Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Surveillance in the world today

This is a collection of articles, quotes and observations about the nature of surveillance and other forms of video-recorded watching in the world today.

This clip shows the Philadelphia parking authority describing how their red light cameras save lives. In so doing, they explain how the images are used and what the consequences have been.

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Robbins v. Lower Merion School District a.k.a. "Webgate" scandal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

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Drones in the news

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/drones

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/drones

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The NSA Admits It Analyzes More People's Data Than Previously Revealed

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/07/nsa-admits-it-analyzes-more-peoples-data-previously-revealed/67287/

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"US promises to declassify more information on surveillance programs"

(but only because public already knows about them)

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0719/US-promises-to-declassify-more-information-on-surveillance-programs

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"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"

-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

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Crowd-sourced investigation of cctv footage (Boston marathon bombing)

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0418/FBI-releases-photos-of-marathon-suspects.-Vindication-for-surveillance-video

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London, the "most spied-on city in the world"

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0222/Report-London-no-safer-for-all-its-CCTV-cameras

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Genetic Surveillance: Artist sketches faces from DNA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23410521

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http://xkcd.com/1235/

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Project Information

The ubiquity of surveillance and other types of video-recorded watching has become a fact of our existence in modern times; this can be clearly seen in Edward Snowden's recently leaked revelations about the NSA's surveillance practices and capabilities, as well as in the use of social media in the reporting of news stories like the Boston Marathon bombing, or the political unrest in Turkey, Egypt and other countries around the world.

Great minds such as English author George Orwell and French philosopher Michel Foucault have published their thoughts on the matter of surveillance, but we are interested in finding out first hand what is happening around us. By recording public pedestrians of the corner of Pine and Broad Streets, we are hoping to gain insight on how awareness (or lack of awareness) of surveillance affects individuals' behavior. The surveillance recordings are planned for only one hour each day for a week. Still images from the videos will be posted to this blog the day after the videos are recorded.

Although we feel that the unorthodox camera angle combined with the low resolution of our zoomed in video stills give the pictures posted to this site an added level of anonymity beyond what an individual might reasonably expect to experience in an everyday appearance in the public realm, we would like to state upfront that we are sensitive to the wishes of those who would like images of their person removed. If you appear on an image (or images) on this site and would like that image (or those images) to be removed, you may achieve this by contacting us at uartswatch@gmail.com.

No photographs taken during this project will be presented in a misleading or defamatory fashion, or for commercial gain.