surveillance, its proponents and its opponents

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Wed, Dec 03, 2014 at 05:30:07PM -0700, Mirimir wrote:
> On 12/03/2014 06:21 AM, dan at geer.org wrote:
> > Sociologically speaking, is it not interesting that Pres. Obama's
> > freshest proposal for race relations is to deploy yet more surveillance
> > cameras?  Body cameras for all police, an announcement made while
> > arch-racist Sharpton was in the White House, is, of course, wholly
> > consistent with Obama's basic intuitions whether we are talking
> > drones in Asia or the data sharing requirements under Obamacare.
> > 
> > The immigrant amnesty groups certainly got under Obama's skin by
> > calling him the "deporter in chief;" is it not time to call him
> > the "voyeur in chief?"
> > 
> > --dan
> 
> There are trade-offs between privacy and accountability. In the interest
> of social justice, there must be accountability for those who possess
> authority and power. That does entail reduced privacy, but that's just a
> cost of having authority and power. The degree of accountability (and
> loss of privacy) should be proportionate to the authority and power
> possessed.
> 
> Conversely, those without particular authority and power deserve maximal
> privacy, except in areas where they are accountable. Common examples
> include driving vehicles and parenting children.

Accountability will be zero if the police body cams are reviewed and paid for
by the police. This is already the case as you have a case documented *on
video* which was ruled a homicide by the coroner. But police have great
protections and latitude on what they are allowed to do, which may or may not
be a mistake. Only more awareness and debate will answer that.

What happens to the police body camera footage is far more important. If it is
immediately posted via bittorrent or multicast IP on public access wireless
mesh networks, it will become a great tool for the police, for social justice,
and for accountability.

The cost, however, is a loss of privacy.

As it is now, all I need to do is buy my privacy by providing forensic data
analysis services to the police to give them whatever answer the prosecutor
or campaign contributors would like to see.

I would trade my privacy for the freedom and liberty that would come from
an open and transparent society that calls all it's members to account for
their actions, rather than only calling the lower classes to account.

What happens next depends on how many would trade in privacy for an upgraded
society.

-- 
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Troy Benjegerdes                 'da hozer'                  hozer at hozed.org
7 elements      earth::water::air::fire::mind::spirit::soul        grid.coop

      Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,
         nor try buy a hacker who makes money by the megahash