What Do You Have to Hide?

Surveillance cameras everywhere—including your private bathrooms and bedrooms—can make America safer.

By John C. Dvorak
Why is everyone wasting time making a fuss over the latest Electronic Frontier Foundation reportwhen they should be demanding more surveillance?

The public does not squawk about any of this snooping and actually even seems to encourage it. This is not much different from the public's desire to have more surveillance cameras out in the wild "to protect people from terrorism." Advocates of these cameras will argue, "What are you worried about? If you are not doing anything wrong, what difference does it make?"

I've fought this bogus comment with all sorts of arguments. Now I'll apply the exact same argument to promote cameras in the bathrooms of your own home. Public bathrooms should indeed have cameras because people head there to do drug deals. There are also muggings and murders in bathrooms. Put cameras in the bathrooms of America to stop crime.

Likewise, American homes should also be equipped with cameras and the police should monitor them 24/7. If you are not doing anything wrong, what difference does it make? If there were cameras in the Boston bomber's dorm room, he wouldn't have made bombs.

Just think, Georgia's sodomy laws could better be enforced with cameras in the bedroom. There are people engaging in illegal sexual activity in Georgia who need to be caught and imprisoned. What better way is there than a camera in every room? And most law-abiding citizens should not care since they are not doing anything bad, right?

In fact, there are a number of bloggers who have wired their house this way for entertainment purposes as they stream to the Internet. They are good with it.

Now people will complain about the shower cam and moan about their modesty. This is not a problem. The people watching the camera will be trained not to pay any attention to the nude figures. This is no different from the people who are seen naked by the body scanners in airports. Few people complained about that. In fact, many members of the public applauded the devices, saying that it is better to be safe than sorry. Some commentators on the cable news shows said they welcomed it. How are shower cameras different?

Cameras will eventually be installed by court order in houses of certain convicts and they will be so effective that we will all benefit from similar 24/7 personal surveillance and protection. If you fall in the shower—BOOM—a crew is alerted immediately.

This future will be great. In fact, camera technology should have already been more ubiquitous years ago—at least as far back as 1984. It's taking too long.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418508,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000584