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You know you are getting old when:

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,399
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
Some friends of ours just had a police detective knock on their door. Apparently a (suspected) murder had taken place on the premises of a building that can be seen from their home. The police wanted to review all the security camera data from their various security cameras to see if anything was picked up. More importantly, our friends have a Tesla, and it seems that the Tesla’s cameras are all seeing, all the time. So the police want to review the Tesla’s system too.

In another thread, I think, it has been discussed how your cameras and phones can easily be used in real time by various actors. I am, in equal parts, impressed by the law enforcement capabilities of all these cameras and wary of a loss of privacy.
 
More importantly, our friends have a Tesla, and it seems that the Tesla’s cameras are all seeing, all the time. So the police want to review the Tesla’s system too.

Apparently not. The camera on my daughter's Tesla was inactivated (her husband had turned it off for some reason) and was not running at the time they were cut off by someone making a left turn from the right hand lane of a two-lane one-way street. The "other guy" claimed that they ran into him and that he was injured. He had no license or insurance and my daughter's insurance company (for some reason) immediately settled with the "other guy" without any notice to my daughter. Now she is stuck with a large deductible and any increase in premiums.

I guess to keep this in the "getting old" theme of this thread. I remember when the police would work traffic accidents. Apparently they are too understaffed to do that nowadays and they leave non-injury accidents up to the insurance companies.
 

EngProf

Practically Family
Messages
608
Apparently not. The camera on my daughter's Tesla was inactivated (her husband had turned it off for some reason) and was not running at the time they were cut off by someone making a left turn from the right hand lane of a two-lane one-way street. The "other guy" claimed that they ran into him and that he was injured. He had no license or insurance and my daughter's insurance company (for some reason) immediately settled with the "other guy" without any notice to my daughter. Now she is stuck with a large deductible and any increase in premiums.

I guess to keep this in the "getting old" theme of this thread. I remember when the police would work traffic accidents. Apparently they are too understaffed to do that nowadays and they leave non-injury accidents up to the insurance companies.
The cops in Nashville just started that "self-reporting" nonsense here. It applies "except in the case of DUI".
How are you supposed to know that, with NO WAY in real time of checking on the other driver's blood-alcohol level?
 
Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
Some friends of ours just had a police detective knock on their door. Apparently a (suspected) murder had taken place on the premises of a building that can be seen from their home. The police wanted to review all the security camera data from their various security cameras to see if anything was picked up. More importantly, our friends have a Tesla, and it seems that the Tesla’s cameras are all seeing, all the time. So the police want to review the Tesla’s system too.

In another thread, I think, it has been discussed how your cameras and phones can easily be used in real time by various actors. I am, in equal parts, impressed by the law enforcement capabilities of all these cameras and wary of a loss of privacy.
"Live" cameras like those on our cell phones (and laptops, and desktops, and tablets, and doorbells, and wherever they're putting them these days) have nearly always been accessible by various law enforcement agencies and, unless the lens is covered/blocked, they can watch us without us knowing pretty much whenever they want to. All of these armchair attorneys whining about their "rights" when someone asks them to wear a mask should really be aiming at "invasion of privacy" laws and keeping those same agencies out of our homes and lives unless they have irrefutable evidence that something illegal is occurring there.
 

Turnip

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,352
Location
Europe
…you remember a time eavesdropping looked like this:


Akustische_Luftaufkl%C3%A4rung_der_deutschen_Feldartillerie_1917.jpg
 

ScionPI2005

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,335
Location
Seattle, Washington
I am, in equal parts, impressed by the law enforcement capabilities of all these cameras and wary of a loss of privacy.

I truly feel this is the understatement of the current century, considering technology as a whole. The internet and smart phone are some of the greatest inventions ever, but they totally have the capability to destroy us if we aren't careful.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,766
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
"Live" cameras like those on our cell phones (and laptops, and desktops, and tablets, and doorbells, and wherever they're putting them these days) have nearly always been accessible by various law enforcement agencies and, unless the lens is covered/blocked, they can watch us without us knowing pretty much whenever they want to. All of these armchair attorneys whining about their "rights" when someone asks them to wear a mask should really be aiming at "invasion of privacy" laws and keeping those same agencies out of our homes and lives unless they have irrefutable evidence that something illegal is occurring there.
I've never owned a computer or any portable device with a camera on it, but when I do use one, such as at work, I always put a bit of tape over the camera after going into the OS and disabling both the camera and the mic just as a matter of course. It takes a few minutes to do it, but it's a few minutes worth taking. It isn't even the cops having that access that bothers me as much as it is having whey-faced capitalist spitbags like Zuckerberg having it.
 
