Hollywood and cop TV would have you believe that "zoom, enhance" is a legitimate means of surveillance. I suspect most educated Americans avoid framing their understanding of surveillance around CSI and SVU.
We had a bank robbery here recently and the getaway car was captured on the bank's outside cameras, and using Flock the police quickly localized where the car was to within a few square blocks. They found it within hours and arrested a suspect. In this case it was a good ending, but it's not hard to imagine how this could be misused, or mistakenly put an innocent bystander under suspicion.
Combine this with most private businesses and many homes now having cameras watching activity on or about the property, and I'm not sure most people realize the extent to which they are surveilled in 2024.
"Public camera" (as in state/city owned) is the least of my worries -- I know who I should sue when the data are leak.
Many camera just put all footage on in some unsecured server in China or public S3 bucket .
Even here in HN there is a blithe dismissal of the import of constant surveillance.
What happens when they come for you, though? You spoke out at a town hall meeting and now the mayor wants to run you out of town, or worse.
> I know who I should sue when the data are leak.
Sure, and from Equifax et al we know what you’ll get - a year of free credit monitoring.
I would love examples showing that I should be less cynical.
What you’re describing doesn’t sound like a technology problem. It sounds like a people problem or a political problem. Technology can’t solve that. It is functionally equivalent to a person telling the mayor what you said.
Maybe a better example would be the facial recognition software quickly becoming ubiquitous https://www.npr.org/2023/01/21/1150289272/facial-recognition...
I’m still in favor of it though. Safety is a high priority for me and the US is much more dangerous than I’d like. I’m much more worried about criminals than the government.
I think the implication is that ubiquitous cameras and other surveillance technology would make it easier for the mayor to have you harassed until you leave town.