Ubiquitous Surveillance

lightray writes: "The New York Times is running an article titled A Cautionary Tale for a New Age of Surveillance which gives an alarming view of America's possible future -- and Britain's present." Excellent article, just excellent. (The author has also written a good book on privacy recently.) "And rather than thwarting serious crime, the cameras are being used to enforce social conformity in ways that Americans may prefer to avoid."

Comments

That's just too funny

[kindbud]

To show appreciation for NY in light of 9/11, I went ahead and signed up for the free subscription to NYT the week after it happened, and stopped avoiding logging in. Just when I do that, Slashdot starts publishing the no-login links. Go figure.

Who really wants to cut crime?

[perlyking]

Its well known that a minority of people commit the majority of crimes. The people that burgled one house dont stop, they burgle every other poor soul too.

Do you really think that the police dont know who they are? That people commit hundreds of burglaries a year but still cannot be identified?

Imagine if the cops do catch them, crime drops dramatically, and a year down the line some suit in an office wonders why there are so many policemen when crime is so low and cuts their workforce. Potentially policemen dont want to catch the criminals because they are taking themselves out of a job, just as many corporate departments force themselves to spend their yearly budget - they know if they dont it will be cut.