The Big Brother Thread.... 1984isms

[American Patriot]

Post stories in this thread of "Big brother" watching you... or her, or him or us...

[American Patriot]

Bluetooth Big Brother uses mobiles and laptops to track thousands of Britons (without their consent)
The Evening Standard (U.K.) ^ | July 21, 2008

Bluetooth Big Brother uses mobiles and laptops to track thousands of Britons
Last updated at 12:04pm on 21.07.08


mobile

Thousands of people in Bath are unaware their movements may have been tracked through their bluetooth mobiles

Thousands of Britons' movements have been covertly tracked by scanners placed in streets, pubs and offices for a technology experiment.


The Cityware project run by the University of Bath has secretly placed scanners around the Somerset city, with the first 10 installed 2006. The scanners pick up bluetooth radio signals transmitted from mobile phones and laptops.

In a scene reminiscent of the Will Smith thriller Enemy of the State, it has allowed researchers to map the journeys of individuals without their knowledge or consent.


The data is being used in a project called 'Radio City' to survey the 'mobile computing landscape'. The researchers hope it will help them understand how and why people move around urban environments.

As many as 3,000 Bluetooth devices are tracked every weekend and one recent study monitored the movements of 10,000 people around Bath.


On the Cityware website, the researchers said the survey would cover 'all phenomena associated with the carrying and use of mobile devices.'


This includes where and why users make mobile phone calls and even how people orientate their laptops in cafes.


The leaders of the £1.6million initiative claim their study looks at the city as a whole and the scanners do not have access to the identities of those they track.

'The notion that an agency would seriously consider Bluetooth scanning as a surveillance technique is ludicrous,' Cityware director Eamonn O'Neill told The Guardian.

will smith

Privacy campaigners fear the scanners have echoes of the Will Smith thriller Enemy of the State

However, pedestrians are not being told their mobiles and laptops could be creating a permanent record that will be stored on a central database.

Privacy campaigners have attacked the project as a 'moronic use of technology'.

[American Patriot]

OMG! WTF?

(UK) Photographing thugs 'is assault', police tell householder

dailymail. ^ | 21st July 2008 | Neil Sears A householder who took photographs of hooded teenagers as evidence of their anti-social behaviour says he was told he was breaking the law after they called the police.


David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.


But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile.


And he claimed that a Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to charge of assault.


Last night Mr Green, a television cameraman, said he was appalled that the legal system's first priority seemed not to be stopping frightening anti-social behaviour by aggressive youths, but protecting them from being photographed by the concerned public.


Mr Green, a father-of-two, lives with his programme-maker wife Judy in a penthouse flat close to Waterloo station.


He said: 'We've had problems with this group shouting abuse and throwing stones for months, and were asked to identify them.
'When I went to take photographs of eight of them throwing cans of Coke around, six of them ran away, one threatened to kill me, and another one started phoning the police.


'A couple of hours later, a Police Community Support Officer told me I had been accused of assault, though no such thing occurred, and told me I was not allowed to take photographs of teenagers on the street.
'I think it's wrong that when teenagers are running riot and the police are called, it's about me, and I'm treated like a criminal.


(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


England is LOST folks. Simply LOST.

[American Patriot]

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Jan 26, 2014 11:39 PM by Maddie Garrett
Are surveillance cameras in downtown Colorado Springs working?

For almost two years, surveillance cameras have been keeping a watchful eye on downtown Colorado Springs.
While some call it "big brother", Colorado Springs police say the surveillance system helps them catch criminals.
CSPD Commander Pat Rigdon says it's amazing the things people do downtown and think goes undetected. "Each camera has a sign under that notifies the public that the cameras are in use," Rigdon said.
And if the cameras aren't enough, volunteers put in over 1,000 hours last year assisting officers in the downtown area fight crime. Volunteers watch what's happening on the streets, and then let officers known what's going on and where to go.
Commander Rigdon says the police department has made well over a dozen felony narcotics arrests, which can be attributed to the surveillance cameras.
For the most part, the consensus is that people downtown like the cameras. Kyle Allee is one of them, who thinks the surveillance cameras are a good idea.
"It will help us keep track of people who are intoxicated...who are also potentially doing drug deals, or if anybody were to get hit in the intersections...it'll actually help out," Allee said.
However others, like Bobbie Peterson say the cameras don't catch everything. Peterson said the surveillance system didn't catch a mugging that happened down the street from her shop a few months ago.
"Somebody broke our front window a few weeks ago, like right after the new year, half of it was all busted out and there was no cameras that caught that either," Peterson said.
Peterson still supports the cameras, even thought they haven't helped her case in particular. "I'm sure there's too much down here for the cops to catch everything of course," Peterson said.
All in all, with only 10 cameras, there's only so much that Colorado Springs police can catch using the surveillance system. The department hopes to focus on "high risk" areas and make downtown a much safer place to be.
"It's really been a success in my mind so far, the volunteers though have really been a big part of that," Rigdon said.
The surveillance system initially cost the city of Colorado Springs $183,000 dollars in 2012. The Downtown Development Authority paid for the first three years of maintenance.