Darren Reed writes:
entrances) and another one at New Scotland Yard where all the transport police have theirs. The ones in the underground - which are ostensibly just for mass crowd volume monitoring - have an absolutely deadly killer zoom lens that's centrally steerable.
It's *way* overkill for the use it's supposed to be for...
Do the station staff ever use them ?
Here in Melbourne, all the underground railway stations have cameras pointing at escalators, up and down the platforms, etc, but if you're doing something silly like riding around on a chair that the ticket guys usually sit upon, you can expect an announcement :) There is also a window that looks into a `monitor' room from a public walkway at one.
Most American airports, especially those with international connections, routinely videotape all passengers. I can't cite a source for this, but I think it's common knowledge (not that this means its true). The recent film "The Pelican Brief" has this as a plot device, with a terrorist captured on tape on his departure to Paris. Paranoid note: Ear shapes are said to be a fairly unique characteristic, hard to disguise, and easy for computers to process ( a line scan). This may mean the return of long hair. (No wonder Singapore bans long hair on men.) "Oh, I'm going to a "Star Trek" convention in London. I'm playing Spock."
Oh, and one of the cameras looking up a platform has gum fixed to part of the cover in front of the lens :)
Wouldn't one of our "Big Brother Inside" stickers work pretty well here? --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."