Problem: Male Operators Use Surveillance Cameras For Ogling Women; Mayor's Solution: Employ Only Female Operators

from the missing-the-point dept

Lo Barnechea is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, with a population of about 75,000. Its Mayor, Felipe Guevara, has decided what Lo Barnechea really needs is a massive surveillance system installed in aerostats tethered over the area, as explained by a post on the Derechos Digitales site (original in Spanish.) It's not clear from the article why he chose this unusual approach; perhaps it's because most of his district is mountainous, and that poses problems for conventional surveillance systems. Whatever the reasons, Guevara is smart enough to recognize that powerful mass surveillance systems of the kind he wants to install, which involves cameras able to pick out people from a distance of more than a kilometer away, have a serious problem:

The mayor explains that in a surveillance system implemented in Argentina, the operators started to use the cameras to follow women in the streets.
That might have alerted him to the larger issue here: the fact that there will always be a temptation to abuse such powerful systems. But no, Guevara is undeterred, because he believes he has come up with a way to avoid this issue:
The mayor's unusual solution: to employ women, because "they are less voyeuristic, more discreet" than men."
Or maybe they are so discreet, they just get away with it...

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Filed Under: chile, felipe guevara, lo barnechea, men, santiago province, surveillance, women


Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    Violynne (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 3:02am

    Dianne Feinstein,

    A job opportunity for you has just presented itself. It's everything you want! Surveillance! Control! No pesky US Constitution to interfere!

    Don't miss this chance!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2015 @ 4:48am

    Right, because not only do women have absolutely no reason to spy on men, apparently lesbians aren't a thing in Chile either...

    /s

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    PopeRatzo (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 4:49am

    I'm OK with this

    I think it's a good idea to use only women in surveillance. They are a lot less creepy than men, and are generally less intrusive. As a lifelong man, I can say that most of my fellow men have a creepy/stalky tendency deep down, and will drill holes to watch fat ladies go to the bathroom.

    What's the last time you heard of a female getting busted for drilling a hole in a bathroom wall in order to snoop?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Haywood (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 5:21am

    Re:

    That was my first thought; Do they screen for lesbians?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Rikuo, 2 Sep 2015 @ 5:25am

    Re: I'm OK with this

    As the article notes, "Or maybe they are so discreet, they just get away with it..."
    Why this apparent sexism?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2015 @ 5:26am

    Re: Re:

    No, but they obviously screen for stupid people...to promote.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    David, 2 Sep 2015 @ 5:39am

    Re:

    In my experience, the lesbians outside of male-audience porn trigger a whole lot less on primitive visual cues than males (including gays, by the way) do.

    But frankly, the main problem with encompassing surveillance are in my opinion not the oglers but rather those connecting dots for their own purposes.

    And if you take a look at people interested in backoffice talk and intrigue, that's more the female half of the populace.

    Collecting data causes abuse, period. The kind of abuse may differ depending on the characteristics of the surveillers, but you don't escape any consequences.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Bengie, 2 Sep 2015 @ 5:41am

    Re: I'm OK with this

    No one talks about it. In the USA I've seen many times of a mother walking into the men's bathroom to help her son, but a father going into the women's bathroom is an arrest.

    Some things people don't talk about, but it doesn't mean they don't happen.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2015 @ 7:01am

    Way to change the convo ...
    it's not about sexism, it's about surveillance

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2015 @ 8:33am

    And you all think Women don't ogle men like men ogle women. Thanks for the great laugh. lmfao

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2015 @ 8:40am

    "Problem: Male Operators Use Surveillance Cameras For Ogling Women; Mayor's Solution: Employ Only Female Operators"

    Next weeks news

    "Problem: Lesbian Operators Use Surveillance Cameras For Ogling Women; Mayor's Solution: Employ Only Male Operators"


    How about, ohhhhh, i dont know......get rid of the bloody system that enables it......or replace the damn thing or method

    Too expensive? Not to expensive to waste money on bad decisions though is it..........how about human rights forsight as an educational curiculum..........thats a point, why DONT we have this kind of thing on our education systems, STRONGLY, at that......is it because outside interests have a vested interested in not teaching a thing that would harm their interests perhaps

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    tqk (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 9:16am

    The mayor's a sexist pig.

