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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Today in the Surveillance State: The Bus Is Bugged

Posted by on Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 12:09 PM

When people worry about drones, they worry that the information gathered by the little fliers will be stored forever as a blanket violation of Fourth Amendment protections—a warrantless search with wings. (That's what people in the US worry about, anyway. People in other countries worry that drones will kill them.)

Looks like drones are the least of the Fourth Amendment's worries. From Wired.com:

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server, and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.

Cities with these "microphone-enabled surveillance systems" (some partially funded by Homeland Security) include San Francisco, California; Eugene, Oregon; Athens, Georgia; Traverse City, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore Maryland; and Hartford, Connecticut.

 

Comments (9) RSS

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Cato the Younger Younger 1
Why can't Seattle make the list? I mean we have traffic cameras all over the place that only take pictures of people running red lights *wink wink*.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on December 12, 2012 at 9:13 AM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 2
They might be recording conversations like this on the 150:

-Did you get your hearing yet?

-No, they still have my license, 5th time I was driving and had the shotgun behind the jump seat in the cab.

-Oh yeah, Becky told me about you. Are you still selling pills?

-No, I ain't into the drugs any more. The make you feel spectacular for one day and then you can't get up off the couch. I've got my sheetrock business starting up again.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on December 12, 2012 at 12:23 PM
Matt the Engineer 3
Meh. Transit cameras helped catch Justin Ferrari's murderer. Public space is public space. That said, I'd be more comfortable with a few protections built into our system (say, every agency that can watch and listen must have independant monitoring of their activities).
Posted by Matt the Engineer on December 12, 2012 at 1:32 PM
4
FYI - US drones can also be equipped with pepper spray, teargas, tasers, and rubber bullets...
http://digitaljournal.com/article/325402
Posted by subwlf on December 12, 2012 at 1:47 PM
Will in Seattle 5
Not to worry, we already bug your Internet and Wireless.

All your cell phones are designed to act as receivers, and can be remotely turned on.

Paranoid, yet?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 12, 2012 at 1:54 PM
6
Thanks for trying to wake people up to this kind of crap, Brendan. Can't possibly see this being abused by our vast and unaccountable security bureaucracy.
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