Comment by whimsicalism
1 year ago
> I am of the opinion that at this point, Americans only believe we are less surveilled than people elsewhere.
I'm not sure who believes that (Hollywood/any cop tv show would have you believing the opposite), but I'm also skeptical that these data brokers are only brokering US data.
> (Hollywood/any cop tv show would have you believing the opposite)
Hollywood and cop TV would have you believe that "zoom, enhance" is a legitimate means of surveillance. I suspect most educated Americans avoid framing their understanding of surveillance around CSI and SVU.
On the other hand, the number of public cameras has exploded in the past decade. Even moderately small towns are likely to have Flock cameras on every major road in and out of town and at major intersections, allowing police to track who is coming and going.
We had a bank robbery here recently and the getaway car was captured on the bank's outside cameras, and using Flock the police quickly localized where the car was to within a few square blocks. They found it within hours and arrested a suspect. In this case it was a good ending, but it's not hard to imagine how this could be misused, or mistakenly put an innocent bystander under suspicion.
Combine this with most private businesses and many homes now having cameras watching activity on or about the property, and I'm not sure most people realize the extent to which they are surveilled in 2024.
This is a global trend.
"Public camera" (as in state/city owned) is the least of my worries -- I know who I should sue when the data are leak.
Many camera just put all footage on in some unsecured server in China or public S3 bucket .
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In an incredibly tiny city nearby they’ve had public CCTV for decades. They even broadcast them. Me and my siblings would watch for my grandma or parents to come back from shopping.
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I disagree that Americans don't base their views on TV, fictional or otherwise. I wish I had your optimism.