    Doesn't he know women watch women too, to criticise their cheap dress, their slutty walks, their excess makeup, their fake hair coloring, ...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Michael, 2 Sep 2015 @ 9:22am

    Re:

    This is totally easy to solve.

    Have a bunch of men use this handy new surveillance system to determine the sexuality of a bunch of women (I'm sure you can fond some men to volunteer) and then only hire the heterosexual women to then do the future monitoring.

    Game, set, match.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    David, 2 Sep 2015 @ 9:51am

    Re:

    Well, the average man finds 60% of all women ogleworthy, the average woman finds 0.6% of all men ogleworthy.

    Judging from the recent numbers of active real users of Ashley Madison, there are about 7000 men who'd enjoy an inconsequential rump with a semi-random woman to every woman who'd reciprocate. Even stipulating that AM had overspecialized on fleecing men, it's pretty clear that there is a different degree of selectivity at work.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    Ninja (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 10:05am

    Problem: humans are causing massive environmental issue. Solution: get rid of humans.

    Yep, sounds like a sensible approach. Why not scale the surveillance/polluting sources down to a manageable level?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Edwad Teach, 2 Sep 2015 @ 10:36am

    Underlying Problem Is Everywhere!

    I've seen tilt/pan/zoom surveillance cameras track fashionably dressed, pretty young women at malls in the US of A. The same camera did not track dumpy, middle-aged white guys with children, or the children themselves.

    The real question is: where can I get a few of the mall cop's "Best of Miniskirt", "Best of Cleavage" or "Best of Short shorts" tapes (knowing full well that "tapes" is an anachronistic phrase these days)?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Klaus, 2 Sep 2015 @ 12:26pm

    Re: The mayor's a sexist pig.

    Despite what people are saying here women definitely oggle men - at the public swimming pool they're always checking out my lunchbox.

    Maybe it's a speedos thing...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. icon
    Sheogorath (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 12:57pm

    Next headline: < \/>Female Operators Use Surveillance Cameras For Ogling Men ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    nasch (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 1:20pm

    Re: Underlying Problem Is Everywhere!

    The real question is: where can I get a few of the mall cop's "Best of Miniskirt", "Best of Cleavage" or "Best of Short shorts" tapes (knowing full well that "tapes" is an anachronistic phrase these days)?

    I assume you haven't actually tried to find them. :-)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. icon
    tqk (profile), 2 Sep 2015 @ 6:18pm

    Re: Re: The mayor's a sexist pig.

    Maybe it's a speedos thing...

    They still sell speedos? Perhaps those women are as shocked to see one as I am to hear they're still worn.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Sep 2015 @ 3:02pm

    This is reminiscent of the issue of men perving around purikura (photo booths) in Japan, because purikura are incredibly popular with teenage girls.

    The solution many places apparently have is banning individual men and all-male groups from entering the purikura area at all. Only groups that had at least one female member could use them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. icon
    tqk (profile), 5 Sep 2015 @ 5:50pm

    Re:

    This is reminiscent of the issue of men perving around purikura (photo booths) in Japan ...

    From my western eyes, it appears Japan's still in the process of getting over the less desirable parts of Samurai culture, and that of being "parented" by the US' military (MacArthur) post-WWII. Japanese culture, in many ways, is beautiful but the authorities haven't yet learned to deal with its "peasants" as free individuals yet.

    It may take a while. I think they'll do very well once they hit their stride. It may take a while though. The Germans, already being western and sort of already initiated, have picked up anti-authoritarianism much quicker (and better). The Italians just went back to being Italian. Patience.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2015 @ 5:47am

    Re: Re: Re: The mayor's a sexist pig.

    "Budgie smugglers."

    link to this | view in thread ]


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