Just as any new technology would have, surveillance technology has its hazards. Until recently video surveillance in many stores was still recorded on videotapes. These tapes do not have a clear image in low light, or night situations, employees or storeowners can often forget to change the tape, and after weeks of reuse videotapes tend to wear out. Another hazard with video surveillance is the new models of camera phones. Nearly everyone has a cell phone these days and cell phones with video streamlining capabilities make for perfect video cameras. Someone standing on a street corner could easily film you, which makes it very easy for a predator to follow your children. There have also been more and more street corner cameras installed over the past few years. Even with all of the benefits that these cameras can afford us, a major problem that these cameras represent is racial profiling. A Latin-American man visits his friend in a majority white gated community. Later that night a car is stolen in the same neighbourhood. Authorities use these street corner cameras to reconstruct the man’s day, use facial recognition systems and pay the man a visit. However innocent the authorities’ intentions were this does not refute the fact that in any instance of video surveillance being used to follow any person’s day will eventually result in racial or sexual profiling.
Newer technologies surfacing on the market are GPS tracking systems. Verizon recently created a package including a GPS tracking device in your child’s phone. A simple code is given to the parents who can use an online database to track their child. However, there is much discussion on this particular topic. Yes, on the small chance your child will be kidnapped and at that precise moment you look up where your child is then the device will work, but a cell phone is always a liability to abductors and will likely be tossed before they get too far. Thus you will find your child’s phone, but not your child. Another concern is the tracking code for your child. The effects of a child abductor finding your child’s number is would be devastating to any parent.
Online surveillance is still in its early years of development, but that halt its rapid advancements and usage. We buy things online, and most of our personal information is stored on computers. Any experienced hacker is theoretically able to hack onto the files containing this personal information and use it. Everything you would need for identity theft. New software products on the market allow men and women to secretly record their spouse’s keystrokes, and even what websites they went onto. Many people believe that these programs will help discover cheating spouses, but what happens when people pry into their spouse’s business and they are in fact not cheating? Not many people have considered the other side of the argument. Do these programs violate our Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Should our spouses or friends be allowed to spy on us?
A program that is rumoured to exist proves just how far government has gone to make sure that their country is surveyed. A program call ECHELON is rumoured to have been created/ran in the United Kingdom. ECHELON was created when Canada, The United States, England, New Zealand, and Australia signed an agreement to run a program capable of intercepting all e-mail and fax transmissions, scan for content and record anything suspicious. However, since it is illegal for the United States government to spy on its citizens England will receive the United States’ transmissions and vice versa, and then the two governments will trade information. When newspapers reported this program there was an outcry from the public. A clear violation of civil rights, the government has claimed that it is an innovative program to fight the war on terrorism.
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