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A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

coveillance.org

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Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#71

Post by ryeats »

saltyoldman wrote: post #52
emptybits wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, depending on specific intent, credibility, and the nature of harm threatened. But since this is about surveillance, I hope that detection of verbal threats is not a goal of government surveillance because it's difficult to imagine how that could be accomplished without significant loss of privacy or other liberties.

I can see it in court now. Our AI monitoring system did indeed know about the threat to the building where 800 people died on Sunday. It says: " Agent: Voice to text detected: I have everything ready - all the XXX chemicals are ready in the van and I'm going to park in the 900 S Crap St now" Agent: Thread Level HIGH. Agent: Looking up local codes. Agent: Mayor signed SB-1238 in 2026 - no surveillance devices may be u…

This is essentially the Trolley Problem.

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#72

Post by nostromo »

I think this is just the new normal.

My car was stolen in Seattle and it was found with the person driving it when he was pulled over by police. In the car he had paperwork with his name on it, a weapon, and his work uniform in the trunk with a name badge (he was a security guard - lol) along with a neighborhood witness.

Despite a mountain of evidence, the prosecutors declined to press charges because without direct video evidence of him stealing the car, they would not get a jury to convict, because jurors in Seattle have become accustom to thinking that the only way to overcome reasonable doubt is to have it on video. And even that often isn't enough...

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#73

Post by titzer »

America needs to realize that this is absolutely not the land of the free anymore. The government and big business are in cahoots to screw you out of every cent they can and to make sure you're not about to commit some unspeakable act of terror, like hold up the wrong protest sign.

Edit: case in point by https://www.techradar.com/pro/quote-of-the-day-by-oracle-co-...

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#74

Post by brailsafe »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #63
bonoboTP wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elected lawmakers and courts.

The ones bought and paid for by billion dollar corporations and industries?

The entire city of Seattle seems to have been bought and paid for by basically 2 - 4 companies. Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, ...Starbucks in year's past maybe?

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#75

Post by titzer »

Fogest wrote: post #65
goda90 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if instead of trying to figure out how to catch criminals, we focus on building a society where no one wants to be a criminal? Can we find solutions to what causes crime, like desperation, greed, fear, failure to understand and have compassion for other people, etc?

Unfortunately that's not how society works. I don't think I can think of any society out there where this idealistic model works. Of course I'd love for that to happen, but that's just not where we are at right now, nor would it be something that could happen overnight. We have to live with what we have right now. And right now the majority of people seem to welcome this technology and have no problem with it at all.…

I guffawed at "proper checks/balances". Since ICE brownshirts have been roaming around with masks and automatic weapons, abducting random people and even shooting some, you're at "checks/balances". What?

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#77

Post by reaperducer »

rootusrootus wrote: post #49
reaperducer wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On one hand I understand that they have the capability of incredibly enhancing the ability for police departments to solve more crimes. Do they? There are millions of these cameras all around the country, yet when pressed about their value, Flock and cops can only point to one or two crimes prevented/solved at a time. And they're usually things like "caught a burglar after the fact," or "stopped someone from dumpster…

> Get back to me when they find Samantha Guthrie. Nancy?

Probably. I don't follow it. All I know is that a high-profile person's mom got kidnapped and in spite of all the billions of dollars spent on surveillance technology in this country, she's vanished into thin air.

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#78

Post by jrmg »

Barbing wrote: post #38

Flat black circles on top of traffic signal control boxes, which are large, gray or painted metal boxes, typically found at street corners. The Acyclica device casts a fake Wi-Fi network and tracks phones that try to join the network in passing cars. Since each phone has a unique identifier …, different Acyclica installations can track your personal location as you pass them in the city. Is iOS latest susceptible on…

No.

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#79

Post by lgats »

brk wrote: post #58

There are too many technical inaccuracies in this to take it serious (or to try and address them all here). Directionally it is fairly accurate, but the author clearly has very little knowledge of surveillance cameras, their capabilities, or even broadly how to identify ALPR vs. traffic control cameras (and similar nuances).

"The Acyclica device casts a fake Wi-Fi network and tracks phones that try to join"

an incorrect start to a bunch of incorrect/outdated info

Re: A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle (2020)

#80

Post by anigbrowl »

smithkl42 wrote: post #10

I wonder what they mean by this? > The camera can have different ways of seeing encoded in it, including kinds of gazes that enforce social agreements about what kinds of behavior and people are considered “normal” The phrase "kinds of gazes" strikes me as the sort of thing that's only going to make sense to people trained in a very particular and idiosyncratic flavor of ethical critique. What a normal person sees he…

Agreed. I have a read a lot of social/political theory and I am sick of this language. These are academic/philosophical tropes presented as if they were scientific findings. Even when the ideas are interesting, the Theoretical baggage gets in the way and the result is at best clumsy and at worst insufferably pompous.

I try to make a habit of gently reminding academics I know how badly this gets in the way of communication with non-academic people and ends up hindering the transmission of their ideas. To be honest, I think quite a lot of academics wind up communicating this way because they're subconsciously looking for positive feedback from their colleagues and so slip into the abstruse language of the classroom without realizing it.

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