Posted on 02/18/2014 4:49:10 AM PST by Second Amendment First
Visitors to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport may notice the bright, clean lighting that now blankets the cavernous interior, courtesy of 171 recently installed LED fixtures. But they probably will not realize that the light fixtures are the backbone of a system that is watching them.
Using an array of sensors and eight video cameras around the terminal, the light fixtures are part of a new wireless network that collects and feeds data into software that can spot long lines, recognize license plates and even identify suspicious activity, sending alerts to the appropriate staff.
The project is still in its early stages, but executives with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, are already talking about expanding it to other terminals and buildings.
To customers like the Port Authority, the systems hold the promise of better management of security as well as energy, traffic and people. But they also raise the specter of technology racing ahead of the ability to harness it, running risks of invading privacy and mismanaging information, privacy advocates say.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well I'm sure we can trust these people with our privacy from government intrusion.
> Well I’m sure we can trust these people with our privacy from government intrusion.
Its not like they would use it to invade your privacy, target you, and use it along with the other data at the Bluffdale Data Center to blackmail you or anything...
Surveillance cameras in an airport terminal. This is news?
Surveillance cameras in an airport terminal. This is news?
The way they manage lines and delays is usually abysmal (with one security station have an hour-long line, and one a 5 minute walk away having none) so if the morons want to use this to help travelers, they have my blessing.
It is a giant leap forward in surveillance technology. Coming soon to a city near you. Add license plate readers and facial recognition and even the ACLU will not be able to stop this. While the ACLU was supporting abortionists rights, the surveillance state took ahold of America’s gonads. Smile, you’re on the viewer.
The news is that lighting systems such as these will eventually be everywhere outside of your home watching and listening to everything and recording it, with the data being sent to those in authority. I bet they are already looking into how this can be inserted into the light bulbs for your home.
I’m sure their intent is to help travelers. Are you kidding me?
The new
The present ubiquitous
LED streetlights are the coming thing. The town I live in put them in last year. They are brighter, use less electricity, and don’t have to be changed as often as the previous lights. Payback period through lowered cost of electricity is 4 years - not to mention the lowered maintenance.
Overall, a big win for the city through improved technology.
This is why we can’t have incandescent light bulbs. “Saving energy” is just a distraction. The capability to spy on us and mine all that data is the Real Prize.
Let’s get real. The light fixtures and LEDs at Newark Airport are not about saving energy it’s about watching us, analyzing data about us and storing it for who knows how long. As Justin Brookman from the Center for Democracy and Technology told the Times, “There are some people in the commercial space who say, ‘Oh, big data well, let’s collect everything, keep it around forever, we’ll pay for somebody to think about security later.’”
The irony is they’re doing this at an aiport named “Liberty.”
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