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New Sensors Will Scoop Up "Big Data" On Chicago
Graculus writes with news about a plan to install sensors to collect environmental data and count people in Chicago. Chicago plans to install sensors in light poles to observe air quality, light intensity, sound volume, heat, precipitation, and wind. The sensors will also count people by observing cell phone traffic. The curled metal fixtures set to go up on a handful of Michigan Avenue light poles later this summer may look like delicate pieces of sculpture, but researchers say they'll provide a big step forward in the way Chicago understands itself by observing the city's people and surroundings. Some experts caution that efforts like the one launching here to collect data from people and their surroundings pose concerns of a Big Brother intrusion into personal privacy. In particular, sensors collecting cell phone data make privacy proponents nervous. But computer scientist Charlie Catlett said the planners have taken precautions to design their sensors to observe mobile devices and count contact with the signal rather than record the digital address of every device.
Scifi pop culture is NOT a guide. Cmon.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/06/20/2322251/chicago-adding-sensors-for-public-monitoring
Just like Watch Dogs right? lol
more towers with built-in stingray devices bad...
When will Slashdot install sensors to detect duplicate news?
/* Lobster Stick To Magnet!*/
But computer scientist Charlie Catlett said the planners have taken precautions to design their sensors to observe mobile devices and count contact with the signal rather than record the digital address of every device.
That may be how it is designed now, but without (actually enforced) laws about the data collected and the legal uses thereof, tracking phone addresses and individuals is only a firmware update away.
Silence is a state of mime.
Chicago the city of corrupt politicians, and one even became our president ugh
CtOS is born
But computer scientist Charlie Catlett said the planners have taken precautions to design their sensors to observe mobile devices and count contact with the signal rather than record the digital address of every device.
Right, because the software cant be adjusted at a later point to collect that data. And thats not including the fact that it may be a lie to begin with
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I'm sure gather heat and wind information is the top priority of citizens who live in the murder capital of America.
... totally anonymous ?
How do you know that city employees are lying ? Their lips are moving :-\
and do they ensure that data won't be aggregated (i.e. Cellphone xxx-yyy-zzzz is anonymized at EVERY tower using a different encryption me key so that they can't look at the city and correlate that Cellphone xxx-yyy-zzzz was here, and here, and here, etc... ?
UPS Sucks
From what I'm reading about these sensors, a lot of the things they track are already tracked by the NOAA, which is funded with federal taxpayer dollars. It might be different if the NOAA was chipping in funding for this (to get a better understanding of local weather patterns or just more accurate readings for the area) but it seems like the City of Chicago is funding this themselves, and there's no word on whether the data will be shared with the NOAA.
Something tells me that the City of Chicago will try to sell the data to one of the services that piggybacks off the NOAA but charges for their analysis - AccuWeather or one of its competitors.
Does anyone still have this extension installed? ... The article headline was "New Sensors Will Scoop Up "Big Poop" On Chicago"... Amazing.
...And that's how CToS starts.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
After all, that's a name I can trust!
Until you get to the cell phone counting.
MIT has "I track body motion by how it disturbs cell signals" technology. Look it up.
They are talking about literally the ability to track everyone all the time without implanting a chip.
"It is all fun and games until" this system tracks mouth motion of two dirty chicago politicians - and that data can be used against them.
every time the bears lose to the packers? determine the final score of the game without actually knowing the score?
Random iPhone macs
I have a IMO a propounding question. Why is this stuff just done with no voter imput? Wither its a government project or a private one, I thing we should demand public input and maybe even voter approval or disapproval.........And has any privacy agencies tried this method? Just seem to me they shouldn't be using government equipment "poles" "Right of ways".or government property.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Right! In addition to the 22,000 surveillance cameras hooked into the central facial recognition system? So the taxpayers are funding this. right up there with the Patriot Act will not be used to spy on private citizens and atomic energy is only for peaceful purposes...remember who is mayor here, the "moderate" Karl Rove, Rahm, Fish Dancer, Emanuel...
Big, prosperous, safe, cities.
New York is spending money making sure you don't get too big a cup, how can we top that?
No brain, no pain.
after all, every person in the cemetary has a right to vote!
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
as I am sure they will be stopped in transit somewhere so that more sensors and/or another transmitter can be installed by some secret organization.
major cities are *already* monitored 24/7, in Canada, the United States, England, and surely other developed countries. Washington D.C. has many or most of its downtown businesses and buildings sharing camera data with DHS, and I've heard of panopticon-like monitoring of at least one Canadian city downtown, I think by the RCMP.
Do you really think the NYPD, LAPD, and other major law enforcement institutions are not doing the same thing?
The idea that ANY kind of privacy restriction (aside from basic security) on this particular system makes any change to our privacy at this point is ansurd.
"...the planners have taken precautions to design their sensors to observe mobile devices and count contact with the signal rather than record the digital address of every device...."
For Version 1. Version 2, on the other hand...
Just imagine that instead of Dem. Mayor Rahm Emanuel dropping these around the city of Chicago it was former President Bush - would this still sound like a good idea?
Why does this seem like a good idea under Mayor Emanuel?
Ken
That cost you 50 bucks and this is what you worry about.
I am trying to get everyone to drive 10 MPH under and not reelect a single person in any office in DC.
Turning driving into a gauntlet is a threat to everyone's pursuit of happiness.
They have at leat lode their jobs but it should be their heads.
With gun shot detection and HD cameras, viewers can practically taste the brain matter.
I do not own a mobile phone. Today I understood I am going to become invisible to the government in the upcoming years.