Comments on: City buses across America now covertly recording passengers' conversations

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:55:00 +0000

I believe that the dispatcher can pull up live audio and video from the buses. Also, video plus audio is needed to convict or sustain appeals against bans.

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:35:00 +0000

That is the present case, yes. The above poster is implying something different.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Audio, not video

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:10:00 +0000

In all seriousness, as a now-and-then city bus rider, I think that there are people who do nothing but ride the bus all day and rant to anyone in earshot. 90% of the recordings could easily be of one person.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:07:00 +0000

That was a great movie, with a great cast. The Wikipedia article has a fun bit of trivia: the NYC Transit Authority instituted an informal policy of never letting a train leave the Pelham station at 1:23 after the movie came out.

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:15:00 +0000

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects..
I argue that my conversation with the person sitting next to me is private in that my person is me… What I say, when intended for one other person only, is part of me and my effects.There is a big difference between public speaking and private conversation. Recording a private conversation is illegal in many states for a very good reason. Sure, easily overheard conversations are fair game, but private ones are still protected by our laws (in rational states at least).

By: C W

C W — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:10:00 +0000

“The whole point is that ‘acting suspiciously’ should not be enough of a good reason to pry.”

Bus footage, as far as I understand it, is only utilized after an incident has occurred during transit. Are you aware of any further “prying”?

By: C W

C W — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:06:00 +0000

This isn’t being used to prevent terrorism.

By: C W

C W — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:05:00 +0000

There are video recorders on limousines for the protection of the driver as well, yes.

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:04:00 +0000

If the bad actors are able to be identified, you may be able to ban/fine/arrest them. However, the cameras and audio recordings will do little to actually protect passengers. This is supposed to be an after the fact kind of thing. So, if a bad person gets on a bus and decides to hurt someone, they will still be able to and unless they also present some sort of ID, they aren’t getting banned from anything.
I just don’t see how audio would help in this situation. It seems video would be all you need.What are they hoping to hear on this audio? Seriously, I’m trying to imagine what wrongful activity could be recorded on audio but not on video.

By: C W

C W — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Yup. We also have cameras to match. People get assaulted on the bus, and the footage/audio isn’t used for any other purposes.

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:45:00 +0000

We have regular incidents on the Seattle bus system, and I would suspect you don’t take buses when you make that statement. It’s not “hostages.” It’s the routine stuff that happens in public transportation, which touches all walks of life and mental states. Subways are easier to monitor and patrol because they have stations and specific entrance points.

Drivers in the Seattle area are routinely threatened or attacked, as are other passengers.

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:43:00 +0000

DHS gives grants to all kinds of levels of government, which then uses it for their own purposes, which can include “homeland security,” but often are barely related. That’s a big complaint of the DHS budget, in fact, is that a lot of the money goes to pork-barrel stuff.

By: Keori

Keori — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:37:00 +0000

All that means is that MBTA buses will have to put up a sign saying that everyone is subject to being video- and audio-recorded. Won’t stop them from doing it.

By: tnmc

tnmc — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:11:00 +0000

They should just release a new album. What’s Peter Cetera up to these days anyway?

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:10:00 +0000

The whole point is that ‘acting suspiciously’ should not be enough of a good reason to pry. We call ordinary people who do that ‘busybodies’ or ‘nosy’, neither of which are particularly positive terms.

Acting to surveil people’s conversations if something about them looks ‘suspicious’, when they are riding public transit— going from one place to another, NOT focused on or hanging around a specific location— presumes guilt by default, rather than innocence.
This is the primary problem of many ‘total surveillance’ programs— they assume that you are guilty until proven innocent, something that runs counter to the basic principles of the US’s legal system (and many other countries’ as well.)

By: ffabian

ffabian — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:25:00 +0000

“there’s very little bad behavior on Athens Transit”
And one incident is enough that millions of people get their privacy violated? One asshole tries to intimidate someone and therefore it’s ok that the rest of the nation gets punished?
I’m no longer suprised why the USA is sliding so fast towards a police state – their citizens welcome it.

By: Gary Hayward

Gary Hayward — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 05:23:00 +0000

Why not audio-record? If there’s video about, what’s the problem? Imagine a CCTV operator watching a camera feed trained on a couple of people who are acting suspiciously and can be seen to be talking to each other but you can’t hear the audio because there’s no microphone feed. They could be conspiring to commit a crime–if it starts looking like they’re innocent, no problem. But if they are up to something… Audio and video evidence of crime is valuable.

By: dragonfrog

dragonfrog — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:18:00 +0000

Watcha talking about? Haven’t you seen Speed?

By: Art Fugue

Art Fugue — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:13:00 +0000

The film “The Conversation” is turning into a story about outdated technology.

By: feetleet

feetleet — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 02:51:00 +0000

“Meth-blue helvetica!” screamed the editor.

By: feetleet

feetleet — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 02:25:00 +0000

“?????,” lisped the terrorist.

By: Christopher Miller

Christopher Miller — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:29:00 +0000

“If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” is my most hated meme. We need another meme to kill it, because arguing intelligently against it sure hasn’t worked.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:26:00 +0000

Normalization of surveillance as well as the principle of the thing really.

Well that and our tax dollars should go to something like. Oh… actually making public transit a better alternative and or expand into more communities?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:24:00 +0000

ABCCTV

By: urbanspaceman

urbanspaceman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:21:00 +0000

The only possible use for these surveillance systems would be to turn America into a full-on jail-state or provide footage for the most absurd reality TV program you could imagine.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:14:00 +0000

It’ll just be made insanely expensive outside of hack-it-yourself kits. Then they’ll just have the cops smash your equipment and be forced to ‘apologize’ before going on a paid leave after the fact for harassment.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:13:00 +0000

CHIEKO NO!

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:12:00 +0000

I see a trend that needs reviving.

By: sockdoll

sockdoll — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:08:00 +0000

You didn’t find the rant at all funny? It’s like something you’d hear on public transportation.