Privacy and Surveillance is a touchy subject for most. On one hand, people want to feel safe while they go about their daily lives. On the other hand, people want their privacy. There has always been a thin, constantly shifting line between the two, but there may be a time very soon when there will no longer be a debate.
According to David Brin, “In the information age to come, cameras and databases will sprout like poppies-or weeds-whether we like it or not.” This is exactly what has happened in Chicago. In this segment by The Associated Press they speak about how the city of Chicago now hosts an estimated 10,000 cameras whose feed is monitored at all times. Though the segment reports that the system has caught a wide variety of criminals, from drug dealers to pick-pockets, the main issue is that the citizens of Chicago were not even able to vote on these cameras before they were implemented. Also according to the report, law enforcement is going to be adding more cameras even though they do not even have consent from the citizens of Chicago.
What this says to me is that big brother does not really care what John Q. Public thinks about surveillance in regard to their privacy. It seems as though that they have seen a decrease in crime with the surveillance system and that is all that matters as long as they claim that they don’t spy on people, which is what they said in the report segment. I for one don’t have a clear opinion about surveillance because honestly, in an age with pinhead sized cameras and cameras in the hands of most everyone through their phones, I don’t think there is such a thing as privacy anymore anyway.
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