In China they have cameras everywhere. I’m not a fan, but by most accounts the government doesn’t abuse this power much and it has made Chinese cities far safer. (If you want to argue they do abuse the power a lot, please look at incarceration per capita in China compared to the US. China seems to suck at policy stateting. Yes, I know that’s not a word, but this is my blog and I’m going to use it anyway!)

In the US it’s flock cameras. They’re everywhere it seems.

The network currently is mostly about license plate readers, but the cameras are being expanded (no facial recognition yet, but I’d lay long odds they have it soon.)

Flock has recently expanded into other technologies, including advanced cameras that monitor more than just vehicles. Most concerning are the latest Flock drones equipped with high-powered cameras. Flock’s “Drone as First Responder” platform automates drone operations, including launching them in response to 911 calls or gunfire. Flock’s drones, which reach speeds up to 60 mph, can follow vehicles or people and provide information to law enforcement.

The key thing here is that police can get this data easily, without a warrant. Even if you’re smart enough to leave your phone at home, pretty soon they’ll be able to track everything you do. This data will be stored, and if it’s ever time to get you, they will have years of data. What was innocuous at the time (that organization wasn’t on the watch list when you were involved) can be used against you, especially since America’s laws are so labyrinthine that practically everyone has committed something a prosecutor could call a crime.

And the idea that only police will have access to the data is laughable.

Trust America to create a panopticon which is worse than a government controlled one. Not only does the government get your 24/7 activities, but so can corporations and connected rich people.

God bless the Free market.

Old timers will know I used to write a lot about the coming surveillance society. Well, it’s pretty close to her. Less than five years, I’d guess, and anonymity will be essentially totally gone. Welcome to fishbowl world.

I also wrote many years ago that I’d know people were getting serious about freedom when they started destroying surveillance cameras, and there’s some signs of that:

A sliver of a silver lining, but better than nothing.

As for China, the CPC may be using this mostly responsibly, but it’s a loaded gun waiting to picked up when the government turns tyrannical and if history tells us anything it’s that over a hundred years or so, that’s almost guaranteed.

A surveilled world may be safer in some ways, but the price is significant.

 

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