[Salon] If you feel being watched, watch BACK!

[ralf.stephan@fitug.de]

NICHT weiterREDEN, sondern WEITERschenken!

http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/log/1998/12/21log.html

   If Big Brother is watching you, watch him back
   
   You are being watched -- and no one knows this better than Steve Mann,
   the poster child for wearable computing, who views the world through a
   head-mounted video camera. But although Mann is all for personal
   videotaping, he is concerned about the surveillance cameras that
   surreptitiously observe Americans everywhere they go, from shopping
   malls to city sidewalks.
   
   In response, Mann and a group of artists and scientists have
   designated Dec. 24 as ShootBack Day (or "National Accountability
   Day"). This "international coalition" is encouraging citizens to take
   to their shopping malls with cameras and video cameras of their own
   and go on a shooting spree -- taking pictures of surveillance
   equipment that is taking pictures of them in "totalitarian
   establishments."
   
   What, exactly, is a totalitarian establishment? As the event's press
   release explains, "Examples of totalitarian establishments are those
   in which we are placed under extensive video surveillance, yet we are
   prohibited from taking pictures ourselves. The goal of National
   Accountability Day is to challenge this one-sided aspect of
   Totalitarian Surveillance."
   
   Participants are warned to expect to have their cameras confiscated by
   angry security guards. So while there's no telling whether the protest
   will be effective, at least participants will know what to ask for for
   Christmas.
   -- Janelle Brown
   SALON | Dec. 21, 1998


ralf
-- 
Eventually, in the life of every human there comes the time 
when e has to sort the bookmark file.
http://www.tmt.de/~stephan/