London Police Want To Crowdsource Guilt-Free Surveillance
from the watching-over-you dept
One of the earliest proposals for mass surveillance was the Panopticon:
a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.
As the rest of the fascinating Wikipedia entry on the subject explains, Bentham never managed to build his Panopticon prison, despite being given relatively large sums of public money to do so. But his idea not only lives on, it has come ever closer to realization thanks to new technologies. Boing Boing points us to this latest approach, based around smartphones and crowdsourcing:
The design consists of a circular structure with an "inspection house" at its centre, from which the managers or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter. Bentham conceived the basic plan as being equally applicable to hospitals, schools, poorhouses, daycares, and madhouses, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon prison, and it is his prison which is most widely understood by the term.The Metropolitan Police is hoping to use crowd-sourcing to identify people suspected of committing crimes in last year's riots in London.
What's particularly striking about this scheme is the scale:
Officers are to upload up to 2,800 CCTV images taken during the disorder in August on to its smartphone app."My hope is that the two-thirds of Londoners who own smartphones will download this app, and help us identify people we still need to speak to.
In the case of the London riots, the CCTV images may be relatively unequivocal about crimes being committed; but the new scheme is already being extended beyond those exceptional events:
We need Londoners to browse through the app every week or so as new images will appear regularly. This is a fantastic way for Londoners to help us to fight crime."The app will also include a further 2,000 images of people wanted by the police for offences not connected to the riots.
That's worrying because there is no way of knowing what these people are accused of -- they might, for example, be involved in legitimate street protests against the UK government, or against multinational corporations in the UK, both of which have been subject to controversial policing in the capital. That seems a real possibility, given what Facewatch, the company behind the scheme's technology, says about its service:
An online crime reporting system for businesses to report crime providing the full evidential package required by the police
In addition:
A way for businesses to deter crime by instantly sharing images of suspects between group membersAll images from reported crimes are viewed by the police who will try to identify and match suspects using the information provided.
This raises the prospect not only of deterring crime, but of deterring protests, since participating companies will be able to pass photos of protesters who are alleged to have committed criminal acts to the police, who can then add the faces to all the others on their smartphone app. Londoners can then help identify them without concerning themselves about the legitimacy of the requests, since they will just be part of the constantly-updated stream of alleged criminals. Jeremy Bentham would have been proud of such an efficient, anonymous system of control.
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Filed Under: cctv, london, panopticon, police, surveillance, uk
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Besides this also smacks of the makings of a fear campaign: look at all the "bad" people that are out there.
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A way for businesses to deter crime by instantly sharing images of suspects between group members
Why is Facewatch about "businesses" reporting crime and not "people" reporting crime? The language here seems a little to laser-focused towards easily justifying protectionism.
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Re: Time ♫ Is on my Side
Humans never take to being suppressed, regardless of the odds against them.
Doesn't matter the odds or tech, doesn't matter how many of "them" there is, really--NOTHING matters except the very simple fact that humans, when suppressed, will rebel.
So, I look forward to the eventual end of this shit, right after the most amazing and possibly violent revolution the world has ever seen.
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Re: Re: Time ♫ Is on my Side
You mean the bloodiest massacre the world has ever seen. Our pitiful little guns will be nothing compared to what is used against us.
LRAD's, drones, X-ray trucks, ya know, all those fun little toys our tax dollars paid for.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-06-19/drone-backlash/55682654/1
http:/ /www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/White-House-OKs-broader-access-to-spy-satellite-1831291.php
the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.
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Re: Re: Re: Time ♫ Is on my Side
Think about it, as long as they stuck to the 'normal' low-grade weapons, then there would still be plenty of people who would sit on the sidelines, not really willing to join either group. Soon as they whip out the big guns though... suddenly it would be much more likely that those that were neutral beforehand would be willing to join the fighting, which would drastically change the odds.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Time ♫ Is on my Side
History disagrees with you. The military does not decide who the enemy is, politicians do.
