Under Surveillance: Government spy cameras proliferate

While this is unnerving to say the least, people do not have an expectation of privacy in public spaces.

So, if you had some expectation of privacy, forget about it.

Under Surveillance: Government spy cameras proliferate:

"In an unprecedented proliferation of public spying, government is casting its watchful eye on millions of ordinary Americans through largely unregulated surveillance cameras trained on public spaces throughout the nation.

A Scripps Howard News Service tally found that at least 200 towns and cities in 37 states now employ video cameras _ or are in the process of doing so _ to watch sidewalks, parks, schools, buses, buildings and similar community locales. That number excludes the approximately 110 other municipalities that use traffic cameras to catch speeders and red-light runners.

But despite their proliferation and potential for altering the very tenor of public life in America, virtually no one is keeping track of the use of these security devices long associated with authoritarian regimes.

In many cases, the increasingly sophisticated general surveillance systems _ a growing number of which are capable of networking to compile and share information about those under view _ are deployed unaccompanied by written policies or other strictures to limit abuse.

More troubling to civil liberties and camera-use proponents alike is the even greater absence of local, state or federal laws that specifically govern police-video surveillance of Americans, suspected of no crime, as they go about their daily business.

Equally rare are enforceable regulations on such matters as who or what can be watched, how long images can be kept, who can see and share them, where a person's 'zone of privacy' begins, and what recourse and punishments exist if that privacy is abused. "