Francisco Miraval
I recently went to Denver International Airport to pick up a passenger and when I was exiting the airport and paying for the parking, I noticed the cashier was taking an unusually long time to give my change. So, I looked at her and I saw that she was taking a picture of the license plate of my car, and (at least in my opinion) also of the car’s interior.
In other words, law enforcement agencies will be able not only to know that I was there at the airport and at what time, but also who was with me inside my car. I didn’t like the idea of such an invasion of privacy at a moment when I was doing such a “normal” thing as paying for parking.
Since that day I began to notice more and more security cameras in more and more places, not only on those places where you expect to see those cameras, such as busy intersections (to catch a red-light violator), but also in other places and at other intersections where it makes no sense to have a camera because very seldom, if ever, there will be any traffic violation there.
With so many cameras all over the place, I feel I am part of a new episode of “Big Brother,” with the difference that this is not a game, but real life. Or perhaps our real life is just a game? Whatever the case, I don’t even know who is on the other side of the camera watching me.
And I don’t know either what are the intentions of the person behind the camera. Protection and security? Surveillance? To count how many cars pass through an intersection each hour? To get information about a young blonde woman driving a red convertible?
It is an strange Orwellian feeling to live 1984 in 2008. And I can’t avoid the question of who is watching the watchers, and how many other levels of watchers and watched people exist.
If, in addition to the cameras, we realize that all digital communications (cell phones, emails) are stored somewhere and that all financial transactions are also store somewhere (I always smile to the security camera when I go to the supermarket), then we also realize there is almost nothing left of our privacy.
If privacy has been replaced by continuous surveillance, even “justified” and “unobtrusive” surveillance, then our freedom is in danger, because surveillance means we can’t even trust each other and we need to be “protected” of other like ourselves.
I thought my paranoia was out of control, but then I read a story on a local newspaper about Denver police giving speed guns (radars) to civilians, so people in different neighborhoods can “control” the speed of the cars in those neighborhoods.
“They” (whoever “they” might be) are not only spying on us, but they are also training us to control others like us.
I can see a tear rolling down the face of the Statue of Liberty.