Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/public-bus-audio-surveillance/



Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
By Kim Zetter
12.10.12

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.

[peacebird]

1. Why Isn't this illegal?

[Sherman A1]

2. While I think this is a dumb idea

the question you raise on legality, I think would be answered by expectation of privacy. Sitting on a public bus, talking to someone else, just what would be your expectation of privacy?

I for one would not expect it to be very high.

[Honeycombe8]

6. I would expect a one on one conversation with anyone, anywhere....

to be private. If sitting on a bus, speaking in a low voice with another passenger, that is to be expected to be a private conversation. And certainly a conversation not intended to be eavesdropped on by the government. If you have to use sensitive microphones to pick up low sounds.....that is not a sound that is intended for the public.

This sounds much like a fascist dictatorship practice. The sort of thing in the book 1984. It's very scary. Even in public, it is scary to be videotaped and recorded everywhere you go, except your house. Even your car tracks you now.

[Selatius]

7. In a technical sense, we're already in the world of Orwell's 1984.

Your cellphone likely can be used as a GPS tracker on you if you possess a smart phone. Internet habits can easily be followed nowadays. Traffic cameras can record the license plate number of your vehicle, establishing your location at a specific time at a specific intersection. The whole dust-up over the government granting immunity to telecom companies was over telephone companies tapping people's lines for the benefit of the government without a legal search warrant.

Adding audio to the mix will simply further complete a portrait of tyranny and total information surveillance that has been close to being complete for a very long time now.

[Honeycombe8]

9. I'm so upset by all this, when I think about it, that I actually had a nightmare about it.

I moved into a new apartment. It was being renovated, when I visited to see how things were going. They were pulling down all the sheetrock, and there in the walls was an extensive array of wiring for eavesdropping on me, put there by the government. I was very upset.

[-..__...]

24. Ever watch "The Conversation" with Gene Hackman?

That's exactly what he did.

[Honeycombe8]

25. Yes! It was like that. Except it wasn't just MY apartment....

I got the impression in teh nightmare that it was the whole apt complex.

[DRS]

26. Cool

Was Obama in your dream....?

[marmar]

3. It's almost like they're preparing for massive civil unrest or something.....

..... the paranoid surveillance state here is getting Stalin-esque.

[woo me with science]

13. Almost, huh.

It's "quietly" getting mighty dystopian out there...


Media?

Democratic President "constitutional scholar"?

Anyone?

[PopeOxycontinI]

4. Watch the freeepers...

get all up in arms about this like they did the NDAA. It was okay when Bush did this shit, but it's not ok when it happens under Obama. Hypocrites. Just wait.

[DCKit]

5. Then it's up to us to ensure they know all about it.

[woo me with science]

14. Wouldn't it be nice

if EVERYONE got up in arms about this.

Wouldn't it be nice if people stopped being lemmings and apologists for the "blue team" or the ""red team" and decided together that this authoritarian police state crap will no longer be tolerated by any of us.

[Chemisse]

29. It's never okay, no matter who is president.

I think everybody should be upset about this, not just one side or the other.

[1monster]

8. Many years ago, when Chile was having its problems with a military junta, I read an

article in NEWSWEEK magazine about two women who were having a conversation on a public bus when one complained to the other about the high prices of groceries since the junta took over. The woman was removed from the bus at the next stop and not heard from again...

Fascism never rests.

[PopeOxycontinI]

10. I doubt...

that the secret police could have responded to a recording so fast. Someone must have been standing there listening. That could already be the case here. We must be very careful making even innocent comments in public, sad as that may be.

[hootinholler]

11. Fuck that! I refuse to "be careful" about my comments.

Come and get me for my speech! Better come now and arrest me for what I'm about to say too.

[1monster]

22. I wasn't suggesting that the conversation was tape recorded. Only that we could

expect similar things if tape recordings were ubiquitous. I'm pretty sure that someone on the bus was responsible for her arrest.

[Historic NY]

12. first taxi cab confessions...hey HBO bus's could be a whole new source..

of shocking reality cable.

[woo me with science]

15. K&R

[Robb]

16. Outrage over perhaps the LAST public space without cameras?

Nice timing.

[FarCenter]

17. These are probably installed on advice of counsel to protect against lawsuits - do they call 911?

So there is a record of what happened.

Also, it helps keep the driver safe from assault and battery.

[jberryhill]

28. It is for the protection of the driver

[woo me with science]

19. "Department of Homeland Security"

Feel secure yet?

[woo me with science]

20. Kick

[woo me with science]

21. kick

[snagglepuss]

23. I can see a silver lining.

Perhaps eavesdropping will make people stop shouting into their cell phones.

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. that is horrible isn't it? Road bus for 2 months early in 2012. OMG. One woman in particular

held nonstop shouted conversation every morning on otherwise crowded bus.

[jberryhill]

27. 152 Assaults On Philly Bus Drivers Since 2009

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/03/19/attacks-on-septa-bus-drivers-continue-to-grow/

Being a bus driver in any city has become a dangerous occupation, and video does not record what leads up to an attack and why or why not a driver may have acted a particular way.

Dozens of Philadelphia bus drivers are attacked each year.

[TwilightGardener]

31. Weird. Can't think of why this would be necessary.

[Rex]

32. Big Brother love all his children

but some he loves even more than normal!

[d_r]

33. who's going to listen to that?

I try hard not to listen.

[DeSwiss]

34. K&R

- How do you like your Police State, rare, medium, or well done? Ohhh, I'm sorry, rare is no longer possible. Neither is medium or well done. Burnt is all that's left......