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Tan Chong Yaw
Digital Life Reporter
Hello, Big Brother in NYC
March 24, 2009 Tuesday, 05:12 PM
Tan Chong Yaw counts the CCTVs all over the Big Apple.
In New York NEW York City: The city that never sleeps. And – it seems – never even blinks. I was surprised at the number of surveillance cameras that dot the city. On buildings, on street lamp poles – even on display booths.
You're on candid camera. Then again, this is a city that was devasted by the 9/11 incident. Some pananoia is expected. But a study by the New York Civil Liberties Union – an organisation that defends civil liberties and rights – estimated that the number of surveillance cameras may have gone up five-fold between 1998 to 2005. And these were just for cameras visible at street level. It will not account for flying eyes – cameras with night vision mounted on police helicopters that can spot a licence plate from 300 metres away. Or cameras inside buildings. Many of these surveillance cameras are domes – benign-looking black hemispheres the size of a soup bowl or smaller. Hidden inside the black plastic is a closed circuit TV (CCTV) camera that can pan, tilt and zoom. Simply put – if you can see the camera – it can definitely see you. It can also be souped up with infra-red lamps – light invisible to the human eye which allows the cameras to see in total darkness. Just look up the next time you sit down in a restaurant, department store or even your doctor’s clinic. That everyone is being monitored in many places all the time is disturbing. Couple it with face recognition and machine intelligence and the amount and depth of surveillance can be intimidating. And the security extends beyond cameras. To enter the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (the inside of the statute was closed to the public since 9/11) – that’s the 10-storey structure that Lady Liberty sits on – I was subjected to the worst security checks I have ever had – bar none. The public was corralled into a specially-erected tent which featured airport-standard security scanning for metal objects. No phones, cameras, wallets, drink bottles, jackets and belts was the security guard’s mantra. Even my plastic Timex watch had to be taken off. And get this – there were even puffers. While waiting in the holding tent, I was wondering what were weird sounds that I was hearing from the adjoining inspection tent. Sounded like pneumatic machines in a factory. It was a roll of General Electric EntryScan3 machines. Step inside and you are subjected to super-fast, super-strong puffs of wind. It was a Marilyn Monroe moment. Remember her in The Seven Year Itch where the wind lifted up her skirt? Yes, the film was shot in New York City. The puffer is an automated explosives detector for humans. But this is an intimidating machine the size of a small passenger lift car. On a lighter note, there's a camera for the hamburger-eating public. The camera captures the queue to the hamburger guy. If you think 1.30pm is good for a hotdog, just verify with the webcam. It'll tell you the truth! Lest you think this is a world-wide hamburger chain, the Shake Shack is not. This is just a four-year old setup in Madison Square Park. Only last year did it open a second stand at Upper West Side.
Where's the Shack-cam? Besides the year-round Shack Cam on its website, Shake Shack also has a Facebook page and clips on YouTube – many on the length of its queues. It’s about building a buzz. How popular was it? I stood behind a queue of thirty people for more than half a hour before I could place my order. What’s the big deal? It was past lunchtime - 3pm. And though technically it was the first day of spring, it was snowing in the morning. (Many thanks to my fellow DL colleague – Yuen-C – for suggesting this as a New York must-eat.) Oh, and one last thing – I broke the law in New York City. I couldn’t finish my fries so I offered them to a squirrel who looked like he was waiting impatiently for me to be done – he was gnawing at paper napkins to pass his time. It was only afterwards that I read the park notice: "No feeding of birds and squirrels". By Mayor Michael R Bloomberg, no less. Fingers crossed, no surveillance camera captured my transgression and “squirrelled” it away into some security video archive. Tan Chong Yaw is in New York City covering Sun Microsystems’ CommunityOne – an open source developers’ conference. (And clearing some of his leave to take a bite out of the Big Apple.) Tags: technology, us 
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They now tell us that gadgets are available here to track anyone we want for as little as $120.
What next.....?
But meantime..STREETVIEW..coming to a comp near you....soon.
And a car with a camera mounted on it has been seen in Bishan and other places in Singapore.
Which means that you may soon be able to get the view outside your home on your computer screen as well.
In pictures that are sharp enough for you to make out faces and car number plates.
Now, imagine the consequences.
You swear to your mum that you are not smoking, and there you are on her computer screen, puffing away outside Takashimaya.
Or worse, think of a poor little housewife in Hougang catching her wayward 56-year-old husband, CPF in hand, ogling a China girl in Katong.
Of course there are CCTV cameras all over the island. Most of us would have appeared on one somewhere almost every day, barely aware of it, giving it hardly any thought. They have become so much a part of our lives.
And now, Google has launched Street View in the UK. It became an instant hit with millions clicking to have a peek at streets, old haunts, holiday destinations, birthplaces and the like.
It has stitched together tens of millions of images to create an online picture of 25 UK cities. Internet users can wander around at the touch of a button and can pull a 360 degree view of thousands of streets.
The technology allows you to have close-up views of anything in the map - houses, shops, cars, buses or people going about their private business.
Critics were quick to point out that its easy for burglars to check out potential targets.
And, these images, they say, are being captured without the permission of those in it.
But wait a minute, doesn’t CCTV do just that?
Supporters argue that these images are captured in broad daylight and the images are not “realtime” so they cannot be used to track your whereabouts.
Google said that to protect the privacy of individuals, faces and vehicle registration numbers are blurred – but not always, it appears.
Google also confirmed that there is an easy mechanism in place which lets you request that, say, a shot of you holding hands with your neighbours wife, be removed.
Not that that is going to help a lot if the neighbour – and the whole neighbourhood – has already seen it.
So watch out.
You have been warned.
Hello..people..wait till we get STREETVIEW in Singapore. There will be nowhere to hide.
Then, how?
PIMPMASTER: Do you really think this so called news organization would voice any opposing opinion to the government of Singapore. Get real my friend they are only a lap dog mouth piece for the government. There are many scandels involving the ruling party but you never see one word here about it. I don't know how they sleep at night calling themselves reporters. Of course I understand because if you speak your real thoughts here you are subject to a fine, jail and caning.
I’m from the UK; yes, they’re everywhere there, watching you all the time, especially when you’re in the car trying to catch you for the full range of traffic & parking violations.
One thing I like about Singapore is that I don’t have that “we’re watching you” feeling despite it’s “fine city” reputation.
The mantra used in the UK to support camera use is “if you’re doing no wrong you’ve nothing to worry about”. I’ll believe that line when every UK government minister has one set up in their bedroom.
Wish they have some cameras in Kuala Lumpur city center. They steal your cars or motor bikes right under the police noses. I feel sfer in Bangkok than KL[ where I was born and raised.]
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