Lateral Surveillance

What is lateral surveillance and is it helpful or hurtful? Lateral surveillance is any type of surveillance that comes from another person or thing watching another. There are people who think that lateral surveillance is helpful and helps keep peace in everyday life and then their are people who think that lateral surveillance is hurtful because it bring more surveillance that is intruding on their privacy. The Department of Homeland Security is one of the big reasons why there is lateral surveillance because they make campaigns like the “If You See Something, Say Something.” They use sports stadiums, hotels, local transportation, airports and even Wal-Mart to help with terrorism and crime prevention practices. Why lateral surveillance is hurtful to people is because the Department of Homeland Security is using peer to peer monitoring which means they are using the people around you like neighbors, family members, shoppers when you’re at the supermarket, sports fans when you’re at a game as their eyes and ears to listen and watch everything you do.

Technology has also played a big role in lateral surveillance because it’s made new way in which our friends, foes, employers and even police officers could watch, listen and record us. Social media has also helped in lateral surveillance because it’s basically letting your peers or your co-workers survey you which is an easy way to for them to profile to see what type of person you are. Social media sites were made as an easier way of interacting with people that don’t live near us like family members or to catch up with old friends and to make new friends. If you are using a social media site like Facebook or Twitter you are being laterally surveyed every time you post, like or comment on one of these sites and the thing is, the information you post can be seen by everyone, this is like a snoops dream to get information about you. This is why some people don’t get social media accounts because they already know that the Department of Homeland Security is watching them but that’s not always the people watching them so why give them another way in which they can watch you. There has been some good that comes from lateral surveillance on social media site like when people post about crimes that they have done or are going to do and law enforcement agencies are able to arrest them. http://mic.com/articles/54961/8-social-media-users-arrested-for-what-they-said-online Technology has also brought many tools that people use that can be used to lateral surveillance you in your everyday life like body cams, drones, smart phones, etc. Now with the FBI using facial biometrics to identify people they could basically put anyone of their server just by using a picture from your Facebook or Twitter and they would be able to identify you out in public. The thing is that you wouldn’t even have to have a Facebook or Twitter because if someone posted a picture of you on their account they could use that picture to identify you.

Surveillance was a big concern to a lot of people in the past and now it seems like people just consider it a day to day thing that is going on and that there is no way to avoid it. Your peer or even your co-workers are surveilling your every action or and even people you walk by are surveilling you so there is no way to get around a lot of lateral surveillance. Most people I feel, don’t know that there are ways of getting around lateral surveillance and if they do know how to get around it they won’t usually take the time to do something about it. A good lateral surveillance is a neighborhood watch because it is put in place to help protect the neighborhood and is a physical lateral surveillance that impacts the environment of the neighborhood. The only problem with neighborhood watches is that some of the citizens over think their power and they take actions into their own hand by thinking that they are the law. This is when the neighborhood gets affected negatively because the watches are then invasive to peoples privacy.

I feel like privacy concerns over the years have really dropped off because people really do just consider it a everyday thing and it will happen anyway or they just don’t care anymore. I think that if people were to learn about all the privacy and security invasions that they would want to know more on how they could stop it or learn more on how they can prevent privacy of security invasion from happening to them. If there was a way to teach people about lateral surveillance and the way to avoid it, then we would have less privacy issues and we would be able to be in more control of the surveillance about us.

 

Week 16 News Digest

Failing Security System at Biden’s House

 

January 18th, 2015

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/surveillance-cameras-at-biden-house-provide-no-clues-about-gunman/2015/01/20/6e17ec8c-a0d4-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html

 

Gunshots were fired at Biden’s residence and failed to be captured by the security cameras. They said that the shots came from the main road but the cameras are facing adjacent of the house. The house is said to have history of problems with the security system. The security system was so unreliable that it would have false alarms and it would give incorrect data so the secret service turned the system off. In November it was said that system was getting fixed because the media found out about the problems with the system. With the shooting taking place the secret service now wants to put more cameras on the property.

 

Google Glass Bringing Up Privacy Issues

 

January 16th, 2015

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/glassholes-privacy-issues-troubled-run-edition-google-glass/story?id=28269049

 

The product glass by google is now having to go back to the drawing board because of the privacy concerns. The main concern is the camera on the glass and how it can be used in a public setting. A number of places have started to ban google glass and the Motion Pictures Association of America are warning theaters about them because of the record feature they have. John Simpson told Associated press that glass “is a perfect stalker’s tool, and it’s difficult to see how they solve that.” Google says that they are still going to sell glass and they are hoping to make better versions down the line because they are “building for the future.”

 

Terrorist Breaches in France

 

January 12th, 2015

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/11/world/terrorists-security-breaches-france/


Terrorist attacks in France show that there have been serious breaches in their intelligence, surveillance and security systems. These attacks on their systems have led to the horrible events that are going on in Paris and France. This is bringing serious concerns to the people about the future for France. In the three attacks that have happened there have been 17 people who have been murdered. The main concern that they are working on is to either increase the surveillance and security or to revamp the whole system. Police in the last week have been told that sleeper cells have been activated and will need to keep their weapons on them at all times.