Just like the controversial introduction of video-reading technology in sporting events, surveillance cameras are becoming more common in our daily lives. However, people are becoming desensitized to this surveillance and tend to overlook the importance of privacy.
In sports, whether it’s baseball, handball, swimming, or any other sport, athletes compete fiercely and try their best to come out on top. In these sports, the referee makes all the decisions and is responsible for what happens during the game. That’s why referees work just as hard as the players to keep an eye on the action. If they don’t see a goal or a foul, it doesn’t count. In recent years, technology has been used to help referees in many sports. Video replay is a technology that uses a video camera to record the action so that it can be reviewed again and again in case of problems. While this technology is a handy tool to help referees make fair judgments, it’s also controversial. But what if this technology was ubiquitous, not just in sports, but in everyday life?
In fact, video replay was quite slow to be adopted in sports due to the controversy that it undermines the authority of the referee. However, a similar technology was used in everyday life much earlier. It’s a surveillance camera technology called CCTV. It was developed in the 1970s and began to be used as a system of cameras installed here and there that transmit footage to a recording device for storage. In the event of a crime, the footage could be played back and used as evidence. Nowadays, with the spread of ultra-compact cameras and advances in semiconductor recording devices, surveillance cameras are being used in a wider range of applications. Governments install CCTV cameras to maintain order in public institutions and on roads, stores install them to prevent shoplifting, and even spaces inside buildings, such as stairwells and elevators, are used to prevent crime. On a personal level, some people install CCTV in their cars to help solve crimes. The use of CCTV ranges from the broad to the narrow, and just by going outside, we are exposed to traffic cameras, illegal boarding cameras on buses, shoplifting cameras in stores, dash cameras in parked cars, etc. It seems very difficult to commit a crime in such a situation.
But what is a camera really for? A camera is a machine that takes pictures. People take pictures of many different things. Cameras have vision, but because they are machines, they can also capture things that the human eye cannot see. Examples include taking pictures from the depths of the ocean with a camera, or using a telescope to look at distant parts of the universe. They also take pictures to record what is happening so that they can look at it again later, or to show it to others. We might take pictures of majestic landscapes, or we might take pictures of people we know, or we might take pictures after an event. Sometimes we take photos to show others, which is why we find the perfect angle for a selfie, or why we smile and say “smile” before taking a photo, because after all, it’s there forever. And other people might see it. Cameras are important because they allow us to record the present, preserve it for the future, and share it with others.
Nowadays, cell phones have tiny cameras that make it easy to take photos anywhere, anytime. If someone suddenly points a camera at you to take a picture, most people instinctively cover themselves and get angry. You don’t want to permanently immortalize yourself when you’re not ready, and you certainly don’t want to be seen by others. Even if it’s your normal self, you don’t want to show it to an unknown audience if you’re not ready for it.
What’s more, surveillance cameras are not people, so people often don’t realize they’re there. It’s inevitable that you’ll be caught on camera, even if you don’t want to show it to anyone, not even your closest friends. Isn’t it strange that people who suddenly find themselves in front of a camera are always surrounded by surveillance cameras? That’s because they don’t think much about their presence and don’t think that their footage is always being watched by someone. However, surveillance cameras are always recording footage, and that information is kept for a long time. And you never know what it might be used for later. This shouldn’t be overlooked, as the misuse of personal data is commonplace today.
Desensitization to surveillance is becoming a bigger and bigger problem as technology advances. Recording devices are constantly evolving, and even deleting old footage will become unnecessary due to lack of capacity. More importantly, the scope of cameras is something to pay attention to. The purpose of a camera is to record the present so that it can be preserved in the future and seen by others. It’s not just about storing footage. As surveillance technology becomes more advanced, it’s possible to cover a much wider area. If you have a sensor, you can detect and store anything. Most smartphones today have several sensors, including GPS sensors that constantly send back to a server where and when you’ve been. And in cyberspace, where we spend an increasing amount of time, everything we do is recorded without the need for a physical device. Companies that are not public institutions, but private interests, are building big data to store and analyze everything you do in cyberspace. Everything is recorded, including when and where you accessed it and what you clicked on. Surprisingly, the information they analyze about you from this information is quite accurate. While the services they provide are convenient, their purpose is ultimately for very private reasons. We need to think deeply about whether these services are worth the personal information we provide.
In sports, fairness is very important. Rule violations should be regulated as they should be. But even in those sports, the introduction of video replay was slow and still controversial. By comparison, we are far too numb to surveillance in our daily lives. Life doesn’t always have to be as clean as it is in sports. Wrongs don’t necessarily mean crimes. Nor does every personal detail need to be known. There’s no reason why your secrets should be revealed, and they are clearly private. Therefore, it’s worth thinking about the surveillance cameras in your life. Before downloading an app and mindlessly pressing the button to agree to provide personal information, you should think twice about how important your privacy is to you.
