How many times will you have your picture taken today?

<p>By security cams...</p>

<p>Don't know, don't care...</p>

<p>I'm safe, I have my tin-foil hat ready!</p>

<p>Now I feel like I need to go home and clean up better.</p>

<p>I can think of at least six times that I know of, because I pay to have it done in a business setting! But then, those images accompany biometric checks, mag stripe card wipes, photo ID, and a security escort. Having some pixels of my face on a disk somewhere to accompany all of that is very much on purpose and I'm glad for it.<br /><br />But later, when we stop in the mall to find some shoes, it's hard to say. Dozens of times, at least. I only pay indirectly for those, by doing business with those merchants and thus indirectly with their property manager, who runs the mall and its security cameras. <br /><br />I'll be depositing a couple of checks at the drive-through ATM today, so certainly they'll also get my face while I handle other people's money. The good news: I'm just not that interesting.<br /><br />But I am starting to see the value of one of those Russian-style dashboard cameras. Driving in the DC area is like a gladiator event, and it would be nice to have some evidence of what that other guy was doing right before causing an accident. </p>

<p>I just got my hair cut yesterday so I'm ready for my close up :-)</p>

 

<p>Here's the question, if you were considered mentally unbalance ten years ago because you thought "they" were watching you, are you now sane because "they" really are watching you?</p>

<p>If someone was mentally unbalanced enough to imagine someone's watching them when it really wasn't happening - lots more cameras around or not - and they're still that unbalanced, then ... they're still that unbalanced. The presence of more toll-booth cameras doesn't make delusional people less delusional, and it sure doesn't make shows like "Person Of Interest" less fictional.<br /><br />The whole "people watching you" topic is separate from the tools. Cameras don't watch you, people watch you.</p>

<p>"Watching you" isn't meant so literally Matt. It really means, tracking, monitoring, and recording your movements. No human is needed until some particular point of suspicion, then plenty of humans are involved.</p>

<p>I'm fascinated that reasonable people find this acceptable in society. By itself - the simple tracking - it is not that significant. Coupled with the NDAA and other similar programs that deny people habeas rights, it's pretty foul stuff. </p>

<p>The loss of anonymity, the loss of the idea of a sovereign individual, the giving up of independence, so readily, so easily, so willingly, is a big deal.</p>

<p>Seriously, it doesn't bother me. The way I look at it, if I had something to hide I'd be concerned. Like anything else, if it is abused let's make sure our society is prepared to deal with it.</p>

<p>You lose your individual sovereignty only if you believe you have. I've been around on this planet for 73 years and I don't feel like I'm being "watched" any more now than in the past - maybe even less so, recalling WW II and the McCarthy era. So relax, and enjoy the ride...</p>

<p>I use to work in retail, they got hidden cameras all over the place there. One guy I remember lost his job when he got caught sleeping on the job and they rolled back the tape on him. My job just installed cameras on the ceilings and in the doorways by the elevators. You can't even pick your nose inside you own cubicle.</p>

<p>Actually you lose personal sovereignty when others make decisions for you that you would not make for yourself - just to be clear on my meaning.</p>

<p>I understand that some people don't care. There is a rather forceful socio-political movement afoot to retrain the population to abhor personal liberty and ideas like human rights in favor of the right of the state, or in favor of safety. </p>

<p>I certainly don't argue with your desire to not care, but I do argue when you attempt to redefine the meaning. </p>

<p>Whenever I hear people say, "I don't care, I have nothing to hide," I feel sorry for them. The idea that a human has no private ideas, no private concept of self, almost makes me weep for humanity. I can't help but to think of automatons running through the paces for no particular reason - animated by nothing. Actually, I don't know what to think. I don't know how one can be human and have no sense of individual private self worthy of protection and guarded zealously.</p>

<p>And there goes another thread...so often these drift off into the same tired stuff. I enjoy life, which is why I just dropped out of this thread. For crying out loud (intentional attempt at irony there - I've given up on humour due to the humour-less).</p>

