard about the Eyeborg on television, radio and in dozens of newspaper articles do voice an opinion on Spence’s ethics and the legality of recording video without due permission from its subjects."

The EyeBorg Project website

Labels: CCTV, Photography, Privacy, Video

:: Dan 11.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

poster
Originally uploaded by nalsa.

[via natali]

Labels: CCTV, Privacy

:: Dan 12.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...