From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Dec 17 1999 - 23:56:22 MST
> >
> > Another really disquieting trend is the appearance of microcams. I've
> > seen some on sale in electronics stores that are about the size of an
> > old-time discrete transistor and cost about a fiver. These things are
> > going to be ubiquitous -- there'll be a big black box on a wall bracket
>to
> > distract the vandals, while the real surveillance will be carried out by
> > a massively redundant array of flea-sized wireless sensors embedded in
> > everything from the clothes hangars in shops to the screw heads that
>hold
> > their glass doors in position -- and the sensors will be just smart
>enough
> > to go online and snitch when they see something anomalous. (See last
> > week's New Scientist feature on uses of neural networks for identifying
> > suspicious behaviour in public for a taste of things to come.)
> >
> > -- Charlie
>
>Well, the issue of private property and of the owner monitoring it is one
>thing, and
>as long as purveyors of that property are informed of being monitored, then
>that is
>not an invasion of privacy. If there is uninformed monitoring of a
>customer through
>clandestine means, then that is an invasion of privacy, and likely
>damaging. There
>should be required notice of monitoring.
>
>This is totally more so with any notion of goverment monitoring, that is,
>notification
>of monitoring.
>
>This monitoring subject is one thing, yet only a glaring example of the
>more insidious
>and pervasive collection of broad quantities of data and it's state of
>non-protection. On the innovation of public area data collection, one
>thing that came about years ago
>was technology to identify, triangulate, and pinpoint sounds from a variety
>of
>listening devices attached to, for example, light posts. In terms of these
>sensitive
>technologies, it is almost always the case that they will not be
>publicized. They
>should be.
>
>It is in the citizen's interest to promote privacy rights.
>
>Ross Finlayson
>
I work in the security industry - marketing (brochures, flyers, websites,
etc.,) - and I used to handle as part of my job the press releases that went
out to about 70 trade publications, including several from Europe. The
high-end professional stuff that was common in the Europpean market five
years ago, where they really do have a problem with terrorists, was scary.
For a truly prescient look at what's coming, check John Shirley's wonderful
Eclipse trilogy. Wired was supposed to be republishing it at one point.
Now Dangerous Visions, a local (Valley) SF bookstore, has gone into the
republishing business for really great works that are out of print and
impossible to find. Their first effort I believe is a reedited and updated
Eclipse trilogy. (I lost mine when I STUPIDLY!!! loaned them out... it is
to cry.)
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