Sousveillance in Seattle - Watching the Watchers

Eh-Wire writes "At the recent ACM Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, Steve Mann - cyborg numero uno - led a troop of conference attendees on a surveillance camera hunt and digital capture. Their antics confounded rent-a-cops in a downtown Seattle shopping mall who had difficulty with the concept of having their surveillance cameras surveilled."

Confounded rent-a-cops

[MisterLawyer]

"Their antics confounded rent-a-cops"

Gee, that's tough to do.

Sousveillance

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, this is either the art of looking at sauce, the art of looking under tables, or the art of spying on Dr. Seuss.

Smoked Glass and all

[swilde23]

used a smoked-glass oval guard tower to induce discipline and good behavior

Sounds an awful lot like Las Vegas casinos to me.

...

Oh wait, you say it was designed for a prision. Oh, I suppose that makes sense too.

Re:Huh?

[cvd6262]

...unless he's alleging that video will be doctored...

CLAUDE: I'd like to point out that this tape has not been tampered with or edited in any way. It even has a timecode on it, and those are very hard to fake.

JUDGE: For the benefit of the court, would you please explain "timecode"?

CLAUDE: Just because I don't know what it is ... doesn't mean I'm lying.

(Ah, the wisdom of Strange Brew.)

But .

[OmgTEHMATRICKS]

Who watches the watchers watching the watchers?

Re:But .

[chrisbtoo]

Slashdot.

Re:You take a rathter dim view...

[Anonymous Coward]

"They just ended up where they ended up and felt comfortable where they were."

You've just described my two cats.

I wouldn't put them in charge of anything, let alone security.

Re:You take a rather dim view...

[ReverendLoki]

I too have known a few mall security guards as well. Very good at their job, too... able to maintain a secure and safe environment while pulling off donuts in the Mall Security SUV in the parking lot.

Just saying, you find all types...

Re:But .

[Scrameustache]

Who watches the watchers watching the watchers?

Mall security, apparently...

And you, and I'm watching you watching them watching us... ad infinitum [penny-arcade.com].

To quote Fark...

[Theaetetus]

At Nordstrom, an undercover security guard who looked like Baby Spice and sported a badge identifying her as Agent No. 1, summoned a manager who told Mann that customers would be disturbed by the handheld cameras.

Looked like Baby Spice?
This thread is useless without pictures!

Re:Confounded rent-a-cops

[alexhohio]

STOP! Or I'll say stop again. Or else, shine this flashlight at you.

Re:Philosophical Argument

[ethernetmonkey]

The relationship then of authority to civilian is one of dominance and subordination. Um ... duh! That's why they are the "authority". If you don't like the authority vote. If you don't like the candidates, start your own party. If you don't like giving out a Social Security number, don't use certain services. If you want those services, form a group of like minded indivudals and petition the service provider for a policy change.

Re:I did that last week and almost got arrested...

[Anonymous Coward]

So because you had one encounter with a paranoid nutbag at one store one time, the entire country must therefore be going to shit?

OMG, I almost got run over on the way home from work by some dick in a floptop Jeep Wrangler, America is turning more and more into a post-apocalyptic Australian desert combat zone!

I do not like them . . .

[MexicanMenace]

. . . in a mall.
I do not like them on a wall.
I do not like surveillance cam.
I do not like them Steven Mann.

Re:Huh?

[clesters]

Does this Steve Mann have nothing better to do than run around stores wearing his "signature eye camera"? What a fucking dork.

Re:I did that last week and almost got arrested...

[PapalMonkey]

They should put out a sign in front of the store -- "under no circumstances are you to look at any video surveillance camera in the store or you will be arrested immediately".

"...and don't even think about using a $2 bill."

Re:More government programs?

[Zeebs]

Do you people have some kind of alarm that goes off when ever someone mentions "low UID", is it like the bat signal?

Mall

[hmccabe]

At Nordstrom, an undercover security guard who looked like Baby Spice and sported a badge identifying her as Agent No. 1, summoned a manager who told Mann that customers would be disturbed by the handheld cameras.

I live in Seattle, so if someone could kindly tell me which mall this was I can go investigate this matter further.