Comments on: Drifting toward a surveillance culture

By: miskeleni

miskeleni — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:16:16 +0000

That’s nothing. When i went to selwyn college back in the 70’s a team of moustachioed painters turned up to paint the school. We soon noticed that they never actually did any painting. We also noticed that they all had moustaches,to a man,drove holdens and that they spent most of their time hanging out in the 7th form common room (which at the time had a non smoking sign in it, put up as a joke).

Needless to say we soon began inventing vast and elaborate tales of drug usage involving pretty much anyone that we didn’t get on with.

You, the taxpayer, paid for all of this.

Mere electrical or technical devices pale in comparison to real live surveillence personages who are stupid wnough to think that moustaches will somehow get them more booty.

By: SPC

SPC — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:51:26 +0000

I tend to suspect that it is now routine for surveillance of the public to occur. While our traditional rights preclude use of information gathered without a warrant, there is now the possibility of the police citing anonymous informants (rather than admitting this surveillance) to then justify such an official warrant.

There is also the prospect of technologies (bio electro magnetic field etc) used in war (a primitive form of this was used in the “first” Gulf War on Iraqi soldiers) being turned on the civilian population – possibly in the form of religious terrorism/psychological warfare.

There are no known regulations preventing such technologies being used, so any use is neither illegal nor improper (as Jennifer Shipley put in response to a question back in 1999).

By: SPC

SPC — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:44:24 +0000

There are also the prospect of technologies (bio electro magnetic field etc) used in war (a primitive form of this was used in the “first” Gulf War on Iraqi soldiers) being turned on the civilain population – possibly in the form of religious terrorism.

By: jcuknz

jcuknz — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:47:54 +0000

Maybe not quite in line with your thread but have you received from NZ Post the questionaire which would do justice to the census department. Looks like they are going to swamp us with junk mail according to our interests. One normally associates junk mail with young folk delivering round the streets not Her Majesty’s Postman. I see it as a crude attempt at invading my privacy for perhaps $15,000 prize.

By: Anita

Anita — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Tom,

I have a vague memory that Save Happy Valley found some video surveillance gear being used to spy on them, they took the gear, and publicly said that the owners were welcome to collect it from them.

I seem to remember some discussion at the time that said that it is not unreasonable to treat found surveillance equipment as lost-and-found if it is reasonably clear that equipment isn’t there because of the property owner.

NB this is not legal advice, just a conversation that went on a while ago and sounds reasonable :)

You could ask SHVC if they figure out what they were permitted to do to the gear they found.

Lew,

Tampering with the passport RFID chip is probably an offence because tampering with a passport is. So it’s about the passport specifically, not surveillance gear in general.

By: Lew

Lew — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:30:38 +0000

Tom, while I haven’t taken my own advice and read the entire act, I would be amazed if you weren’t.

It’s certainly an offence to tamper with the RFID in your passport (and can get you detained at foreign airports and deported).

By: Tom Semmens

Tom Semmens — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:24:44 +0000

Here is a question. If I take the trouble to buy equipment that detects such microphones and cameras, etc etc and for some reason or other discover a hidden surveillance device behind the begonias, if i destroy it am I committing an offense?