Are You Being Watched?



Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009

by Andrea Markham
Three M Solutions

If you've stepped foot outside your house at all in the last year, chances are you've been on candid camera from some type of surveillance system. They're everywhere you look, right?

There are usually at least 2-4 at an intersection. These can be used to monitor traffic patterns, catch red light violators and/or just to run every single person through a face recognition software. I know, you're thinking, yikes! While these monitoring cameras can sometimes be beneficial in clearing up who was at fault in a fender bender, it seems like an invasion of privacy. I'm sure I'm not the only one who drives with my visor down when I'm traveling through a big city. Not because I have something to hide! I just don't care to have my face analyzed 100 times in the course of a visit to Costco for my monthly food run. Call me paranoid, but I like my privacy and I don't like having the government involved in every aspect of our lives!

I know I'm not the only one, either. When the technology for police to monitor homes with infrared devices mounted on their dashboards came out, the public screamed "invasion of privacy"! And they were right to do so. While some crimes may have been stopped by using this technology, you and I both know that police are human just like the rest of us and would be tempted to check out every home in the neighborhood. The likely hood of them being able to watch your intimate acts would make you feel uncomfortable doing anything in the "privacy" of your own home.

Now, ATM cameras, I don't have as much of a problem with. It is a high risk area with cash being taken out by every single user. This temptation for criminals can make them salivate with anticipation.

However, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has watched cop or forensic TV shows. How many times have we seen them solve a case or get a significant clue from an ATM camera? This may not happen quite as frequently in reality as on TV , but the resource is still available. Again, I don't have a problem with using the ATM cameras to solve crimes, but it can also capture you hiking up your pantyhose or adjusting an irritating wedgie when you think no one else is looking. Seems comical, but it is still an invasion of privacy.

It would be easier to list the places that DON'T use security cameras, but I'm fresh out of ideas for the types of businesses that wouldn't want to use them. Banks, kids arcades, hotels, supermarkets, any retail store, the list goes on....we've all seen the obvious security cameras. And while these do protect your business, I'm sure every security guard or camera monitor gets a huge laugh at least once a week from watching the clumsy idiot that tripped and fell flat on his face on aisle 3.

It puts me constantly on guard...and I don't like that feeling.
This Article has been viewed 272 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Paul Schroeder
 2 years 212 days ago.
71 fans.
kudos to you;we live in a fascist government,never an inkling of a Democratic one and Big Brother is ALWAYS watching;paranoia, is just the whole truth!
» left by Michael Brazier
 2 years 211 days ago.
3 fans.
Agreed. Big Brother is and will always be watching as our rights are slowly stripped through acts like the Real ID Act coming soon and our current Homeland Security. Google NAFTA Superhighway, the Amero, RFID Chip- see what else is coming. Cameras on corners is just the start and it will all be introduced through consent rather than conquest.
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