What's wrong with surveillance if you know you're not guilty?

Question

We are pretty much survailled everywhere we go anyway.
Maybe some are worried about being caught stealing, or maybe some are just worried about being caught picking their nose.
What do you think?

Answer 1

If I'm not guilty of anything or under suspicion then the government has no business monitoring my calls. If they suspect me of doing something wrong then the appropriate law enforcement officer needs to go before a judge and swear under oath that there is probable cause. The constitution puts the burden of proof on the government to prove that I should be monitored, not on me to prove that I shouldn't.

Answer 2

Personally, if you are in a place where there is no presumed right to privacy (on the street, in a mall, on a train) I say surveille away! To me, that's the equivalent of hiring more police officers. Why not take advantage of technology?

Listening in on my phone calls is another matter. Let's say that I'm talking about my desire to lie naked with the female cast of "Heroes" and my plan to make it all happen. Although not illegal, I don't want my wife to find out about it. Now the government has this information and they have no reason or need to. Do I really care if the government is behaving as they should? No. But, because of numerous leaks and unscrupulous people, I do have concerns.

Trust surveillance as much as you trust those doing the surveillance.

Answer 3

I think they are worried about being under surveillance all the time. It is in direct opposition to a free society. Constant surveillance takes away from a societies freedom and freewill. Yes, only criminals will get caught, but at the expense of privacy. In the end, it is much easier to just make people less likely to be criminals.

We live in a "Innocent until proven guilty" society. Not a "you are about to do something bad, so we are going to catch you" society.

Answer 4

It's a double-edged sword. On one hand, a larger surveillance presence would be good for deterring crime -- most people would think twice about committing a crime if they knew a video camera would catch them in the act. On the other hand, however, most people absolutely do not like the idea of having someone watching them all the time, even if it's by camera. And there's a huge potential for abuse there -- imagine if the government was granted permission to plant surveillance cameras in your home and the next thing you know someone is selling streaming video of you and your boyfriend having sex on the Internet...

Answer 5

Well, let's first be clear that you are talking about the fact that you don't really have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place or in a private business (not your own).

You walk into a 7-11, and the camera records it. You walk into a bank, a grocery store, etc, you are on a security camera and on tape. Same with public places now - cameras.

Now, I understand about the reasonable expectation of privacy. And I don't have a problem with it. It is just as much there to protect me as anything else. I can deal with that.

Answer 6

The problem is not so much me and you discussing how to best ask a guy out on Yahoo answers. The problem arises when we start to suspect that our government has stopped listening to us and is basically doing whatever they want. So when investigative reporters get calls from government employees who have come across documents that could incriminate our politicians and the call is monitored so the 'whistle blower' gets shipped off to some other country to be tortured in what is known as extraordinary rendition. That is a problem.

My problem is I want to be inform and I want to be unhappy with what is going on around me and have a say. That's a crux of democracy.

Answer 7

Loss of liberty. Loss of privacy. Invasion of your life at someone else's whim.

Information is power. The more power one has, historically, the more it has been misused. Systems built for finding criminals will also be used for tracking girlfriends or hot chicks or movie stars or political opponents or irritating neighbors.

As far as guilt goes, it is the appearance of guilt that sends people to prison or military detention camp, not whether you actually did anything. What you "know" makes no difference when there is no no more habeus corpus to make sure you are not held indefinitely until they feel like charging you with something.

Your question is naive to the point of recklessness. I strongly recommend you acquaint yourself with some history - world or US - doesn't matter. Power corrupts. Surveillance is a new kind of power.

Answer 8

Just watch the movie: Enemy of the State with Will Smith so that you can see what sort of abuses of power are available when cameras are everywhere.

In general, I tend to like surveylance cameras in public. If you can have one set of eyes watching 10 different locations, then that's much more efficient than putting 10 cops in those same locations.

Answer 9

Perhaps you should consider how you'd feel if you entered a fancy swanky store and the security guards immediately followed you all over the store... even though you didn't do anything wrong and you have nothing to hide...? What if they chose to search you every time you entered and left the store... even though you did nothing wrong or have nothing to hide and "no harm" is being done to you?

Or, since you have nothing to hide, how would you feel if the police entered your home and looked through your private things... since you have nothing to hide? Or, since you have nothing to hide and no harm is being done, how would you feel if someone entered your home every day and sat in your living room watching TV all day long and left just as you were coming home... since you have nothing to hide and no harm was done?

You'd probably say that it was an invasion of your privacy at some point, no? The same rule applies to those of us that do not like the idea of being watched or spied upon "even though we're not guilty of anything," "even though we have nothing to hide" and "even though no harm was done."

Some of those that don't seem to mind that the government is spying on us and also do not seem to understand that those same surveillance devices can be used against the opposing political party members that represents a balance of power, necessary to prevent power from corrupting those officials that may be power-hungry... We NEED peple to disagree, and we NEED people to disagree with us for the purpose of representing the rights, freedoms and liberties everyone, not just the rights of those that think like us.

Ever read George Orwell's book, "1984"? It's just a warning about a supposed Utopian society that results when the populace surrenders their freedoms, liberties and rights over to the government and the government uses all the available technology.... read it; I'd like to know if you still think the same... do you REALLY trust our government to tell us the truth? OR, do you REALLY believe our elected officials don't lie to us?

Here's an example of how surveillance was abused: in a small country in the Caribbean, which follows US Federal Laws: surveillance cameras were installed, and those manning the cameras used the cameras to spy on women in their homes. The women were not doing anything wrong, just undressing and dressing in their bedrooms and bathrooms, and no harm came to them... in fact, they didn't even realize they were being spied upon! The political party that initiated the use of those surveillance cameras no longer had the support of their party's elected governor; there is now a governor from the opposing political party, but they still have their chosen civil servants manning those cameras. When the abuse of those surveillance cameras came to light, those who are in the majority in the Senate (the party that opposes the present governor) stood by the Civil Servants (hired by their political party when they were in power) and the entire matter was dismissed. How would YOU feel if one of those women that was seen undressing, undressed, and dressing was your sister or your mother or you daughter? Remember, no "harm" came to them... and they didn't even realize they were being seen as they undressed or were undressed or while they were dressing? Whether those women knew they were being spied upon or not, don't YOU think their rights to privacy was invaded?

Answer 10

EVERYTHING!

Do you enjoy being treated like a criminal and living under a system that will be lying in wait for any negligible slip up or failure in judgement?

and do you really want people to watch you pick your nose, change your tampon, or have a private converstion with your lover or anyone else for that matter? Say you arent feeling very good that day and say something stupid... do you want to go to jail for merely talking out your *ss and never actually committing a criminal act?

People who say "whats wrong with surveilance if you arent guilty" are shortsighted and basically favor thought control and the loss of freedom without so much as saying so.