Smile! Urine Candid Camera!

Anon E. Muss writes "Just because you can put a camera somewhere doesn't mean you should. Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security doesn't grasp this concept. They've installed video cameras in urinals at Houston's Hobby Airport. At least they weren't sneaky about it — they posted a notice saying 'Automatic infrared flush sensors also provide video monitoring for security purposes.' (Insert bad joke about bashful bladder syndrome here)."

Comments

Simple solution

[Z00L00K]

Bring some post-it stickers to cover the lens while doing the business - remove&flush afterwards.

Re:Simple solution

[Spasemunki]

What if the camera is too big to flush?

Re:Simple solution

[Aranykai]

That sound you hear is 16 armed TSA officers bursting in the bathroom.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, yeah, the land of the "free". Just continue being "proud" and do some flag-waving.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Citizen. Come with me. Uncle Sam wants to peep your dilznick. Make even the least bit of sense? No? We're detaining you indefinitely anyhow, terrorist.

Re:Simple solution

[More_Cowbell]

You are trying for some kind of humor? I can't see the joke in your comment.... ^ALL^ of the sensors I've seen (and I've seen quite a few across the US and other countries) have been built into the plumbing of the individual urinal.

Re:Simple solution

[theeddie55]

My mistake, the ones in the UK are usually on the ceiling or high up on the wall. I've only spent 10 weeks in the US and that was 5 years ago, it obviously wasn't enough time to familiarize myself with the American urinal flushing systems.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, yeah, the land of the "free". Just continue being "proud" and do some flag-waving.

<sarcasm>
Well, the terrorists hate us for our freedom. Obviously the solution is to destroy all traces of freedom.
</sarcasm>

Re:Simple solution

[trum4n]

This whole thing is just a shitty idea!

Re:Simple solution

[Fieryphoenix]

That's really a long time to hold it. Have you considered therapy?

Re:Simple solution

[MinistryOfTruthiness]

Well you don't need to be so pissy about it. :-P

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that just takes the piss...

Not as bad as it sounds

[Brian Gordon]

If there had to be a camera somewhere in a men's restroom, the safest place would probably be right on the urinal facing straight out, where it apparently is. And if you're blanketing a building with security cameras, how much sense does it make to leave out prominently labelled rooms where any illicit activity can occur under the radar?

Don't get me wrong, video surveillance is absurd, but cameras in bathrooms isn't any worse than cameras on every street corner.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Except that most people don't walk around on the street corner with their wang out.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[Anonymous Coward]

I do.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[Seriousity]

And you get modded insightful... What's going on today, this must be one of those false awakenings, I bet I'm still dreaming...

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[EdIII]

slashdot females

They exist?

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[rohan972]

And you get modded insightful... What's going on today

Yes, clearly that comment should have been modded informative.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[Romancer]

"...the airport is the one place where I am willing to give up some privacy and convenience to gain more security."

Why?

Do you think it's easier to hurt you in an airport?
Or did you mean on the plane? Where there should be a solid impenetrable door to the cockpit and an absolute no negotiate policy.
That would actually protect you on the plane.

But you said the airport. Are you more afraid that they would hurt you there rather than on a bus? Or perhaps the train or subway?
Why not the mall? Why not a school? That'd make a point from a terrorist point of view.

If you are willing to give up your privacy in an airport simply because someone used that as a point of terrorism in the past, you're pretty narrow minded.
Just because something has happened in the past does not make it right to fear it more than other things that are just as likely and obviously much less guarded in the future. If you thik the terrorists are a one note band then you'll be just as surprised on the next news flash as you were on the last one. Learn that the only way to make things secure is to actually make them secure, not play security theatre.

Do you think that they will be able to monitor every camera, in every bathroom, all the time and that no one will figure out to go into a stall since the camera is visible?

Really?

Then you shouldn't worry about those terrorists, you should worry about what they are "trying to destroy"... Your freedoms, your feelings of safety and security, since there will be more stupid stunts to gain attention in the future and it's inevitable. Since they can buy a gun and walk into a mall or onto a bus or into a church and do whatever they want without time for a response, you're doomed if you let go of youor freedoms. They're the only thing that can sway those kinds of people away from those acts. To get them to stop doing what they "think they must do to get attention to their plights" and instead help fix the world of the consistant removal of those things that make us different. That make us not want to commit those acts because we have the freedoms to live and prosper as we see fit. To be in america. The things you are willing to give up to feel a little safer are the things that have been keeping you safe in your own country from domestic terrorists. Look to the middle east and count the bodies of those who did not have the freedom to think otherwise and then tell me you would give it up to feel safer and be a little more like them.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[Anonymous Coward]

And you get modded insightful... What's going on today

Yes, clearly that comment should have been modded informative.

