monitored
Latest
SoCal mall installs 'Find Your Car' kiosks in parking garage to help you find your car -- and others find you?
Big Brother's watching us on public streets and in our homes, and now he's fixed his gaze on shopping malls -- under the guise of helping us find our cars in a mall parking garage. Santa Monica Place has installed Park Assist's M3 Camera Vision system with "Find Your Car" kiosks that allow wayward shoppers to punch in their license plate number to receive a picture of their auto and its whereabouts. It utilizes a network of cameras to capture each car's location and read the plate, and has a central control system that can dole out firmware upgrades as more (nefarious?) needs arise. A similar system is used at Heathrow Airport, though the British version snaps a photo of your plates upon entry and tracks cars with infrared cameras -- as opposed to Park Assist's use of hi-res cameras to capture an image of your plate once you've parked. While helping people find their cars is an admirable goal, the system seems rife with opportunities for abuse because the footage is privately owned -- meaning the car location information could be sold to anyone, including that crazy ex-girlfriend of yours. As for us, we'd rather not exchange a walk-on part in the war to maintain our privacy for a lead role in another video cage. We're just fine remembering things the old-fashioned way, thanks.
England puts CCTVs in the homes of lousy parents
We love England, especially the way they use all these adorable names for things: "lorry," for truck, or "loo" for bathroom, or "sin bin" for an Orwellian program whereby "problem families" (currently numbering 2,000, but someday as many as 20,000) are placed under 24/7 CCTV surveillance in their own homes. Chris Grayling, something called the "Shadow Home Secretary," puts it thusly: "This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behavior, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse." Meaning, of course, that cameras must be moved from the streets of England into people's homes, where they'll be used to make sure that kids go to school, go to bed at a decent hour, and eat proper meals. If only they'd had programs like this when we were kids -- maybe things would have turned out differently.
UK Constitution Committee to investigate surveillance overload
For those dwelling in England who enjoy a touch of privacy in their day to day lives, help could be on the way. Amidst the smattering of new surveillance methods being installed and implemented within the nation's border comes a second inquiry into the "constitutional implications" of such invasive measures. If you'll recall, the Commons' Home Affairs committee has already planned its own review, and now the UK's Constitution Committee will be "conducting an inquiry on the consequences of the collection and use of surveillance and personal data by the State." Basically, the group is trying to visualize just how damaging all these CCTV installations, car trackers, and behavior monitors are on the "relationship between individuals and institutions." Another aspect will be to scrutinize whether UK citizens need additional protection under the law from such voyeuristic tactics, and judging solely by the sheer multitude of surveying going on over there, we couldn't complain with a little extra shielding. [Warning: Word Document read link][Via El Reg]
