Blog Post #4 - Privacy TED Talk

Catherine Crump sheds light on a disturbing fact, in "The Small and Surprisingly Dangerous Detail the Police Track About You". The title instantly grabbed my attention so I will be focusing on this video and Catherine's message. 

Catherine gave a 5-minute TedTalk about how the police, their power, and how they have been tracking you without your knowledge. High-end weaponry that is military grade and designed for the battlefield is making its way into small police departments across the US. The same thing is happening with surveillance equipment. 

The Automatic License Plate Readers, stop-light cameras, and other surveillance cameras mounted on roads or police cars have been tracking everyone, not just criminals. The camera's reasoning for being in these positions is to catch criminals and see patterns of threats. However, they are also keeping tabs on you and your everyday life. 

One of the main issues is that the police stations are keeping mass data about where your car has traveled so that they have information on you, just in case they need it in the future. They also use this tracking information to draw conclusions about what type of person you are based on your habits. 

The second issue is that the police are not the only culprits, the government takes all the information from all police departments to see where Americans have traveled. They see our private day-to-day lives, can see our habits, and can make their own data off of us without us even knowing they are doing this. 

This is a breach of our privacy and we must be aware of this so we can stop it. 

"History has shown that once the police have massive quantities of data, tracking information, and privacy it gets abused, maybe for blackmail, for political advantage.", states Catherine Crump.

There are solutions to this problem. Local police departments can be governed by the city councils which can pass laws requiring the police to get rid of all data tracking after 6 months it has been taken. This is a step in the right direction. 

I believe the government should not have access to this data and that the police should not keep it unless there is an actual suspicion that an individual poses a threat. The only thing the government needs to do is to STOP what they are currently doing. 

At a minimum, the police should inform the public that they are tracking them and keeping their data for 6 months to years and have an option where the public can opt out of it if they prefer. 

Overall, the government should not have this data and the police should ask for permission first.

Call of Action: We, citizens, need to push back and have our city councils pass laws that make the local police departments get rid of ALL their data tracking.