Though the council and the public were not given further specifics, a January 2018 report by IEEE Spectrum revealed that each so-called smart streetlight is packed with high-tech spyware, including “an Intel Atom processor and half a terabyte of memory; Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios; two 1080p video cameras for video, still images, and computer vision analytics; two acoustical sensors; and environmental sensors that monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration, and magnetic fields. Much of the data gathered will be processed on board, with selected events or streams of data uploaded to GE’s Predix cloud through AT&T’s LTE network.”When you are out in public, you can begin assuming that the cops can watch everything that you do and hear everything that you say.
The future is getting suckier and suckier. You can try to fight back by not owning any computer device that listens or looks. If you have "hey siri" or Alexa or any of those things, you've invited the spies into your house. One can argue that you have no expectation of privacy if you have some device listening to you.
The Stasi would have been envious.
Interested to see how the citizens react when this network is deployed as the largest traffic enforcement camera network on Earth. Because how could they possibly leave that on the table.
ReplyDeleteExactly. They'll figure out how to monetize it.
ReplyDeleteWho will be surprised to find out every citizen talks about committing crimes every single day?
ReplyDeleteOh, yes... and GE... when have they paid taxes?
ReplyDeleteFor whatever it's worth, I sent this post and the article it derives from to my cranky brother who lives in San Diego. And he says/claims/insists/vituperates that there is so much recorded activity that nobody watches it at all. The recordings are reviewed only when a crime has been committed in the vicinity of the spyware. He claims that San Francisco (where he used to live and which has a much higher crime rate) rejected a similar system as privacy-intrusive, whereas San Diego, with the system, has a far lower crime rate. I have no idea whether this correlates or not.
ReplyDeleteOn still another hand, what's to stop some detective who has it in for me (maybe because he doesn't like my blog, or my posting on your blog) from electronically following me day and night until he can get me for something and make my life miserable. Anything. Jaywalking. Illegal parking. Giving money to a beggar who turns out to be a foreign agent. Wantonly discarding a cola can in the wrong variety of recycling bin. Having sexual congress with a Martian.
Yours crankily,
The New York Crank
I, for one, will pay handsomely for some Martian porn...
ReplyDeleteI’ll stick with Green Orian Slave Girls. As for the spying, it’s interesting that these devices have built in funding for, in this case, AT&T with month to month access and data fees. Also, we know they will need replaced in a few years, and probably need replacement batteries, etc. That’s a nice revenue stream for GE and AT&T, and a drain of public resources.
ReplyDeleteNYC, exactly right. They can follow you around and cite you for something. Parking 13" from the curb. Stepping outside of the crosswalk.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe we'll all have to being wearing broad-brimmed bonnets and long gowns so they can't tell us apart.
@NYC
ReplyDeleteIf SDPD doesn't look into the recordings until after a crime is committed how does the tech have the effect of lowering the crime rate? Question for your brother, not you.