Watching the watchers watching us
One soon-to-be-recurring theme in this newly cryptographic world is the underlying technical war between institutional technology and citizen technology. It is, of course, the same gadgetry and that's what's different in the digital age--a private citizen can afford world-class spy gear.
The movie studios encrypt and hackers decrypt.
Big money software companies create horrific licensing policies and open source groups create alternative and free products.
It's going on everywhere. One interesting opportunity is citizens holding their public officials accountable. The proliferation of cheap cameras makes a whole new era of neighborhood vigilance possible.
I like this and that's why I find the following story in this morning's Slashdot disturbing: It's about a Georgia couple named Lee and Teresa Sipple. They live on the bottom of a hill in a suburban neighborhood near Rome, Georgia and they got tired of their neighbors ignoring the speed limit and zipping down the hill.
So they did something about it, using technology, of course. They installed a $1200 three-camera rig hooked up to a radar gun, so that they could get the speed of passerbys, take a picture of their plates and then email them to authorities. Leaving the neighboriness of their actions aside, for a second, their problems began when they caught one of their community going 25 mph over the limit and reported him to the police station. The problem is that he is a cop--Richard Perrone.
Rather than reprimanding the officer, the police are helping Perrone press charges against the Sipples--for stalking.
Don't we all get aggravated at people in power flaunting the rules? How many times have you seen a police car going the speed limit, regardless of where they're actually going or what they're doing? I applaud the Sipples for having the courage to report the officer and I'd hate to see them lose their case.
The empowering nature of technology is one of its greatest virtues and one of the few advantages in our surveillance society is to provide a new check and balance to monitor those in positions of power. A negative verdict against the Sipples would be a major setback.
Posted on February 20, 2007
