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Cameras

This is mainly about surveillance cameras

Asymmetrical

  • Cameras make the contact situation asymmetrical. The person being observed by the camera can not see the observer, if there is any. Nor does he know what is going to happen with the images and sound. He does not know if, and if used, how, they are going to be used against him
  • For the owner of the camera it is a surveillance and / or security camera, for all the other people it must be considered a surveillance camera
  • A camera can be demotivating for people with bad intentions
  • The recordings made by a camera maybe can help in solving a crime
  • Camera's are always a privacy violation for passers-by
  • Camera's are intimidating

Conclusion: By far most of the time the only function of camera's is violating people's privacy

Use in mass survaillance

Join the protest and Reclaim your face

Functionality

Recording

  • Only record on the press of a button (example: video doorbell)
  • Motion detection
  • Streaming

Storage

  • Local, on premisis
  • Cloud, on somebody else his computer, on a computer of an organisation

Processing

  • Storage only
  • Facial recognition
  • Time and date logging
  • Profiling

Camera warning signs

What is the use of signs telling you that there is a camera? This is very relative because

  • Often you do not have a choice. You need to get into view of the camera
  • The area, three dimensional, is not clear. You do not know when you get into view
  • You can be in view off the camera before you see the sign
  • Often there is no sign

Facial recognition

Your car has a number plate which can be automatically recognised with ANPR. In the same way your face can be recognized using facial recognition. So your face has become your number plate

Even worse, a number plate does not show emotion. Your face shows emotion and the characteristics of your personality. These can be analyzed, evaluated, by a computer and stored in a profile. When facial recognition is used on a person that person is degraded to a thing. It is humiliating.

Complaining

When a camera does not seem to comply to the law one can complain. Here a procedure for the Dutch situation. Hopefully the issue is resolved after step 1.

  1. Speak to the owner and point to the situation and the law
  2. Check if there is an organization that can mediate in your community. There might be more than one
  3. Ask the Police to mediate
  4. Ask the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens for infomation and how to proceed
    • File a complaint with the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. See also Useful links below. A textual only complaint is sufficient. A reaction can take up to 7 months (status august 2020). At that point they only send a letter asking the owner to comply to the law. If the owner does not in a certain time more steps have to be taken
  5. Find people who agree to your complaint. Ask them to speak to the owners of the camera
  6. Talk to a legal advisor
    • Juridisch loket
    • Rechtsbijstand verzekering
    • Advocaat, Lawyer
  7. Go to court, if possible in class action

Some thoughts and observations

  • A camera observes an mobile object (like a car) of an owner of the object. The object is in the public space so the camera records public space persons can come in the view of the camera. When the object is absent the camera still records the public space, since all camera's are on 24/7 as far as we know, although there is no need for it at that moment.
  • If a person can recognize itself, even if the image is in some way blurred, on the stream of a camera the owner of the camera violates the privacy of that person
  • Camera's give only added safety and information for the owner of the camera. For all other people it adds insecurity since they do not know what happens to the images taken, who has access to those images, where they are stored, …

Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens

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cameras.txt · Last modified: 14-05-2021 11:22 by wim