Photography and freedom
Although photography and journalism can go hand in hand when we think of First Amendment rights in the United States, a darker side of photography, a source of concern with regard to Fourth Amendment rights, is the ever increasing number of surveillance cameras mounted in public (and private) places.
The UK has been called “The Surveillance Society” for the number of such cameras per capita.
I visited The Register today for some UK perspective on tech news, and saw this article on “Freedom Not Fear Day” to be held in over 23 countries on Saturday, October 11, primarily in Europe. In the UK, a photographic event, collecting photographs that embody “The Database State” is being organized by No2ID and the Open Rights Group.
A plethora of surveillance cameras was one of the most obvious features of George Orwell‘s novel, “Nineteen Eighty-four,” and of course, the novel was set in England. Perhaps only the slower-than-anticipated development of inexpensive cameras delayed the time line of the real-life deployment, relative to the novel. The BBC states that there are more than one million surveillance cameras in the UK, more than in any other nation on a per capita basis. The average city dweller there can be expected to be captured on “film” every five minutes.
(See also: a proof-of-concept Net clickjacking game that turns PCs into “surveillance zombies” by taking over your video cam and microphone – also in The Register today.)
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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