Bloomberg was asked by host John Gambling for his thoughts ondrones in the hands of the NYPD, to which he replied, “it’sscary, but what’s the difference whether the drone is up in the airor on the building.”
The comments seem to equate unmanned aerial vehicles with thetraditional surveillance cameras already mounted on buildingsthroughout the city for closed-circuit networks and thetraffic-enforcement cameras operated by the NYPD. Still, the factthat the mayor insinuates that UAVs are 'scary' seems tobelie the fact that surveillance technology is reaching a levelbeyond that of stationary cameras.
As early as 2011, a US Air Force Predator drone was used byNorth Dakota police to assist in an arrest. Meanwhile, drones arealso slowly becoming a mainstay of border control by US Customs andBorder Protection. Though their capabilities can vary widely, manymodels already deployed by government agencies carry sophisticatedtechnology, including high-resolution cameras, heat sensors andradar.
In addition to drones, Bloomberg also mentioned face-recognitionsoftware, which is now often tied in to camera systems to quicklyidentify suspects based on biometric data or even help lawenforcement predict crime in certain contexts:
“You're gonna have face-recognition software. People areworking on that. ... You can't keep the tides from coming in. We'regonna have more visibility and less privacy. I don't see how youstop that," Bloomberg said.
With a number of privacy advocacy organizations already involvedin the debate over domestic use of surveillance drones, Bloombergmay be unwittingly wading into deeper waters than herealizes.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), for one, sued theFederal Aviation Administration in 2012 in order to determine whatpublic and private entities had requested permission to use droneswithin the US.
Information provided by the FAA as a result of the EFF suitrevealed that police departments around the country are looking inearnest to deploy drone technology. The agency estimates that by2020 some 30,000 drones could be hovering over the US.
To his credit, the mayor admitted in the interview that thegovernment use of technology like surveillance drones and facialrecognition were an issue “that society really has to thinkabout, and not by writing a quick piece oflegislation."
No comments:
Post a Comment