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Public Warnings For Public Video Surveillance

Posted by timothy on from the steve-mann-has-to-wear-a-sandwich-board dept.

pipingguy writes "The standards project aims to develop a sign which will make apparent surveillance operations using video cameras in public spaces and provide details of the body responsible for the data recorded. It is hoped to produce a simple, easily understood symbol, possibly using design elements already used in other standardised signs. An image (e.g. a camera) and text could be combined, and agreement will have to be reached on the typeface, size and colour of the wording to be used, as well as on its contents."

4 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. cam chalking? by TheRoss · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I propose that we don't leave a task this important to the powers that be- we need to put together a set of simple symbols that can be marked with chalk or spray paint, in the spirit of (but a bit more subversive than) War chalking.

    It'd be best not to let the cam-chalking and warchalking symbols overlap, otherwise you would have confusion. The government would have hours of video tape of people walking around with laptops trying to find a WiFi signal.

    http://www.karchner.com/update/archives/000192.h tm l

  2. False sense of privacy by cloudless.net · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When the sign gets implemented, I think we will be surprised by how we are being closely watched. But when we don't see a warning sign, can we really assume there is no camera?

  3. Not Enough. by bellings · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not enough to ask, "is this location being watched by a public agency." The question that must be answered is, "how can I get a copy of the recording."

    If these are public cameras, being paid for by public funds, with the justification that they are recording public space, then only one conclusion is possible. Every person must be allowed complete and uncensored access to these cameras. There can be no argument that anything recorded by these cameras should not be available to the public. Any argument to that effect would imply immediately that these cameras are not recording public information, but are recording something else entirely.

    If these cameras are not, in fact, public cameras recording public actions in public places, freely available to any and all members of the public, then they simply should not exist.

    --
    Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
  4. The preferred method of marking is... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Funny

    A bunch of wires hanging down, and smashed electronics and lenses lying on the ground beneath them.