Sunday, February 22, 2009

So....

I was talking to my little cousin about Seek. Well actually I was teaching her about Seek. The best way I learn is by trying to teach somebody else. If I can make them understand then I must understand.
I was explaining how the cameras used in Seek are very similar to the ones that we have now in everyday life. We are constantly being monitored, surveyed and watched.
"By who?", she asked. That left me stumped and also faced me with a very interesting topic to research....

Exactly who is watching us?
I guess the way to find that our is to first ask why are we being watched.
Wikipedia states the following four reasons why surveillance would be used.

- Crime prevention / evidence

- Industrial processes

- Traffic monitoring
- Transport safety

All of these above reasons lead to me believe that we are watched for our own safety.
That's peachy, but what happens to our privacy?
Don't know. Can't remember what I was trying to say. Oh well.

Back to talking to my cousin...
I was saying some uninformed bullshit. As I do.Not knowing whether or not it was true. But one thing I said got me thinking.
I said that sometimes the footage of us can get into the wrong hands. What if a monitor person/ person who gathers the evidence (whatever they are called), discovers that they may have some useful statistics to give [sell] to a company. Like what if they notice that a lot more women than men seem to walk down a certain street? If a company knew this sort of information they could then go to their marketing/advertising people and ask for a piece of advertising specifically targeting women and then place it on that street.
This would mean that the information that was once used for our protection, would now be used to make money off us. This is obviously not surprising. I just don't often think about it. Now that I do, I think that it it is gross.

This whole post is useless actually. Oops.
I will publish it anyway.

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