Where does it end, when and how? Is it a felony to destroy devices that spy on me for which I didn't authorize the gathering of intelligence on me?
I am sorry but all this is really gets under my skin. my 2c.
It doesn't end. Or it "ends" in a police state, with a-level people living in protected communities and b-level people suffering all kinds of abuse.
And if you feel like it's OK now, sitting in some suburban home, wait until the middle class is not longer sustainable and the majority falls on the "black guy on the street" level. You know, Detroit like.
It might be done incrementally (same way as the middle class is shrinking for decades) or it might be boosted after 1-2 jolts. Could be a war, a major financial hit, an ecologic disaster etc.
Historically, the only way to end such things, is with people participating in politics. Like the unions of the past brough the 8-hour work-week, child-labour laws, and the like.
I don't think you should destroy anything, there are other ways to go about expressing disdain that don't lead to laws being broken.
It might be cultural but I wouldn't be freaked out by the petrol station camera. If they are scanning faces, then it is only to locate the head of a moving subject, there is no facial DB consisting of every citizen for them to draw from and if they are scanning license plates then there is obviously enough people pulling a runner to justify investment in newer, more expensive tools for an old problem, sounds fair enough to me. Isn't that the point of having a license number? A publicly visible identification number for a specific vehicle?
For me there is a difference in picking information up (in an automatic fashion) that people throw away willy nilly and getting information that is protected.
Yet.
> if they are scanning license plates then there is obviously enough people pulling a runner to justify investment in newer, more expensive tools for an old problem, sounds fair enough to me. Isn't that the point of having a license number? A publicly visible identification number for a specific vehicle?
Not specific. Every vehicle. All the vehicles in this place at any time without regard to if they were "pulling a runner". There is a database.
It will only become better and more accessible to organizations. Deal with it... by starting your own companies and making sure things go in a good direction. Maybe educate lawmakers on the potential dangers.
But banning technology isnt going to work.
Remember, at that "gas station", you were on private property. Do you want the government telling you what cameras you can have on your property? How do you know the other cars around you didn't have dash-cams with OCR?
If I pin a name tag to myself, I won't get all up in arms if someone takes a picture of me and I certainly won't make the distinction if their camera is equipped with OCR software or not. If I don't want that information out there, I won't put it out there. If I am regulated to put it out there, then that's that really.
There may have been someone writing everyone license plate down too, I wouldn't care (but that's me). If I saw them trying to break into my car to get my license or registration, then that is a different matter altogether.
If your license plate was protected, it wouldn't be stuck on the outside of your car in high contrast letters made specifically to be captured by automated means. At least that's how it seems to me.
I believe that person, in short.
In any case, it still does not mean it's every camera system throughout the world which would, again, be a false statement.
Part of the tour included a visit to their video surveillance room. There were at least a dozen LCDs each with 4 camera feeds displayed, and two volunteers watching the cameras. The majority of the cameras were security cameras installed by business owners and home owners, and they shared the feed (and often pan/tilt control) with the police.
There might not be automated scanning yet, but everything they did was recorded. Automating this in a central location (county, or state) would be relatively trivial within the next few years.
To say the police own the cameras is incorrect, but it is absolutely true to say the police HAVE ACCESS TO the cameras, and often DO CONTROL them.