PLANNED SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM RAISES EYEBROWS A new surveillance system being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has some scientists and civil libertarians concerned about potential civilian uses of the system. The Combat Zones That See project is intended to use software to analyze images from many thousands of cameras in an urban setting to identify cars, license plates, and even passengers. The goal is to protect U.S. forces in urban settings by spotting license plates on watch lists or discerning suspicious behavior. Despite assurances from the Pentagon that the technology is intended only for military uses, some observers have expressed concern that it could be used by civilian law enforcement agencies in a manner that intrudes on personal privacy. John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org said, "Government would have a reasonably good idea of where everyone is most of the time." Washington Post, 2 July 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61389-2003Jul2.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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