I was watching CBS In The Morning to my morning tea, and there was this really interesting story about public bus systems around the country that are now installing cameras in thier buses to moniter whats going on. This is being met with some resistance of course, not just because they are being video taped...but also because they also record sound.
The argument from skeptics is that its Big Brother listening in on thier conversations and ivading their privacy. Of course, the conspiracy theroy freaks had to publically chime in. Do we really expect anything less?
I've always had a real problem with the Big Brother conspiracy theory. It just doesn't make logistical sense. Just to maintain such a program it would take an enormous workforce that would likely drop the unemployment rate significantly. As that rate is taking its time to drop...I'm thinking not so much.
Beyond the conspiracy theory nonsense, people are generally complaining about this move to better monitor mass transit rides, are complaining because they in general don't want their nonsense being recorded. The story cited a woman who had dropped her cell phone for instance, and fell over trying to pick it up. She then tried to sue the bus company for the resulting injury. She was recorded by a camera that had been installed on the bus, and of course she lost. How surprising.
School buses are also starting to follow the lead, many districts beginning to install these cameras to help monitor what the student riders are doing. Very good idea! Lets face it, drivers are under a lot of pressure to bring these children safely from home to school and back again. The cameras are just another tool to help them make sure that the riders are riding safely. I wish that cameras on the bus were the norm back when I went to school. I think that many of the bullying issues that I had to deal with would have been resolved more satisfactory than it turned out.
People need to remember that when they are in a public setting they have no reasonable assurance of privacy or that they wont be recorded by something, be it a photographer, surveillance camera or whatever. Its a public place. If they really want to avoid being recorded like that...perhaps becoming a hermit and holding themselves up in a remote area of the world might be more desirable to them. Oh wait...Satellites.
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