Gazing Back at the Surveillance Cameras That Watch Us

Has anyone proposed a set of "marking" standards for surveillance cameras? For example, presenting a law that government cameras be marked as such, that there is an indication of the audience type (eg some kind of "public audience symbol" for a zoo cam), and maybe some kind of RF broadcast URL, or a URL to be posted within 100 feet for more information?

If just a few localities had regulations like this covering government and private cameras, and if they were reasonably well designed regulations, I'll bet it would be a huge privacy benefit that would give people more peace of mind and improve communities.

There will always be some exceptions for whatever Black Ops are going down in the desert, or whatever, but a lot of these needlessly anxiety-making camera-human-sensor-loop systems could probably be brought to an end quickly.

Imagine a world where there was some sort of legal apparatus to prevent abuse of these surveillance devices. And then even go further, let's imagine that there's some sort of legal protection for whistle blowers who witness such abuses of power... I can only imagine.

Look up "Surveillance Camera Man" on Youtube. It's really fascinating to see that (not surprisingly) people hate being filmed by someone with a camera. Yet for some reason they don't care about the hundreds of other cameras being operated remotely that line the streets.

Are the concepts; security and privacy mutually exclusive? Can we have secure and safe places to live without surveillance and invasion of privacy?

David Brin wrote "The Transparent Society" in 1998. Most all of what he said was incredibly prescient. He certainly understood that dangers of the one-sided panopticon.

Unfortunately, I gave away my copy of that book to a CEO while working for a company that built police car cameras and was trying to go into the mass transit market. That CEO was a complete asshat when it came to privacy, a total "if you have nothing to hide..." type of mentality. He also didn't return my book. Maybe he read it, though. Maybe it had some tiny, lasting impact on his ideas.

I will let you in with a little secret that 99% of the public is not aware of or refuse to believe. Every guest room in every hotel is equipped with extremely sophisticated surveillance equipment. Yes, every single room!

It is okay if you refuse to believe this because I know it's very difficult to accept. I didn't believe it myself until I saw everything in front of my own eyes. Just keep this thought in the back of your head as a possibility, one day you'll see the truth comes out.