Don't forget the home. With the ubiquity of security cameras privacy is eroding even in private. I am struggling now with properly placing cameras in an apartment and balancing safety, security, and privacy in a family environment.
Maybe one camera for the entrance, if you have reasons to be paranoid (I was thinking about it for myself, because of weird landlord with second keys), but why more cameras?
edit: one further reason for myself I remembered, watching the small kids from the smartphone, while going out for some minutes. But in the end I never set it up
NB: I don't agree with the increasing paranoia, it's just devil's advocate.
>are secret cameras a legal way to get evidence?
Depends entirely on the context and where you live. There are no universal surveillance laws. There are also social aspects outside the realm of court why one would opt to do so.
- people put rooms up on Airbnb and are (perhaps understandably) paranoid about things being stolen. It goes too far if there are cameras in bedrooms though.
- people want to monitor their kids
- general monitoring to catch anyone who breaks in while they are out etc.
Have personally never heard of putting cameras inside for catching domestic violence: I suspect that abusers may be 'smart' in the sense that they'll catch on to this pretty quickly and prevent someone from doing it or manipulate the situation.
I live in a leased ground level floor through apartment with three entrances not including 6 accessible windows. In order to cover an entrance from inside some of the living space would need to be included. To fully cover I would need 5 cameras and have them in bedrooms too. Exterior cameras could help, but I have no authority to install. While I have no specific reason to worry, I wouldn't want my landlord to install them and be able to see what/who comes in and out of the apartment and/or raise the rent because of it.
Even just covering the 2 main entrances I find it uncomfortable to be able to know when my spouse is entering/exiting the home, I trust them.
2. Kids When you need it you need it. Like when I was isolating with covid. However it is their privacy I am concerned also as I don't want them to think it's OK to be surveilled.
3. Safety Did I leave the stove on? Not so important, but since one entrance is a galley kitchen I easily monitor this and the rear entrance.
Is the basement flooding? This is actually a big one for me. Installing one here however would mean potentially spying on the landlord which I would not do without explicit permission.
What are you going to do about it at that point that you wouldn't be able to do about it the next morning or whatever? Insurance doesn't require camera footage and realistically the most likely outcome of any of this stuff is an insurance claim.
The kids thing I don't know, it certainly depends on your family's circumstances and your personal concerns with your children, who you know and I don't. There are definitely situations where a camera can be worth it there, but not as many as most contemporary wealthy parents seem to think.
Edit: Moved edit to reply that was not an option before.
We feel safer with cameras but in practice there are few cases where we truly are. I think what the kids are likely to learn from this is that an authority's sense of security is a more powerful demand than their own need for privacy, something with, to me, pretty direct connections to the overall worker-surveillance conversation. I'm not judging you for having cameras or even specifically recommending you don't, just agreeing that your fears are justified and they may not be, probably aren't, worth it.
TBH I'm not sure what the wealth link is either! But I was poor/working class most of my life, and am high income now, and have friends in both groups. I just do not see cameras in the homes of people who are not affluent, except sometimes camera-enabled baby monitors. It may just be a matter of access but they aren't all that expensive so I'm not satisfied by that explanation.
I was already able to provide a good look at a thief’s car who stole a package from my neighbor’s doorstep to distribute around the community. And the neighbor’s camera got the theif’s face.
I also have a dash cam for the same reasons. I want to have my evidence because others will probably have theirs and my evidence can be a tool to protect me.
> something happens on my property that I could be liable for, such as a trip and fall on the sidewalk in front of my house
- that's a homeowner's insurance claim, and their problem now.
> Or if I have to use self defense
- in your own home? very few prosecutors would pursue this and fewer juries convict it. I have incredibly little trust in the carceral justice system but even I can believe this will end in your favor
> if cops do something unsavory
- camera won't stop them and it won't get them punished either. it *might* help turn it into a big media event which long-term may help erode these powers. but it won't help you.
> someone breaks in or damages car
- evidence for what? again this is an insurance claim, and the damage itself is sufficient evidence for this. the police may or may not pursue the damager but either way you still have a broken car, and still get your insurance payout. why care?
The increase in your insurance premiums due to an unfavorable judgment is my problem. I know from experience at my businesses.
>in your own home? very few prosecutors would pursue this and fewer juries convict it. I have incredibly little trust in the carceral justice system but even I can believe this will end in your favor
The cameras would not be in my home, but for example, if the victim claims I let them in, and I can easily prove that they broke in.
>camera won't stop them and it won't get them punished either. it might help turn it into a big media event which long-term may help erode these powers. but it won't help you.
It is not about punishing the cops. It is about protecting me from he said she said legal costs. And especially when it comes to cops since their word has a higher value than my word.
>It may cheap in terms of money but it does not cost nothing. It normalizes surveillance and fear, and reinforces our natural inclinations towards distrust and retribution. These things are understandably tempting but we are all better to the extent that we individually fight them in ourselves.
Sure, but everyone else is arming themselves, so it does not make sense for me to sacrifice myself and not have evidence in my corner if I want to use it, while letting others have theirs. It is not like I have easy access to a cops’ body cams.