From: Jonah Bossewitch <jb2410@columbia.edu>
  To  : <cpc@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:39:53 -0500

Re: video cameras

I won't get trapped into the corner and say these scenarios are more 
likely due to N number of video cameras.

I am arguing that they are far more likely, and possible in the first 
place, if we live in a culture of surveillance, which video cameras 
only play a part.

It just so happens that surveillance has become so ubiquitous and 
redundant that your argument would hold for any single technology.  But 
taken as a whole we have a very big problem that is only getting 
bigger.

The leap from everything being watched to everything being available is 
much much shorter than it appears.  When was the last time you googled 
yourself?  Did you ever dream in 1994 that a posting you made on an 
obscure mailing list might be widely available to your future employers 
and mates?

Wait until pictures start getting indexed.

/Jonah

On Feb 11, 2005, at 1:30 PM, ama2022@columbia.edu wrote:

>
> Why are these scenarios any more likely to happen with or without
> cameras?  If everything you do is watched AND available to
> everyone, that is one thing.  But the fact that some private
> individuals/corporations employ cameras and linking that to
> suddenly EVERYONE will know where everyone is, is an entirely
> different scenario.
>
>> I dunno - say I run a private elementary school, and I want to
>> make
>> sure that the parents of my students are all of the right moral
>> fibre.
>> Or I am on a co-op board and I want to get my pesky neighbor
>> thrown out
>> of the building.  Or I want to humiliate and embarrass my ex
>> significant other - perhaps by revealing something which could
>> cost
>> them their job or career.   Are these cases really that hard to
>> imagine?
>
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