Technology Podcast 235: CCTV in the UK, Corporate Snooping in Germany, US DriveCams, and The EYEborg

March 16, 2009

A bit of theme runs through this week's Technology Podcast from PRI's The World. That theme is surveillance. In fact, we take a hard look at all manner of technologies and entities that are, in fact, looking at you. The most interesting of the bunch is this man, Canadian Rob Spence. Spence lost one eye to a shotgun accident when we was a kid. Now, he's a one-eyed filmmaker who is about to implant a special camera in his prosthetic eye. You can probably already see where this is going. He's going to use the camera to make a film. And yes, it raises all kinds of interesting questions about technology and privacy. And that's why for WTP 235 we get Rob on the line to answer those questions. He's calling his project EYEborg...

But along the way to Spence, we make some interesting stops. First, we head to Great Britain, where closed-circuit television cameras are, well, everywhere. It seems like you can't make a move in the UK without your image being captured. It's made for intense debate, as you might imagine. Some feel it is a clear intrusion on privacy. Others say it is necessary to deter crime and terrorism. Recently, Britain's House of Lords released a report questioning whether Britain was turning into a "surveillance state." You'll be shocked to learn the word "Orwellian" is being thrown around. Did anyone else hear the clocks strike 13? Anyway, we have a report from the streets of London, and then a discussion between Gus Hosein of Privacy International and the London School of Economics, and John Dwyer, a former constable and now Managing Director of Zeon Business Protection Services.

We also make a stop in Germany, where the government is mulling over "anti-snooping" legislation after some major German businesses, including the rail operator Deutsche Bahn, were caught spying on their employees electronically. We have a report from Berlin on the scandals, and the legislation.

And is spying potentially all that bad? Well, not if you're the parent of one of those reckless teen drivers. Actually, road accidents account for a huge percentage of teen deaths in the United States. And so, we have a report from Maryland on the trial of something called DriveCam. Yep, it's a little camera attached to one of the rearview mirrors. It allows parents to keep an eye on their teenagers driving habits. The idea, of course, is to encourage better teenage driving. If the camera detects an "infraction," the footage is reviewed, and an email is sent to the parents. Dude, that sucks.

A reminder that you can always peek in on what WTP is up to. We're on Twitter and Facebook. You can always check out any of our other 234 episodes via the archive.

(Image from the EYEborg website)

Related articles by Zemanta

• People More Concerned About Eye-Camera Than Surveillance Cameras (ubergizmo.com)
• U.K. Lords: Too much spying on Brit citizens (news.cnet.com)
• German public railway company "Deutsche Bahn" threats most known political blogger (stylewalker.net)

Comments

[Francisco]

The amount of surveillance in Britain, amongst other things, means that I'm giving serious consideration to emigration.

[Francisco]

Sorry, I hadn't heard the article about the eyeborg when I posted before. A film maker taking pictures of me without my permission? That's just as bad as a surveillance state.

[Imogen]

Yep, the word 'Orwellian' is certainly reentering the national consciousness! Some of the surveillance cameras even talk back to you, ticking you off for misdemeanours. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6524495.stm

We are also combining our creepy surveillance system with giant databases of DNA, travel, school records, well, just about any personal detail you could care to imagine. The Ministry of Truth claims that most of us like these ideas.

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized." George Orwell, 1984.

[CCTV in Chennai]

Using the camera as his second eye is fine, but using that as a film is little thinkable, as all the day to day activities will be recorded, which many of the audience would not prefer watching.
Also UK becoming surveillance town is absolutely right

John