Does camera surveillance threaten privacy and civil liberties?
Some cameras are already powerful enough to read cell phone text messages from 250 metres away. Newer cameras – especially those used in airports and by police in investigations – are equipped with infrared and other sensor technologies that can literally “see” through walls, clothes and flesh. As these technologies become more integrated with existing camera systems, new legal precedents are set for fair information practices. It is these technologies, infiltrating barriers that traditionally protected private realms, which threaten privacy and civil liberties the most. Such technologies challenge conventional understandings of “public” and “private” in current privacy legislations. Both publicly and privately-run cameras in Canada have recently been shown to violate privacy legislation, but, again, emergent technologies that “see” through visibility barriers may present a challenge to existing legislation expectations of privacy. Two other issues are important. First, increasingly ca
