The Workplace Has Become a Surveillance State

Saturday, November 30, 2024

Office buildings have become like web browsers -- they're full of tracking technology, a trend documented in a report out this week by Cracked Labs.

Posted by LampLighter at 03:33 PM | 12 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

More from the article...

... The study, titled "Tracking Indoor Location, Movement and Desk Occupancy in the Workplace," looks at how motion sensing and wireless network technology in buildings is being used to monitor the movement and behavior of office workers and visitors.

"As offices, buildings and other corporate facilities become networked environments, there is a growing desire among employers to exploit data gathered from their existing digital infrastructure or additional sensors for various purposes," the report says. "Whether intentionally or as a byproduct, this includes personal data about employees, their movements and behaviors."

The case study is part of a series titled "Surveillance and Digital Control at Work" that's overseen by Cracked Labs, an Austria-based non-profit. Produced with support from AlgorithmWatch, Jeremias Prassl (Oxford), UNI Europa and Global Privacy Alliance, and labor rights organization Austrian Arbeiterkammer, the series explores how companies are using personal data in Europe.

The use of tracking and analytics technology in the workplace has become a matter of concern in the US as well as Europe, prompting regulators like the US Federal Trade Commission to issue guidance in an effort to deter unlawful practices. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:04 AM

It's not just inside, it's outside as well. In my last few years at work I could see almost every part of a whole open pit mine site. Those industrial PTZ cameras are pretty amazing.

#2 | Posted by REDIAL at 2024-11-30 12:12 AM

OK, tangentially related?

License Plate Recognition Cameras | Transformative Surveillance
www.cctvsecuritypros.com

... License Plate Recognition Cameras (LPR) can revolutionize home and business security. Using highly sophisticated imaging technologies, LPR cameras offer an unprecedented level of surveillance capabilities.

They possess the ability to read and store data from license plates, hence providing seamless monitoring and control over vehicular movement.

Designed for optimal functionality, these cameras are equipped with high-contrast imaging, ideal for capturing clear and accurate license plate records, especially in low light and high-speed situations.

Their enhanced compatibility also enables easy integration into your existing surveillance system. ...

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:23 AM

More cities installing license plate reading cameras; what are they used for? (2023)
www.wxyz.com

... The city of Ferndale is the latest city in Michigan that will install license plate reading cameras to help fight crime.

It's expected the city will have them in place in around three months, and police say they will make the city safer without violating privacy. However, drivers are responding and some people have important questions. ...

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:26 AM

License Plate Cameras to Track Residents in Two States (March 2024)
www.govtech.com

An AI license plate surveillance startup installed hundreds of cameras without permission (February 2024)
qz.com

... Flock, a startup which promotes a surveillance state, has installed car tracking cameras in 4,000 cities among 42 states. The company makes its money and shareholder value by delivering AI-based tracking hardware and software to local police departments, which are more than happy to pay Flock's $3,000 annual fee.

The Atlanta-based company has grown nearly 2,700 percent since 2020, and at least some of that growth, according to a new report from Forbes, has come from a willingness to bend the rules to get their cameras installed and tracking your every movement. ...

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:29 AM

More ...

San Fernando Valley gets 100 license plate-reading cameras to help police crack down on crime
www.latimes.com

... An automated license plate reader camera takes a photo or a video of a vehicle's license plate information.

With optical character recognition the plate number is compared to one or more law enforcement crime databases of vehicles of interests or "hot lists," according to the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police.

The reader technology can also detect the vehicle type and color, GPS location data and date and time of an incident, according to the Congressional Research Service. The cameras can be fixed onto poles, traffic lights, buildings or bridges and mobile cameras are frequently mounted on police cars. ...

... GPS location data and date and time of an incident ...

"An incident?"

What "incident" is that?

Driving around town is now an "incident?"

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:55 AM

Are automated license plate readers in your city? How to find out
www.latimes.com

... Will Freeman wants people to know they're being tracked.

His desire to shed light on the proliferation of license plate readers in his neighborhood in Huntsville, Ala., this year spurred an idea for a crowdsourced database where people across the world can upload the locations of the readers. The database, called DeFlock, also provides users with the option to list who manufactured the cameras for greater transparency. ...

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 12:57 AM

Think You're Not Being Watched? DeFlock Says Think Again
www.forbes.com

... A new open-source project called DeFlock is shining a spotlight on the widespread use of automated license plate readers as debates about surveillance and privacy remain front of mind for many.

DeFlock enables communities to map and monitor the locations of ALPR cameras, empowering individuals to push back against unchecked surveillance practices. ...

#8 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-30 01:00 AM

Privacy is a thing of the past. Everything we do is monitored by either government or corporate entities.

#9 | Posted by cbob at 2024-11-30 08:30 AM

Do what I do:
cover camera bubbles wit black paint

#10 | Posted by e1g1 at 2024-11-30 08:15 PM

There are two sides to this to this topic. Ma.nyivers and run drivers are caught because of surveillance cameras, thieves breaking into home, businesssesm etc. are identified, rapists caught, thugs beatingpeople are identified. The problrm isn't cameras; the problem is that our lawmakers haven't kept up with trchnology and made laws to prevent the use of surveiaynce systems to be ised to invade our privaccy or to track our movements when it is not relevant to a specific crime. I realize that the cameras roll 34/7 but laws could be formulated limiting the viewing of those recordings without a specigic crime which would limit their use as evidence. Of course there will be abusees but intelligent, well thought out laws, vould peotect us from Big Brother, though that AI technology will become a huge intrusion into all of our lives when it is jpinedto all of our surveillance systen systems but we won't stop .technology; we need law makers savvy enough to understand it and write laws to protect us from being wtonhfully harmed by it. Maybe we need legislative bodies rducated on high tech so they could devise ways to protect us from potentisl abuses of it. Let's faxe it, we can't stop trchnology so all we can do is try to protect ourselves drom it.

#11 | Posted by danni at 2024-12-01 05:20 AM

I want to trmind everyone, inthe early 8o's my job required us to take lie detector tests every six months and drug tests too, Congress took care og the lie detector tests and the realization that the company needed me more than I needed them resolved the drug tests by telling my employer yhat I would submit to the insulting test but I woyld not promise to pass it so he would have to decide if the fact that I smoked pot at home was important enough to fire me, I took the test and was never bothered about that nonsense . As it turned out later, the Controller of the company, am uptight ass***e was caught stealing big bucks from the compsny and, undeservedly lucky for him, the company chose not to press charges and just fired him eith his agreement to pay back the money which was poetic justice after years of that assh**e putting the rest of ud through so much bulls**t!

#12 | Posted by danni at 2024-12-01 05:54 AM

Drudge Retort Headlines

Supreme Court Allows Trump's Sentencing (73 comments)

Los Angeles Fires Spread (41 comments)

Does Trump Think Greenland Is Much Bigger Than It Is? (26 comments)

Republican's Husband Goes Viral After Not Shaking Kamala Harris' Hand (25 comments)