No More Cameras!

Constant and complete surveillance can definitely make our world a safer place, but there is a point where enough is enough. Of course there is the issue that our privacy is breached if we are monitored around the clock, but one lesser known issue is the price tag on surveillance systems. Like most technology, electronic surveillance systems are much cheaper now that they have been on the market for many years and are available to the public, but the big price comes with the new technology. Public locations already have cameras in every corner; enough where every street in major cities can be closely monitored. (The city of London has over 500,000 cameras!) Adding cameras in places where there are already heavy systems in place would surely enhance security, but at a point of diminishing return. For example if the current security system at Santa Clara University allows campus safety to monitor enough of the campus to prevent 50% of “undesired acts,” then it would be a bad decision to purchase a complimentary system if it would only increase that percentage to 55%. As for government spending on surveillance, one might argue that even the small increase in prevention from upgrading systems is worthwhile because it will save American lives. On the other hand, the money to upgrade the surveillance system could be better spent on the military, or other government programs.

Computer controlled surveillance

It is commonly known that surveillance is usually done on some sort of electronic device, with a human monitoring the video feed, pictures, voice recording, etc. New technology has taken this job away from humans and left it in the hands of computer programs. The way it works is that computers will have programmed into the ways suspicious people act, and it will direct video cameras to follow the person if the computer feels they are suspicious. For example, the computer can recognize if the same person has travelled by one location in an airport more than 4 times. It will then follow them and can decide whether that person is a threat based on details that most humans cannot even see. These details are called “micro-expressions.” They are short involuntary expressions that every human makes as they are thinking and moving about. The US military has begun a program called Project Hostile Intent that uses these computer controlled cameras to track down suspicious people and monitor their micro-expressions to determine their motives. This new technology is much more accurate, because often terrorists are trained not to use expressions, but micro-expressions are impossible to suppress. One other benefit is that racial profiling will be minimized, as long as the computer programs rely mostly on micro-expressions for ruling out threats.

Computer Surveillance: Privacy

The internet is almost like a completely different world. People can live their life differently in the physical world and the cyber world. This brings up the question of internet privacy. Every person has the right to their own privacy when in the confines of their home, so shouldn’t they have privacy on the internet? This question can be debated forever, but I will explain a couple of the pros and cons of internet privacy. Some people do things on the internet because they don’t want others to know what they are doing. This doesn’t mean what they are doing is bad, it just means the person wants to keep it private. For example, someone might have concerns about a health problem. If they are too self-conscious to go to a doctor, the internet is the perfect place for them to seek help. That person would no doubt argue that the government has no right to track down and use surveillance systems to see what sites he/she is looking at. It is nobody but her own business to know what she is doing. The argument on the other hand would be that it makes our country a safer place by giving government full access to police the internet. If we have nothing to hide about our internet use then there should be no reason to oppose the government searching your information and web logs. The debate is an ongoing one, and is not limited to internet privacy, but privacy in general.

Computer surveillance

One often overlooked type of surveillance is computer surveillance. It is misconception that surveillance is only when someone is actively looking at you with their own eyes. As our world becomes increasingly more built around computer systems, computer surveillance is becoming a bigger issue. With the introduction of the internet, terrorists and similar individuals found an extremely easy way to communicate. Governments worldwide quickly responded to threats over the internet by building huge anti-terrorist internet infrastructures. Every time you log on to the internet, you gain access through using an Internet Protocol (IP). Every action that is done on the internet can be traced back to by looking at log files associated with your specific IP. The US government has been able to stop large amounts of illegal activity and threats by tracking people down using IP’s. The United States government spends billions of dollars every year implementing and upgrading surveillance programs that help locate threats and illegal activity. It is to the governments advantage to do this, because it makes the internet a safer place, receives revenue from fines, and makes it easier to stop terrorist acts.