The mod may be apt as it's fully...in...sight

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[KatAngel]

*raises hand*

Of course, slashdot law requires that at least five people now show up to prove me wrong, since there are "no women on the internet." It's ok. However wrong you may be, I am prepared to acknowledge that you are only following cliches, jumping on bandwagons, and repeating someone else's jokes for perhaps the hundredth time in your life in an attempt to sound funny, witty, or intelligent. I know you're only 'doing your duty,' par se. Fulfilling your obligation to slashdot society.

Don't worry. There are people who can help you.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds

[ConceptJunkie]

+1 Funny doesn't give you Karma. +1 Insightful does. The mods are gaming the system to reward people who make good jokes since the system doesn't do it, if used properly. I suppose it's arguable whether the system should be changed or the metamods need to go on double-duty.

Excuse me but...

[KneelBeforeZod]

"When did we put on yellow lens filters on the cameras?" "We didn't"

Why not in stalls in BOTH sexes?

[cfryback]

Hmmm...Interesting - but why only on Urinals? Why not in the stalls in BOTH sexes of restrooms? Either way, this confirms that I don't really want to make the US as a destination when I make trips from Australia to Canada...

fake. Anyone can make up stickers.

[YesIAmAScript]

I'm actually bit jealous of whomever came up with that gag. He sure got a lot of mileage out of it.

It's clearly just a riff on the "naked X-ray" controversy going around.

Illegal

[Renraku]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this illegal?

I remember some stores had the pants sued off of them (no pun intended) when people found out the dressing rooms were being monitored by cameras, to prevent theft.

Lots of high end places have bathroom attendants. Their job is two-fold. I'm not quite sure of the first one, but I know the second one is to make sure people know that it isn't a place where they can go and shit in the sink or assemble guns from the parts they have hidden in their underwear.

Re:Urine a lot of trouble TSA!!

[physicsphairy]

It is a joke. Note how half the lettering is bleeding out? Printed on an inkjet. Also, the suggested idea of combining flush sensors and cameras is absurd in every way. *is thinking about putting up some similar placards at his own airport*

Isn't it probably just a prank?

[Cyberllama]

Am I the only one who thinks this is just some prank pulled by some kid with an inkjet printer and some label paper? It would take 2 minutes to make that sticker and just slap it on a few urinals for giggles.

Like, I realize some ridiculous crap has happened in the past few years, but are we all so jaded we just automatically assume that this sort of thing is real?

Re:Isn't it probably just a prank?

[guyminuslife]

You do realize that in the War on Terror it isn't necessary to charge people with crimes, don't you?

Any other confirmation?

[MindlessAutomata]

Source is just blogspam and image could easily have been faked in photoshop. The government is stupid and paranoid and not deserving of our love but this is might be just a wee bit over the top at this point in time...

Obvious Prank

[Phat_Tony]

I'm sure this is a prank. Since this is generating bad publicity for the DHS, they will probably catch the person who put these stickers on the urinals after reviewing the video from the real, covert hidden cameras they have covering the urinals.

Re:Bullshit

[guyminuslife]

"I thought Houston was in Texas.. why weren't you packing? Defend yourself asshole."

AIRPORT.

He wasn't packing because he hadn't unpacked yet. You have to check those, you know.

Or maybe---since he had just flown in---he wasn't from around here. ;-)

Re:Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

>> 1. I thought Houston was in Texas.. why weren't you packing? Defend yourself asshole.

Please carry a firearm into the Houston airport terminal and let us know how that works out for you. kthanksbye.

Re:Bullshit

[cheros]

3. Has anyone ever done a study (a real study) of the effectiveness of security cameras at preventing crime? Any sort of crime.

Here you go, that's web economy for you (two answers in one link).

Have a nice day.

I'm not going to Houston then...

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't want to reveal my Willy of Mass Destruction to the cameras.

Re:I'm not going to Houston then...

[TitusC3v5]

Why did you add an M?