Messages
12,978
Location
Germany
"Live" cameras like those on our cell phones (and laptops, and desktops, and tablets, and doorbells, and wherever they're putting them these days) have nearly always been accessible by various law enforcement agencies and, unless the lens is covered/blocked, they can watch us without us knowing pretty much whenever they want to.

But I'm always asking myself, how they would do without activating the camera's ON/OFF-light signal? I never used my Toshiba notebook-camera. And Firefox is permanently set on blocking all requests for camera, mic, location and so on.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,399
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
"Live" cameras like those on our cell phones (and laptops, and desktops, and tablets, and doorbells, and wherever they're putting them these days) have nearly always been accessible by various law enforcement agencies and, unless the lens is covered/blocked, they can watch us without us knowing pretty much whenever they want to. All of these armchair attorneys whining about their "rights" when someone asks them to wear a mask should really be aiming at "invasion of privacy" laws and keeping those same agencies out of our homes and lives unless they have irrefutable evidence that something illegal is occurring there.
I’m not a lawyer. Nor do I play one on T.V. ;)
In order to use any of that, isn’t it necessary to document probable cause and get a warrant? If not, the opposing lawyers would have a fun time of it. In other words, cops/FBI can’t just monitor your ring-camera just because they want to see you getting the mail in your underwear. —As hot as that might be! :)
Any actual lawyers or law enforcement types in the house?
Now, foreign intelligence services, that’s another story! :eek:o_O:rolleyes:

Bartender Edit: Let's keep the contemporary politics completely out of it, please.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
But I'm always asking myself, how they would do without activating the camera's ON/OFF-light signal? I never used my Toshiba notebook-camera. And Firefox is permanently set on blocking all requests for camera, mic, location and so on.
The camera, the ON/OFF light, the microphone, the screen on your laptop/monitor--it's all controlled by software, and software can be hacked and re-written to do (within reason) whatever the hacker wants it to.

I’m not a lawyer. Nor do I play one on T.V. ;)
In order to use any of that, isn’t it necessary to document probable cause and get a warrant? If not, the opposing lawyers would have a fun time of it. In other words, cops/FBI can’t just monitor your ring-camera just because they want to see you getting the mail in your underwear. —As hot as that might be! :)
Any actual lawyers or law enforcement types in the house?
Now, foreign intelligence services, that’s another story! :eek:o_O:rolleyes:

Bartender Edit: Let's keep the contemporary politics completely out of it, please.
You're presuming that everyone involved would be acting in accordance with an established set of rules, and the criminals I've known didn't do that.

If there was an active rapist, child molester, or serial killer in my neighborhood, I would hope Law Enforcement would use any means necessary to remove them from society before they attacked someone I cared about, and worried about the legal process later.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
A few years ago I laughed at the hubris of the Sixties generation, thinking their pop culture was the dominant force and then being horrified when the death of Beatles producer George Martin led to fantasy author George RR Martin (he of Game of Thrones fame) having to issue a statement clarifying this was not he as many thousands of the Sixties Set's children and grandchildren had jumped to that conclusion....

Last week, I web-searched "Eddie's Rings" expecting to find pictures of those sported by Meat Loaf in character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show... only to be met with shots of some kid with a mullet in Stranger Things!!

The worst bit of this of course is I am also reminded there are now two whole generations of kids too young to have any memory of the eighties and how awful they really were, now set on reviving them. My mother was similarly scathing about me wanting to wear 1950s styles at a time.
 

Who?

Practically Family
Messages
690
Location
South Windsor, CT
Some friends of ours just had a police detective knock on their door. Apparently a (suspected) murder had taken place on the premises of a building that can be seen from their home. The police wanted to review all the security camera data from their various security cameras to see if anything was picked up. More importantly, our friends have a Tesla, and it seems that the Tesla’s cameras are all seeing, all the time. So the police want to review the Tesla’s system too.

