I loved the article by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic about how individuals can fight the panoptic power of CCTV and other surveillance devices just by slathering on some face paint. According to Meyer, “the pixel-calculating machinations of facial recognition algorithms” are thwarted by connivingly applied make up, which transforms one’s f“ace into a mess …
Does anyone else see the irony in the head of the world’s largest surveillance state meeting his destruction in front of an open mic? Let’s face it, for all the commentary about how Gordon Brown’s harsh comments about a 65 year-old housewife revealed the inner man, what he was mostly guilty of was venting. Struggling …
In an article on CNET.com called “Why No One Cares About Privacy Anymore,” Declan McCullagh celebrates (I don’t think that’s too strong a word) the changing mores and advancing technology that seem to be turning the idea of privacy into a quaintly passe concept. Noting that the anticipated storm of privacy objections to Google Buzz …
LET’S NOT REJOICE OVER THE DEATH OF PRIVACY JUST YET Read More »
I am flattered that Boston blogger Brian Kane took a close interest in my Washington Monthly article on surveillance in the UK. He wasn’t entirely pleased–“I think Malanowski too readily dismisses the potential for significant abuse with the argument that there’s no centralization of all these surveillance systems at the moment,” he writes, and who …
While researching what I’m happy to report will become an article in The Washington Monthly on the use of CCTV in Great Britain, I became an admirer of the work of Henry Porter. This means I come to the Porter fan club rather late, since Henry has had a long and distinguished career as a …
I published this article today in the U.K. on The First Post, and on The Huffington Post. Freedom-wise, there’s nowhere more self-satisfied than Britain. Bastion of personal liberty, home of the ground-breaking Magna Carta, the place where the sturdy yeoman can sit under his thatched roof secure from the intrusions of the king… Pull the …
My friend Pari Esfandiari sent me this link to a very cool photo with zoom capability. Just hold down the left button on the mouse and drag it to whatever area of the photo you wish to see more clearly. Amazingly, you can zoom right in on individual faces. What are you waiting for? Try …
THE NEXT STEP IN GETTING YOUR ESPIONAGE DEGREE AT HOME Read More »
The very helpful Kevin Clack of the London Underground sent me pictures of me taken by CCTV cameras in the Whitehall Station of the Tube. In the photos, you can see Kevin and station manager Pete Bashford helpfully keeping an eye on me. In the top photo, Kevin is at far left, Pete is at …