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Ahhh. Guilty Until Proven Innocent
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English eyes....
Watch you blowin traffic lights and makin' a scene
Boys and girls, you've got to know,
The senses will show to our jails
When it's nothing but offers to further our coffers,
You can't escape our
English Eyes (clap clap), we're waaaaatching you,
We see your everyyyyy mooooove,
English Eyes (clap clap), we're waaaaatching you,
Watching you, watching you, watching you!
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reporting
for those not following along at home. A/C or any viewer could click on the insightful, funny, or report buttons without having to be logged in. i took it upon myself to begin flyswatting the greedtards here and their litany of idiodic arguments that weren't even arguments in order to hide their posts. and in one day it was changed.
i am probably giving your IT staff too much credit, being as techdirt is based on wordpress, and not real code, or the ability of your IT to actually code for themselves. so, instead of using Zeus on your wordpress, I followed your restrictions and used vpn to vote multiple times. but that's ok too, I can understand why you changed the rules. easily enough circumvented, but i get it.
after posting under probably 23 different IPs here, I can easily increase that by 3,000 different IPs. but I have a better idea and you should probably expect new and inventive ways of censoring the idiots here, it's a good taste of their own medicine. one thing you should always remember, there is always someone out there that is incredibly smarter than you are, this is the way of the internet. I respect you Mr. Masnick, and your blog, but you really shouldn't fuck with ppl smarter than you are.
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If true however, fuck you, I don't want to make yet another account but I do like to participate (and don't care enough to try to rig the system, it's just comments for crying out loud)
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If there is indeed a problem with retaining votes, it's a bug -- we are working on some new comment features and it's possible something got broken. I've passed this along and I'll let you know what happens. Sorry to disappoint you, but there's no great conspiracy to exclude the non-logged-in votes here.
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Re: reporting
for those not following along at home. A/C or any viewer could click on the insightful, funny, or report buttons without having to be logged in. i took it upon myself to begin flyswatting the greedtards here and their litany of idiodic arguments that weren't even arguments in order to hide their posts. and in one day it was changed.
To my knowledge, we made no such change. And indeed I just logged out to check, and I can vote just fine... It is likely that you simply were here during a moment of high traffic when the server was lagging, which can on occasion interferes with the script that manages comment voting.
i am probably giving your IT staff too much credit, being as techdirt is based on wordpress, and not real code, or the ability of your IT to actually code for themselves. so, instead of using Zeus on your wordpress, I followed your restrictions and used vpn to vote multiple times. but that's ok too, I can understand why you changed the rules. easily enough circumvented, but i get it.
Not only have we not changed any rules but we are not, in fact, based on Wordpress either - so before you start flinging thinly veiled insults you might want to make sure you're not making obvious errors in your own analysis.
after posting under probably 23 different IPs here, I can easily increase that by 3,000 different IPs. but I have a better idea and you should probably expect new and inventive ways of censoring the idiots here, it's a good taste of their own medicine. one thing you should always remember, there is always someone out there that is incredibly smarter than you are, this is the way of the internet. I respect you Mr. Masnick, and your blog, but you really shouldn't fuck with ppl smarter than you are.
Umm... go for it? There are certainly a lot of smart people out there - not entirely sure that you're one of them based on your incorrect diagnosis here, but who knows. Definitely not sure what Mike or anyone did to "fuck" with anyone.
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Except when you state that we have made some sort of policy change to combat anonymous votes (not a fact) and when you state that we run on wordpress (not a fact) and when you state that our site is not built on "real code" (it's hugely customized) and the guy who runs our site doesn't know how to code (again not a fact) and that Mike is trying to "fuck with ppl smarter" than him (once more, not a fact)
So sorry, you're short on facts today.
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sucks to be stupid, eh?
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and you base this assumption on your immense knowledge of..?