<p>Actually, when you think about it, with the number of people out there with iPhones taking pictures of anything, everything and everyone, security cameras are kind of redundant. Pick your nose in a cubicle, as Harry mentioned, and you're more likely to be outed on Facebook than busted by management. And, what about us, as photographers? Are we merely tools of a repressive government? Franz Kafka and Aldous Huxley, where are you?</p>

<p>Hold the door, David, I'm right behind you...</p>

<blockquote>

<p>And there goes another thread...so often these drift off into the same tired stuff. I enjoy life, which is why I just dropped out of this thread.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Can we blame this on the IRS too? :)<br>

Many folks who own laptops with built-in cameras have little pieces of tape covering the camera--afraid that someone out there is watching their every move! </p>

 

<p>William Kahn,<br>

It's not the taking of the photos (iPhone, etc) that's at issue, it's the use and organization of data gathered from the monitoring. Folks snapping away with iPhones don't have means of coordinating their data, which makes it rather harmless. </p>

<p>Tracking, organizing, analyzing and acting on the gathered data in some concerted fashion is what is at issue in this security and monitoring environment. </p>

<p>It's OK, m, my wife doesn't have a sense of humor, either...</p>

<p>My concern about privacy evolved from caring, in a sort of abstracted way, about what totalitarian regime or another could suddenly happen in the U.S.. We had better protect ALL our rights no matter even if we have "nothing to hide" today. Then it evolved to a more "What the hell, the terrorist won this round." cynicism. <br>

More positively, I now believe we as individual citizens gain greater knowledge of the bad actors in Idaho or Islamabad AND in our government.<br>

There is probably psychological damage for some. Being subject to the "unwanted gaze" can't be good for the sense of self. Not being <em>seen</em> at all might seem worse. One thing good about personal data gathering is it is an art and science of elimination.<br>

The picture is of the two cameras exacly across the street from one of the Boston Marathon blasts. The bombers were I.D'd by looking at who was NOT looking back at the blast -- not there <em>face</em> I.D..</p><div></div>

<p>Mr Kahn, I was only a child during the McCarthy years but I do recall being told by my dad that if I were to be asked where my father was born (current immigration debate anyone?), to say "Poland," not "Russia" (which he left at age three, obviously having been influenced by Marx and Lenin, whose revolution would not occur until he'd been in the US for nine years:-)). Those were scary times. Today we have a different version of scary times, based on the never ending, and impossible to end, "war on terrorism." However, the good news is that it's likely I can write this and not get a knock on the door from "the government." (I hope). We must remain forever vigilant. Remember the words of Martin Niemöller, that start with...."First they came for the <a title="Communist" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist">communists</a>,<br /> and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist." and end with "Then they came for me,<br /> and there was no one left to speak for me."</p>

<p>Experiences in the UK that was one of the pioneers in the field where millions of CCTV cameras (they have been estimated to be 4.2 million a couple of years ago) hang on street corners throughout the country with he aim to fight crime, mainly. The problem is that they have mostly been a great waste of money - according to a study of Home Office. Crime did not decrease, where they were hanged up. Only a slight decrease of car burglaries on parkings, could be registered.<br>

Meanwhile the impression, that Big Brother has moved into your neighborhood, has been accepted as a normality ! </p>

<p>Tell you the truth when you're out there too much on facebook, infront of the cameras, on the radio, on forums, giving speeches, when your whole life is a reality show you start losing perspective on what is private and what is public !<br>

This is why some film stars won't even bat an eye-lash if you ask them to strip naked in public, while most of us would be teriffied. There is a thin line that separates public life and private life but it can be erroded by being "out there" too much. </p>

<p>"<em>Experiences in the UK that was one of the pioneers in the field where millions of CCTV cameras (they have been estimated to be 4.2 million a couple of years ago) hang on street corners throughout the country with he aim to fight crime, mainly</em>"</p>

<p>I'm all for fighting crime and making our streets safe but there is also the possibility that certain 'human' individuals can start playing God if they are not doing this already... </p>

 

<p>A lot! But I usually wear a a Hopalong Cassidy disguise, so it's OK. It's WAY better than the Can of Spam costume. I had to run for my life in Hawaii. </p>