CNN condones the use of surveillance cameras, pushes for more surveillance of Americans

(CNN) - Even after the identification of the Boston bombing suspects through grainy security-camera images, officials say that blanketing a city in surveillance cameras can create as many problems as it solves.

A network of cameras on city streets and other public spaces increases the chances of capturing a criminal on video but can generate an overwhelming amount of evidence to sift through. The cameras make some people feel more secure, knowing that bad guys are being watched. But privacy advocates and other citizens are uneasy with the idea that Big Brother is monitoring their every public move.Meanwhile, facial-recognition software and other technologies are making security-camera images more valuable to law enforcement. Now, software can automatically mine surveillance footage for information, such as a specific person's face, and create a giant searchable database.
After last week's bombings at the Boston Marathon, authorities had to sift through a mountain of footage from government surveillance cameras, private security cameras and imagery shot by bystanders on smartphones. It took the FBI only three days to release blurry shots of the two suspects, taken by a department store's cameras.
Modeled after London's system, New York's Lower Manhattan Security Initiative monitors 4,000 security cameras and license plate readers south of Canal Street. The project uses feeds from both private and public security cameras, which are are all monitored 24 hours a day by the NYPD.
Using face and object-detection technology, the police can track cars and people moving through 1.7 square miles in lower Manhattan and even detect unattended packages. The $150 million initiative also includes a number of radiation detectors and automatic roadblocks that can can be used to stop traffic in an emergency.
In 2007, Boston law enforcement had an estimated 55 CCTV cameras set up around the city. Since then, the city has expanded its surveillance system, though authorities there are not commenting on the exact scope of the current camera setup.
Boston's example has shown the power of these systems to help solve crimes, causing many to call for even more cameras. But it's still not clear whether they are effective at preventing crimes. According to the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen's University in Ontario, urban surveillance systems have not been proven to have any effect on deterring criminals.http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/26/tech/innovation/security-cameras-boston-bombings 

Dublin Airport has begun using a facial recognition automated border control system:

The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service and the Dublin Airport Authority have installed an automated border control system from SITA at the Dublin Airport in an attempt to streamline passenger flow.

SITA’s gates, which rely on facial recognition technology from NEC, at Dublin Airport are currently processing up to 1,000 passengers a day, in as few as 7.5 seconds each. The system captures a facial image and compares it with the biometric facial data contained on the presented passport. A core element of the solution is NEC’s “NeoFace” face recognition software.

SITA joined forces with the Irish authorities to explore both passenger acceptance and the efficiency of the gates as European Union member states implement recommendations to move to self-service border control using ABC gates.

“Many major European airports are adopting a similar trend towards the deployment of automated gates for immigration control functions to enhance passengers’ experience on arrival at airports while also strengthening border security,” Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter, T.D said. “The trial period will test the suitability of e-gates for use at Dublin airport with a view to providing a more secure and efficient means for clearing passengers through immigration control. I look forward to receiving recommendations on the future use of such technology on conclusion of the trials.”

Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, in 2012, SITA and NEC Europe announced an agreement to develop an automated solution for use in airports across the European Union.
http://www.biometricupdate.com/201305/facial-recognition-automated-control-gates-processing-passengers-at-dublin-airport/ 

Round the clock surveillance: Is this the price of living in a ‘Free, safe’ society?

 Article first appeared in lewrockwell.com:

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, we are once again being assured that if we only give up a few more liberties and what little remains of our privacy, we will achieve that elusive sense of security we’ve yet to attain. This is the same song and dance that comes after every tragedy, and it’s that same song and dance which has left us buying into the illusion that we are a free, safe society.

The reality of life in America tells a different tale, however. For example, in a May 2013 interview with CNN, former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente disclosed that the federal government is keeping track of all digital communications that occur within the United States, whether or not those communicating are American citizens, and whether or not they have a warrant to do so.

Clemente dropped his bombshell during a CNN interview about authorities’ attempts to determine the nature of communications between deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his widow Katherine Russell. In the course of that conversation, Clemente revealed that federal officials will not only be able to access any voicemails that may have been left by either party, but that the entirety of the phone conversations they had will be at federal agents’ finger tips.

“We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation,” stated Clemente. “All of that stuff [meaning phone conversations occurring in America] is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.” A few days later, Clemente was asked to clarify his comments, at which point he said, “There is a way to look at all digital communications in the past. No digital communication is secure.”

In other words, there is no form of digital communication that the government cannot and does not monitor – phone calls, emails, text messages, tweets, Facebook posts, internet video chats, etc., are all accessible, trackable and downloadable by federal agents.

 At one time, such actions by the government would not only have been viewed as unacceptable, they would also have been considered illegal. However, government officials have been engaged in an ongoing attempt to legitimize these actions by passing laws that make the lives of all Americans an open book for government agents. For example, while the nation was caught up in the drama of the Boston bombing and the ensuing military-style occupation of the city by local and federal police, Congress passed a little-noticed piece of legislation known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

Google has filed a patent for a “Policy Violation Checker,” software which would monitor an individual’s communications as they type them out, whether in an email, an Excel spreadsheet or some other digital document, then alert the individual, and potentially their employer or a government agent, if they type any “problematic phrases” which “present policy violations, have legal implications, or are otherwise troublesome to a company, business, or individual.”

The reality is this: we no longer live in a free society. Having traded our freedoms for a phantom promise of security, we now find ourselves imprisoned in a virtual cage of cameras, wiretaps and watchful government eyes. All the while, the world around us is no safer than when we started on this journey more than a decade ago. Indeed, it well may be that we are living in a far more dangerous world, not so much because the terrorist threat is any greater but because the government itself has become the greater threat to our freedoms.
http://lewrockwell.com/whitehead/whitehead82.1.html
How many liberties are we prepared to give up to fight terrorism?
The level of state surveillance, already violating longstanding principles and legally protected rights, will get much worse. The New York Times has reported that law enforcement is extensively using social media to investigate the attack. And the focus of the political discourse coming from Washington is already shifting to greater powers for the security state. Just at a moment when social justice values and agendas, as they relate to Guantanamo, drones and other issues were beginning to favor a socially progressive opening, these small victories will be rolled back as the discourse of security will gain new salience.

Additionally, minorities and political activists of all types can expect more profiling and harassment from police agencies. This is certainly true for Muslims in the US but also for social justice organizers, especially those with radical ideas - socialists, anarchists and others.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16331-terrorism-in-boston