Surveillance Works Both Ways

Who's watching the watchers"? or "Who will guard the guardians"? (quis custodiet ispos custodes) have both been expressions that I have lately felt seemed more and more appropriate, and have often used one or the other of them on and off over the recent years. So, when I saw the following article which begins with the words, "Surveilling the surveillers..."I couldn't help but to relate to it, if only for the title. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and post an exerpt from it. I was kind of amused. Don't know if anyone else is or not, but here are the first couple of paragraphs:

SEATTLE -- Surveilling the surveillers. It's an idea that Number 6, the nameless hero of the classic British TV show The Prisoner, would have loved.
In an attempt to establish equity in the world of surveillance, participants at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle this week took to the streets to ferret out surveillance cameras and turn the tables on offensive eyes taking their picture.

Following wearable computing guru Steve Mann into a downtown Seattle shopping mall, about two dozen conference attendees, some of them armed with handheld cameras, snapped photos of smoked-glass ceiling domes in Nordstrom and Gap stores, which may or may not have contained cameras.

If interested at all, the remainder of this article can be read at: www.wired.com...
I personally like their way of thinking. I mean, if we are under constant, unwanted surveillance, why shouldn't we put them under surveillance also. Kind of petty, but, "what's good for the goose is good for the gander," right? Maybe some of their secrets/personal business/or not so personal business might even be unwittingly uncovered. Who knows?

ed. to "fix" link

[edit on 3-5-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

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There is also doing things that purposfully mislead the watchers.
Sort of like your own disinformation campaign.

Act paranoid and nervous. Talk to people like it is some clandestined meeting.

They will be thinking "Why in the 'H' are they doing that?"
They may end up weaving a web of conspiracies themselves.
It might even be pretty funny.
especially if lots of people started doing it, they couldn't keep up with it all, it would make them crazy.

Endless loose ends and no real connections. just like life.
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that was a good article
im a fan of civil disobedience
i wonder if local police like to be photographed hahahhahaha

Wow! I like this premise! I am on the band wagon, ladies and gentlemen. My camera phone will now photograph evrything that photographs me. No one will see my ID without first presenting their ID.

I may even stake out a cop's house, who knows? I tend to carry things too far sometimes. Still, they get to eat a lot of junkfood when they do that don't they?

I may even require abovetopsecret to log onto me!

Cyberkat this is a nice post and comes at a good time. I agree with almost all of it but I think you missed one part: If enoungh of us start looking at all them, we would then have a fair and just system under which our rights as Americans would be virtual shoe in. We have have been taking their crap for too long and it is now within our means to turn the tables on them. Would'nt that be nice when you got your day in court? Come rolling in the courthouse with your taped version of the past events? That would shut a bunch of them up but I guess you would start hearing from the police and I'm sure they would find a way to make it illeagle or use it to their advantage.

This post needs some serious attention from ATS members who want to devise ways and means.

[edit on 4-5-2005 by FLYIN HIGH]

I saw something like this on the news this morning. this guy was dating the ex girlfriend of a local New York cop. The cop was harrassing this guy to no end and even driving by his house shining a spot light in his window as well as pulling him over and trumping up charges. Well, unknown to the cop was the fact that this guy was video-taping it all and they even used the video from the cop's own cruiser to bust him.

The smart thing was, once they had loads of evidence, they contacted the media who ate it up with a spoon and then they filed their complaint and a nice law suit as well.

Thats one good thing about the digital age, if we will, we have the ability to use the same technology to our advantage. It no longer has to be your word against theirs. It can now be their word against their own actions caught on tape.

Now, cellular phones have the ability to capture both video and audio, no one can really besure when they take it upon themselves to violate a person's rights whether or not they will see it the news that evening.