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Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

theatlantic.com

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Re: Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

#31

Post by ldar15 »

andrewcooke wrote: post #27
Mizza wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I wrote the software, not the article. It's a catchy headline sure, and the apps are called Cop Recorder, which a lot of people see as anti-police. But, there are lots of cops who use the software too. We are not an anti-police project, we are a pro-data project! There are good police and bad police, and we publish recordings of both.

ok, so that concerns me, because i am not convinced that "more data" is a good thing. more surveillance in general is, it seems to me, going to help those with power rather than those without - they have more resources, for example. what i thought was good about your app, from this article, was that it was intended for the underdog - that something about the process to combine data, say, was intended to provide a cou…

Now imagine a world where anyone could enter a gps coordinate and height and see the activity there, at anytime in the past. You think we'd have TARP? You think we'd be at war in afghanistan? You think we'd have priests fucking children? Lynchings? Drunk driving?

Many think this would be a dystopian future that forces everyone to conform. I believe that if all those people who only pretend to conform were actually required to conform, we'd suddenly see a great debate on what "normal" should actually be.

Asimov wrote a story about this, and seemed to suggest that his view was that the end of privacy would be a bad thing (but maybe I read it wrong).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past

Re: Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

#32

Post by ldar15 »

Flemlord wrote: post #10

I wonder if apps like this could be used to circumvent the recording consent laws in certain states. Instead of having the phone/app make the recording, it could transmit the video/audio stream to a central server in another state where recording without consent is legal. Plus you wouldn't be at risk of losing your recording if somebody takes your phone.

No.

http://www.rcfp.org/taping/interstate.html

Re: Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

#33

Post by watmough »

ldar15 wrote: post #31
andrewcooke wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok, so that concerns me, because i am not convinced that "more data" is a good thing. more surveillance in general is, it seems to me, going to help those with power rather than those without - they have more resources, for example. what i thought was good about your app, from this article, was that it was intended for the underdog - that something about the process to combine data, say, was intended to provide a cou…

Now imagine a world where anyone could enter a gps coordinate and height and see the activity there, at anytime in the past. You think we'd have TARP? You think we'd be at war in afghanistan? You think we'd have priests fucking children? Lynchings? Drunk driving? Many think this would be a dystopian future that forces everyone to conform. I believe that if all those people who only pretend to conform were actually re…

Clarke and Baxter also take this on in a great book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days

Re: Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

#34

Post by andrewcooke »

ldar15 wrote: post #31
andrewcooke wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok, so that concerns me, because i am not convinced that "more data" is a good thing. more surveillance in general is, it seems to me, going to help those with power rather than those without - they have more resources, for example. what i thought was good about your app, from this article, was that it was intended for the underdog - that something about the process to combine data, say, was intended to provide a cou…

Now imagine a world where anyone could enter a gps coordinate and height and see the activity there, at anytime in the past. You think we'd have TARP? You think we'd be at war in afghanistan? You think we'd have priests fucking children? Lynchings? Drunk driving? Many think this would be a dystopian future that forces everyone to conform. I believe that if all those people who only pretend to conform were actually re…

[edit: i was wrong; it wasn't bradbury, i'm remembering the asimov work you mention - an excellent story, i agree]

but it ignores the existing power structure. everyone knows that banks screwed up - but who is in jail? same thing goes here: it won't be an equaliser; only the little people will be punished. most people won't be using their viewers to avoid a war, they will be watching infotainment on 3d tv.

if you don't explicitly challenge the existing power structure you implicitly strengthen it.

Re: Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops

#35

Post by furyg3 »

karzeem wrote: post #29
snprbob86 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://qik.com/ does at least the first two. Not sure about the 3rd.

It stops recording when the phone is locked. But I'd imagine that as long as it's recording, the phone wouldn't go into lock mode unless you specifically told it to. The good news is that even if someone takes your phone and deletes the video, you can email Qik to recover whatever portion of the video was uploaded to their servers before the deletion.

But I'd imagine that as long as it's recording, the phone wouldn't go into lock mode unless you specifically told it to.

That's the thing... you want it to. If you're pulled over by the police you want to 1) start recording, 2) start uploading to a server in some other jurisdiction 3) Lock your phone so that police can't see that it's recording/uploading, 4) the power-off button is disabled.

A police officer noticing your phone during an arrest and clicking on "stop recording" is a totally different situation than him asking you for your password.

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