We really need to get Joe Cadillic his own page/surveillance column on this site. He’s amazing at finding and sharing reports concerning surveillance. This news report was by Cyrus Farivar:
As I write these words, there are more than 30 Oakland Police Department patrol cars roaming the city with license plate readers, specialized cameras that can scan and record up to 60 license plates per second. Meanwhile, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office maintains a fleet of six drones to monitor crime scenes when it sees fit. The Alameda County district attorney’s office owns a StingRay, a device that acts as a fake cell tower and forces phones to give up their location. And that’s just in one little corner of California.
Just as consumer electronics continually get faster, cheaper, smaller, and more sophisticated, so too do the tools law enforcement uses to spy on us. What once demanded significant money and manpower can be accomplished easily by machine. This advanced technology is hurtling toward us so fast that privacy laws can’t keep up.
Read more on Los Angeles Times. (Ha, I bet you thought I was going to say Ars Technica, where we normally read Cyrus). Note that Cyrus has a book coming out soon, Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech. You can pre-order it on Amazon.