A European technology and civil liberties group presented some antisurveillance projects this week. Quintessenz appeared at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress, showing anti-CCTV techniques including descrambling recordings, altering facial data, and physically blinding devices with lasers.
(via /.)
A European technology and civil liberties group presented some antisurveillance projects this week. Quintessenz appeared at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress, showing anti-CCTV techniques including descrambling recordings, altering facial data, and physically blinding devices with lasers.
(via /.)
Comments
@ 05:11
http://stefanospantagis.net/journal/archives/2005/12/is_nothing_sacr.html
I think this article by Margaret Papandreou touches upon how lack of regard to privacy can twart eastern and central europe into political chaos. when individuals increasingly disregard privacy, the idea of how the violations are used, can create unpredictible social reactions, including new forms of New Media Disequiveillant Vigilantism: the phenomena of happy slapping, which is immature but effectively violent, can become a form in which disquiveillance is used to excert power and intimidation over other individuals. The hackers should not have cooperated with a political organization to steal Margaret’s emails. I do not think that this has yet to play out, and represents what happens when hackers act as blackhats.
It may become that the public surveillance systems will be coopted by individuals with ill intent,especially persons who take the law into their own hands. If we begin to disregard for what is considered good practice in maintaining autonomy for individuals, then we will rapidly see a new emphasis upon group dynamics that go beyond informant and peer pressure culture, but a european return to political systems that can be destabilizing with the consequences of extreme centralization without meaningful distribution of power and information due the inability to freely be private and have free thoughts.
So hence, those who are beginning to see Sousveillance, there is tremendous responsibility to be considerate, and avoid situations that undermine free networks and openess: also, persons should be able to defend their privacy, but this should be universal and the technical means to do so, freely distrubuted, and easy to learn (ie. such as blogging and eventually moblogging)
The hackers who stole Mrs Papandreou’s emails for political gain, have set a very bad example, and as persons begin to protest, they should be mindful of the fragility of our democracies: they may be more fragile than it may appear on the surface, and disquiveillance can create tremendous instabilities; (think the recent riots in Paris, with text message coordinated violence)