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of the fact that i work here, I know firsthand what framework the site runs on, I talk to the guy who maintains it every single day, and I have access to see the comment votes - which include several anonymous votes on comments on this very post, that are being tracked no problem and which I can clearly see.
If some votes are not being tracked, there is some sort of glitch. We'll get it fixed.
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Except we just checked, and there is no glitch. Everything as far as we can tell is operating exactly as it always has, since the feature launched in fact. So - really no idea what you're talking about, I'm afraid. What code is it that you claim has changed?
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I have a better challenge: SPELL the Lorentz Transformation :P
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(btw, you spelled Einstein wrong too)
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Re: reporting
Just in case you're interested, Techdirt is not on Wordpress (though perhaps it will be someday). It is run on custom code loosely based on the old slashcode, which we ditched almost a decade ago.
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holy shit i've been arguing with one of those random-word spambots this whole time...
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switching to German IP...
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riot scum or tv shack students
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Re: riot scum or tv shack students
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Where's the fucking safeguards, you dont talk about things on this scale without expressly metioning the safequards first and foremost, and then, and only then, when the safeguards have been accepted by the general public on matters concerning the public, should "negotiations" go on
These, aswell as *many* other things are what law should address.
Governments want to regulate us, and its becoming quite clear that we have been forced to regulate them......since it doesnt look like anyone else is fucking doing it
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Point your mobile the other way 'round
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ran out of arguments?
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as for censorship, isn't that the same thing you want in ACTA/SOPA/NDAA/PIPA/Patriot Act? and i think there is a very long thread here somewhere about the difference between 'this post was flagged by the community..' and censorship, you should read it, i did...ich schätze, der ist von den dummen Amerikanern zu erwarten was,
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honestly
honestly, I think they are out of their league to deal with an asshole like myself, but that's ok too. you can't blame stupid for being stupid, so i can understand. you have a rose colored view of the internet, and try as you might, it will never expand beyond that..like i said, stop trying to disprove the intelligence of those you don't understand. the 'net is something you don't understand yet. someday, but not this day.
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I'm downloading the app today
And I know that they might very much like to meet Wuggums, or his charming owner, but I'm afraid we live too far away for personal visits (or extradition).
Oh, and I've got a really pesky boil on my behind that I've been meaning to get checked out. A doctor's really expensive and you have to make an appointment... a police officer's almost as good, right? Better send them a few hundred pictures to be sure they've got a good angle.
I think it's really sweet of the London police service to volunteer to provide this helpful service. I'd say more, but Wuggums made a sick on the carpet, and I just have to share it with the nice bobbies.
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My god....
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Re: My god....
Reading Techdirt comments is like watching NASCAR. Most of the time it cruses right along, but every once in awhile you get a really speculator crash and burn...
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(--- some under the breath mumbling about "stupid spell check" here ---)
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That's true. Personally I only know three languages - English, really bad English and Pig Latin.
Avehay away icenay ayday!
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The public should be asked to help of course, but they also should be given the information to actually decide if they want to help or not, without that the system will eventually suffer loss of credibility when inevitably somebody tries to screw somebody because they just don't like the guy.
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lol
How long do you reckon, before we'll be asked to identify leading heads of government establishments?
My warped mind can imagine....
BBC Newsflash
The manhunt for Barrack Obama intensifies, if you have any information leading up to his location, please do not not hesitate to get in contact with the local autority.
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More than half of the comments is about a non-existent issue with the rating buttons.
Please TD, add a way to rate the comment section as a whole for an article and add the WTF?! button. Thanks ;)
Now on topic: if you tell the population it's for the children, to catch terrorist or any other fearmongering catch phrase of the century they'll blissfully cooperate. Sad but true. Thankfully, with all the awareness being raised on the importance of privacy and free speech these types of excuses for eroding our rights will slowly stop working. But how much damage will have been done by the time we actually start reacting?
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sweet childhood memories
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