Everywhere you go, where ever you turn. What ever you are doing.
Some body is watching you.
I see cameras. On persons and buildings. Over cash registers.
All my devices and vehicles track me.
Do you care?
No. As a conscious choice. Because I don’t get worked up about stuff I can’t change. Besides, I’m as boring as the day is long. Anyone who chooses to eyeball me as I go about my business deserves the grinding tedium they get.
Pretty much. My passwords are as secure as a randomly generated password can be, I don’t answer phone calls from anyone not on my contacts list, don’t respond to messages on my phone, and I don’t click on any FB ads. If someone decided to dox me, well good luck with that. While I dislike the intrusiveness of today’s world, there’s not much I can do about it.
I almost hate to mention this, Chefguy, but could someone us AI to read all the posts a person ever made and compile a description? I’m thinking of all the things I have posted over the years.
I would imagine so. They’d find out that I like to cook and that I was in the military. Not much else, I’m afraid.
There’s a whole thread about that.
Roll over, suckers. It’s the American way.
I agree w the crowd. If I had a magic wand I’d make the surveillance, both government and private, simply evaporate forever.
Lacking that wand, I have exactly zero influence over what the world does to try to watch me, and only little influence over how wide a trail I leave behind for them to see.
What me worry?
There is a city near me in which most of the residents are currently up in arms about the presence of license-plate reading cameras in their municipality. There have been some very heated city council meetings.
I can’t make my brain figure out what, exactly, they are afraid of.
I mean, I can stroll along Main Street and see your license plate. It’s not like the cameras are peering into your wallet and mining your Social Security number.
mmm
My understanding is that the cameras aren’t limited to license plates - they also do facial recognition. And I read somewhere (sorry - forgot what site it was) that the cameras (Flock?) are appearing in places where cars don’t go - like parks.
I’m not a conspiracy nut, but one has to wonder about the proliferation of the cameras and data centers…
For myself, I’m not that bothered about cameras. An ANPR ping on my car isn’t going to reveal anything unless someone clones the plates. I think for a lot of people, particularly women, it’s kind of reassuring to know there’s an amount of CCTV in the towns and cities in case anything should happen.
Track 'em right back.
Home security cameras covering all angles, indoor cams to make sure pets and service people behave, front and back window cameras in your car, a minicam concealed in a tie tack, pendant or your glasses to document all your daily interactions, a motion sensor camera to make sure no humans or animals disturb your slumbers…
Also, don’t overlook infrared and heat-detecting devices for added security, and consider an elaborate audio bugging setup.
It’s bothersome because presumably it would be possible to track a suspect’s every move from their front door to The Scene and back again, thereby catching every badguy out there. And I don’t think the reality is anything like that. As for someone using AI to put together an opinion about me based on my posts here, well, I guess if anyone thought to paint me in a poor light I’d just ask them if they are the same person they were ten or twenty years ago. If they say yes, I’d say they are the one with the character flaws because I at least have learned from my previous questionableness.
If you want to know about surveillance in your area, here is a nice place to check…if you really aren’t into sleeping soundly: Atlas of Surveillance
I don’t have the energy to care much. Though I think it’s worth noting that AFAICT the vast majority of video surveillance is in and around private institutions and private homes, not typically governmental in public places. Of course governments use huge amounts of surveillance in their own facilities, but I’ve yet to encounter much of it, say, on a public street, except as a side effect of someone’s home or business having a camera pointing in that direction.
I’ll echo the sentiment that since there’s not much you can do about what private businesses or individuals do on their own property, even if the surveillance range extends out to public property, it’s pretty futile to worry about it. I’d worry more about systematic government surveillance, but if private surveillance helps to reduce crime, it’s probably a worthwhile tradeoff.
According to an investigative piece on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver described how Flock Safety systematically misled municipalities, most notably by engaging in sharing data that was claimed to be strictly held in confidence. As a result, some municipalities initially signing contracts with Flock cancelled the contracts.
Here’s a report from the ACLU on that issue:
I saw a story yesterday (don’t recall the source, but it was a news outlet) that a number of policemen have been arrested for using Flock to stalk women. I wish I could find the link, but I did find this.
It’s the devices we use that I make sure to turn off tracking, and cut off access to my camera roll. I allow location tracking only with my family. The peeps on IG don’t need to know where I am in real time.
The monitoring of the street by my neighbors security cameras is kinda irksome, watcha looking at Willis? Once the neighbor shared some pics from his camera of my black cat fuzzy tail on his deck paws up on the glass doors peering inside. He amuses them, I keep telling them they can keep him but they prefer their little dust mop dogs.
Just to add to what I said before, last Sunday (Aug 2) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver covered surveillance systems including Flock and how police and other groups are abusing them. And yes, they do have them in parks and other places where cars don’t go.
I haven’t been able to find the show posted to YouTube yet but below is a link to a story about it in the Guardian:
Nobody believes Germans when they say that privacy by design is important. That data accumulation both by state and by private actors is dangerous. I have seen it in many international meetings, in the EU, for instance. Heck, not even the German government takes privacy by design seriously enough, and they should know, if history is any guide! (Spoiler: it is not, of course not).
I have given up preaching to the thick headed smartasses who “have nothing to hide anyway”. When they find out that you don’t have to have anything to hide to have good reason to keep it private it will be too late. It probably already is.
But reading the Doper’s attitude so far is a bit of a disappointment. I had expected hoped better from you.
By your own cite this privacy by design, may be difficult to implement and and not much compliance in a large network.
Maybe not workable for an individual and most likely not helpful in their everyday life.