Keep an Open Eye
Surveillance is a touchy subject. Some people are in favor of it, claiming that surveillance systems bring safety to the public, while others have reservations about the topic, claiming that it can be an invasion of personal privacy. Whatever your stance on the topic is, everyone can agree that the surveillance industry is growing, and quickly.
Probably the largest reason for the growth is the rampant demand from many different sources. You of course have your usual buyers such as business owners looking to protect their own personal property, but there are other sources looking to have access to surveillance. The government is adding a hefty increase in security systems around the border to help immigration services, spending $600 million, and it’s being reported that Google is looking into a flying quadcopter drone used to take aerial photos, probably to keep up to date their Google Earth and Google Maps programs. Google has already been getting into some trouble recently as some people have claimed that having their picture taken on public streets without their knowledge by Google’s street view cars is an invasion of their privacy.
Such things are of course open for debate over what is and what a disruption to privacy isn’t. However new forms of surveillance are beginning to trouble many citizens, particularly the ones being headed up by private companies. A great example of what is taking place recently is the story that the company UBS has been using satellite photos of Wall-Mart parking lots to determine the amount of customer traffic to the store. With that information they try to guess how the company is doing overall.
Recently this has been a trend, private companies using information that they receive about people to try to solicit their goods or services to them. For example a company can see what websites you visit and then send you advertisements and deals related to the material you viewed. This information is transferred through a number of middlemen, and is sold from firm to firm. This sounds a bit creepy as information about yourself, that you didn’t know you released, is being sold around to different companies in an attempt to get you to purchase more things.
Most people, especially privacy advocates, find this very troubling, and many are looking for ways to get around this by finding legal reasons, or simply through other technology answers that protect you from peering eyes. At the moment though, these companies seem to have a large abundance of information on just about everyone, and what they do with it is up to them.
Andrew Sale is an expert writer on phone systems, based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as VoIP service at Resource Nation.
