US Forest Service is using surveillance cameras on public lands

[Tollster]

The master of context manipulation has spoken!

Compare the definitions of 'public' and 'private'.

Soon we will all be swept away into some dark deep corner of ones mind!

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Let's not forget about the Gov. drones out there watching everything we do on our "private" land... Now THAT bothers me.

 

[texasjohn]

Too late, my friends.
Current overhead photographs on the internet of my ranch allow one to count the number of fence posts I have, cows, round bales of hay, and all vehicles not stored in/under cover.

Internet tax records from the County show all property I own, it's appraised value, taxes paid, when it changed hands.

And, there is a little lady somewhere in my phone who patiently tells me where to turn when traveling, and about traffic conditions ahead. And, on occasion one of those motorized para-sails drones overhead when I am deer hunting.

So far, when I go underwater on my ranch, there are no prying eyes. But I can't hide down there very long!

 

[bcp]

Cameras in the woods replace forest fire lookouts in Western Oregon | The Columbian

 

[texasjohn]

hMMMM.
Many states no longer have any staffed forest fire lookouts, according to the lookout association. Florida has the most 130 with Oregon in second place.

A camera costs about $35k...technology replacing humans again...darned government efficiency!!

 

[orezok]

It's not the government we need to worry about, it's Google, Microsoft and dozens of other companies that mine our PRIVATE data. They know about every dirty picture you have looked at and who your wife is frolicking with!

...and without ANY oversight or regulation.

 

[texasjohn]

Hey, folks, it's free enterprise!! No need for regulations regarding frolics and pretty photos!

If regulated, the price of frolics and pretty photos would be prohibitive...but that would be unconstitutional...restriction of the right to pursue happiness...as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.....

 

[MossRoad]

Let's not forget about the Gov. drones out there watching everything we do on our "private" land... Now THAT bothers me.

Just go to google earth and look at your own land.... and that's a private company, not the government.

 

[Scooby074]

It doesn't bother me, this bothers me, and more so that they get away with it.

Giant Redwood

Meth Lab

Pot farm

Dumping

Poaching

Why should one profit when it belongs to all of us.

Focus on where the real problems lie within the government, then vote this November..

This x1000

Illegal dumping is a bit of an issue here. I wish there was more enforcement. If cameras would help, I welcome them.

 

[mark02tj]

It's not the government we need to worry about, it's Google, Microsoft and dozens of other companies that mine our PRIVATE data. They know about every dirty picture you have looked at and who your wife is frolicking with!

...and without ANY oversight or regulation.

Amen to this!! The Google feature that "predicts" what you're looking for is pretty scary. I used to think that it was just from the "cookies" stored on my computer, but if you use Chrome it wants you to "sign in" using a gmail account. That's how the data is stored on Google's servers. When I upgraded my laptop last year and realized that the history was server based as opposed to PC based, it was kind of freaky.

I try to stay as "anonymous" as possible online. I don't use Facebook or LinkedIn, I don't Tweet, Instagram or any of the other social media services. (I guess I'm just not that social!) I use cash as much as possible and my grocery store loyalty card has a fake name on it. But I know that most of that is fruitless and there's a ton of data on me on various servers.

Back to the camera's though - What I really hate are the new cameras that you see on the back of police cruisers. These will scan the license plates of every car they pass - forwards and backwards. The idea is that an onboard computer will run the plate number through a database and look for stolen cars, expired tags, people with warrents, etc. At first I thought it was a pretty cool use of technology until I found out that they were storing the plate numbers along with time/date and GPS coordinates. Storage times vary with individual police departments but it ranges from 30 days to indefinitely. With a "Freedom of Information" request, you can query the databases for a particular license number and see where your wife/girlfriend's car has been over the last year. Given the often unstable nature of men that abuse their wives, that can be a dangerous thing. Private companies are now buying that technology too. I've read that in some bigger cities that there are cars that just drive around town all day scanning plates. They then sell the data to repossession companies so they can mine the data to look for driving patterns on vehicles they want to re-po. They can also sell the data for whatever other purposes that they come up with.

Going into WalMart (or a casino) and knowing you're on camera is one thing. It's private property and there are usually signs as you enter telling you that video surveillance is being used. Ditto for elevators (who's dumb enough to do something on an elevator that's sure to have a camera???). But I have a problem with being photographed and the photo stored when I'm out about my business on a public street. I know it's here to stay but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.