December 26, 2006 at 17:07Security cameras will cover 100% of the city
Civilians are completely unprepared for the fact that each of their steps is secretly recorded by video cameras, and the police can monitor them in real time. For example, Bloomberg publishes a story that happened in the town of Middlesbrough (England).
Students at a local college on Saturday evening celebrated a freshman's traditional day. A crowd of young people spilled out onto the street. The festivities were in full swing when one of the drunken teenagers picked up a road stand and threw it along the road. Suddenly, from somewhere above, a strict bass thundered: “Hey you, in a black jacket! Yes you! Put the pedestal in place! ” The whole company froze in confusion, and the embarrassed student complied with the order from above.
“A person has a shock when he hears the video camera begin to speak, but when he sees that everyone around is looking at him, he feels remorse and obey,” commented Mike Clark, a spokesman for the Middlesbrough city council, who said the decision to install speakers on security cameras in the city. If a citizen drops a bottle on asphalt or rides a bicycle too fast, he is immediately pulled, shamed, and forced to correct his behavior.
"Big brother is watching you". Almost 70 years have passed since George Orwell wrote his cult novel "1984", and now the all-seeing dictatorship is finally beginning to become a reality. Nowadays, the privacy of citizens is monitored carefully as never before. This trend is especially pronounced in the UK and the USA.
For example, about 4.2 million spy cameras work in the streets of British cities, that is, one camera for 14 residents of the country. Each citizen, after going out into the street, gets into the field of view of cameras on average 300 times a day . The day is not far off when the cameras will cover 100% of the city territory and will record every step of each person.
Over the past ten years, the British government has spent half a billion pounds (billion dollars) on spy cameras. The image from them goes to the monitors in the police department. The officer can press the button to zoom in the picture tens of times and focus on the face of a person standing hundreds of meters from the lens.
Ubiquitous installation of video surveillance systems began in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Even in the smallest towns, for example, in the godforsaken place of Igleville, Tennessee, the local newspaper reports on the introduction of the latest technological spy video system of the latest model.
Police are looking forward to the day when engineers finally create an effective face recognition technology. According to their forecasts, this should happen no later than 2016. At about the same time, unmanned aircraft (“drones”) with video cameras that will patrol the streets of cities and track the movements of citizens should become widespread.
There are other signs that remind of Big Brother. For example, in many countries, the police are starting to create global databases with DNA samples from all citizens: for example, 3.8 million people have already been collected in the UK. A total sampling of genetic material is taking place in all babies without exception, and very soon new biometric passports with fingerprints, a retinal scan and a face photograph should be put in place. After that, the introduction of ID-based radio chips under the skin will begin, so that the police can quickly and reliably identify citizens using a conventional hand-held scanner.
Weak attempts by human rights defenders and opponents of identification technologies from organizations like NO2IDnot popular in a society intimidated by terrorist attacks. The townsfolk, apparently, are ready to limit themselves in freedoms, if this is done to protect them.
Students at a local college on Saturday evening celebrated a freshman's traditional day. A crowd of young people spilled out onto the street. The festivities were in full swing when one of the drunken teenagers picked up a road stand and threw it along the road. Suddenly, from somewhere above, a strict bass thundered: “Hey you, in a black jacket! Yes you! Put the pedestal in place! ” The whole company froze in confusion, and the embarrassed student complied with the order from above.
“A person has a shock when he hears the video camera begin to speak, but when he sees that everyone around is looking at him, he feels remorse and obey,” commented Mike Clark, a spokesman for the Middlesbrough city council, who said the decision to install speakers on security cameras in the city. If a citizen drops a bottle on asphalt or rides a bicycle too fast, he is immediately pulled, shamed, and forced to correct his behavior.
"Big brother is watching you". Almost 70 years have passed since George Orwell wrote his cult novel "1984", and now the all-seeing dictatorship is finally beginning to become a reality. Nowadays, the privacy of citizens is monitored carefully as never before. This trend is especially pronounced in the UK and the USA.
For example, about 4.2 million spy cameras work in the streets of British cities, that is, one camera for 14 residents of the country. Each citizen, after going out into the street, gets into the field of view of cameras on average 300 times a day . The day is not far off when the cameras will cover 100% of the city territory and will record every step of each person.
Over the past ten years, the British government has spent half a billion pounds (billion dollars) on spy cameras. The image from them goes to the monitors in the police department. The officer can press the button to zoom in the picture tens of times and focus on the face of a person standing hundreds of meters from the lens.
Ubiquitous installation of video surveillance systems began in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Even in the smallest towns, for example, in the godforsaken place of Igleville, Tennessee, the local newspaper reports on the introduction of the latest technological spy video system of the latest model.
Police are looking forward to the day when engineers finally create an effective face recognition technology. According to their forecasts, this should happen no later than 2016. At about the same time, unmanned aircraft (“drones”) with video cameras that will patrol the streets of cities and track the movements of citizens should become widespread.
There are other signs that remind of Big Brother. For example, in many countries, the police are starting to create global databases with DNA samples from all citizens: for example, 3.8 million people have already been collected in the UK. A total sampling of genetic material is taking place in all babies without exception, and very soon new biometric passports with fingerprints, a retinal scan and a face photograph should be put in place. After that, the introduction of ID-based radio chips under the skin will begin, so that the police can quickly and reliably identify citizens using a conventional hand-held scanner.
Weak attempts by human rights defenders and opponents of identification technologies from organizations like NO2IDnot popular in a society intimidated by terrorist attacks. The townsfolk, apparently, are ready to limit themselves in freedoms, if this is done to protect them.
