Why Surveillance Systems merit new legal scrutiny. #SS
Tracking people easily, cheaply, and even automatically or on a whim is certainly in our future. What will that do to freedoms that we take for granted?
In this day and age, there is (almost) no going back to a state in which our freedoms were established in a "de facto" way - i.e., it was too much bother/too expensive to infringe our freedom. Essentially, we "got away with stuff."
From now on, if we want freedoms (including freedoms that we already have and take for granted) we will have to establish them "de jure" with laws, regulations, and enforcement.
Sometimes that law/regulation will apply to other individuals, but mostly it will apply to governments and corporations, who have the deep pockets and expertise to construct these automatic webs.
Some of these de jure freedoms exist (charter of rights and freedoms, various laws to back them up, regulations to back up the laws), but we will have to work hard to make sure that these keep up with the pace of technology.
Video surveillance is a perfect example of technology outpacing the law. The technology arrived in our society with blurry images of a single point sent back to a single television, watched (or mostly, not watched) by an indifferent guard. The camera was large and obvious.
All of this has changed: the camera is tiny, the image is crisp, the field of view moves and the whole apparatus is controlled by a computer that is tireless and inquisitive because it has been programmed to watch for "novel situations" or "movement" or "new people."
The computer can be programmed to "tag" images of people that it recognizes, based on a database of people's faces, walks, shapes, clothing, or accompanying items (e.g., cell phone).
The images are digital - which enables the analysis - and are now on a network, meaning the are moving easily between buildings, between cities, between countries. They can be stored, shared, and even modified at will with virtually no trace of the changes or copying.
In the 1930s it became clear that "wire tapping" technology was sufficiently powerful and presented a sufficient potential infringement to civil rights that it became governed by elaborate laws and regulations. Up to now, in Canada, video surveillance hasn't had much regulation. It needs it now. New regulations are emerging but are they sufficient? Do they address the challenges presented above?
...r
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