In another thread, I think, it has been discussed how your cameras and phones can easily be used in real time by various actors. I am, in equal parts, impressed by the law enforcement capabilities of all these cameras and wary of a loss of privacy.
What happens if you politely tell them to bugger off, and that you have no intention of using your equipment to provide police surveillance of your area?
 
Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
What happens if you politely tell them to bugger off, and that you have no intention of using your equipment to provide police surveillance of your area?
Here in California the Law Enforcement agency can and will usually get a warrant from a judge that orders the homeowner(s) to surrender any such footage to the authorities. If they continue to refuse, that same agency could likely file "obstruction of justice" or some such charges in an attempt to coerce the homeowner(s) to play nice. Of course, the wealthier those homeowners are the less likely they'll be pressed unless the crime committed is serious enough to justify the time spent obtaining that surveilleance--murder, manslaughter, rape, and so on.
 

Who?

Practically Family
Messages
690
Location
South Windsor, CT
Here in California the Law Enforcement agency can and will usually get a warrant from a judge that orders the homeowner(s) to surrender any such footage to the authorities. If they continue to refuse, that same agency could likely file "obstruction of justice" or some such charges in an attempt to coerce the homeowner(s) to play nice. Of course, the wealthier those homeowners are the less likely they'll be pressed unless the crime committed is serious enough to justify the time spent obtaining that surveilleance--murder, manslaughter, rape, and so on.
I’ll opt for no magic doorbell, and that way I am not faced with the risk of telling them to bugger off.

How do the police know what kind of doorbells folks have anyway?
 
Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
I’ll opt for no magic doorbell, and that way I am not faced with the risk of telling them to bugger off.

How do the police know what kind of doorbells folks have anyway?
The police around here will still "canvas" a neighborhood on occasion looking for witnesses to specific criminal activities. The lenses on those "RIng" doorbells (and other "hidden" surveillance equipment) aren't particularly well hidden, so they're easy to spot if you know where to look. The police act casually while they're standing on your porch asking if you've seen any suspicious persons in the neighborhood, but they've already noted whether or not you have any cameras pointing in the right direction to ask you about.
 

Who?

Practically Family
Messages
690
Location
South Windsor, CT
The police around here will still "canvas" a neighborhood on occasion looking for witnesses to specific criminal activities. The lenses on those "RIng" doorbells (and other "hidden" surveillance equipment) aren't particularly well hidden, so they're easy to spot if you know where to look. The police act casually while they're standing on your porch asking if you've seen any suspicious persons in the neighborhood, but they've already noted whether or not you have any cameras pointing in the right direction to ask you about.
I am not anti law enforcement, and when I was a little boy (a very long time ago) my mother told me that if I ever had a problem, I should look for a policeman, and he would help me.

Since then, both the police and the world have changed, and I now avoid all interaction with them.

As for “helping them catch bad guys” that is a beautiful thing ….. until the day comes when they decide you are a bad guy.

To put it bluntly, they can pound sand, and I will never have a door bell from which they can demand video at the whim of a “friendly” judge.
 
Last edited:
Messages
10,940
Location
My mother's basement
The cops in Nashville just started that "self-reporting" nonsense here. It applies "except in the case of DUI".
How are you supposed to know that, with NO WAY in real time of checking on the other driver's blood-alcohol level?
As I’ve undoubtedly observed before, I would welcome much more stringent traffic code enforcement around here. Traffic fatalities have been ticking up (after being on a downward trend for decades) and street racing has become a popular pastime. We are not powerless to address this. It just takes the willingness to do it.
 
Messages
10,858
Location
vancouver, canada
Some friends of ours just had a police detective knock on their door. Apparently a (suspected) murder had taken place on the premises of a building that can be seen from their home. The police wanted to review all the security camera data from their various security cameras to see if anything was picked up. More importantly, our friends have a Tesla, and it seems that the Tesla’s cameras are all seeing, all the time. So the police want to review the Tesla’s system too.

In another thread, I think, it has been discussed how your cameras and phones can easily be used in real time by various actors. I am, in equal parts, impressed by the law enforcement capabilities of all these cameras and wary of a loss of privacy.
We watch a great deal of British TV.....detective series are most favoured. It is amazing to view the role that cel phone data and CCTV cameras play in the solving of crimes add in DNA and I have to wonder how the hell police used to solve any crimes at all!!!!
 

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