5d ago

City of Hamilton orders resident to take down 10 security cameras from his home

A local Hamilton man has been ordered by the city to take down his security cameras that he has on the outside of his house, despite his claim that his footage has been useful in crime investigations.

Dan Myles says he has 10 security cameras outside his home on MacNab Street North in downtown Hamilton, and he says he needs them.

Toronto @lemmy.ca

NarrativeBear @lemmy.world

5d ago

City of Hamilton orders resident to take down 10 security cameras from his home

31 comments

Laws like this are enforced selectively, by design. If they were serious about privacy, they’d be issuing citations to everybody with a ring doorbell. Not just because the videos always face public areas, but because the recordings are stored insecurely on US datacentres.
- And Tesla cars would be illegal to operate…
- if they cared about that, then they wouldnt be leaving doors wide open to citizen private data, specifically for the US government, in the strong borders act. bill C2.
  it demands ISPs hold internet search history for 6 years, gives access to your data to police and government agencies, without warrant. and also has a little section where they essentially give massive access of your digital fingerprint to the united states government, who will likely use private corps like palantir to profile you for god knows what. but likely for some thought crime, minority report shit but for anyone not white, christian, and conservative.
I agree in principle, though they should 100% go after Ring cameras and Teslas first.
Cameras operated by the homeowner, with the video stored on site and not in the cloud, are fine by me. I have some.
Don't let those Flock fuckheads into your country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safety
- Dickhead in TFA was posting videos of his neighbours, thats what lead to complaints and the city getting involved.
Absolute bullshit, even on the privacy front.
There is no expectation of privacy in public spaces, and the fact that the "executive director" of Global Privacy and Security gets this wrong is highly disappointing. That said, the "latest news & events" on the Global Privacy and Security site is dated back to 2019... so there's that.
And much of the footage shown in the report are people trying to steal shit or break into vehicles around this guy's property!
Also, if this guy is forced to remove those cameras, what about dashcams and cameras on businesses pointing to public areas? Cameras on banks or at police stations? Traffic cameras? Weather cameras? Will they all be ordered to remove them?
Of course not, because this is fucking stupid.
I have cameras, and they've been used to help police several times. FFS, you can even register your home cameras with police!
Someone complained, and the city needed to respond. He should just ignore the order, which would be impossible to enforce without affecting every homeowner, driver, and business with a camera.
- I agree that there is no expectation of privacy in public. This can quickly stampede into people taking pictures or video, in a public park or something that is now illegal to take, simply because of shit like this.
  If you're in a publicly accessible space, or where I can see you from a publicity accessible space, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy.
  This really isn't any different than him sitting there and watching from his window, it's just recorded.
  Fucking Hamilton man.
- regarding the first point, to be fair, there is an expectation of privacy in your own home (and maybe on your own property), which cameras like this could violate
  
  Not if you are in plain public view
Can the city do that? I'd just ignore their request.
- These laws are the result of compounds setup by biker clubs in which they used cameras to see police raids coming.
  
  Instructions unclear, sitting on the porche with camcorder pointed at the street.
- It doesn't say request. It says "orders"
This is just dumb
- The guy was posting videos from is his excessive number of cameras online and playing pretend police of his neighbourhood. That's why the city got involved.
Note to self:
In future recess when installing all outdoor cams as to make them harder to spot.
- No, because thieves who aren't total idiots will move on when they see a camera.
  One of the issues brought in the video is that people are unaware of the cameras (bullshit) and unable to consent to being photographed (also bullshit, since there is no expectation of privacy when out in public).
  
  Yes. Further update. Put up fake ones to scare away potential thieves as well.
  
  No, because thieves who aren’t total idiots will move on when they see a camera.
  If that were true, we wouldn't be seeing a constant stream of camera footage of porch pirates on news channels, media outlets and social media. The reality is that opportunistic thieves don't care anymore. Policing doesn't focus on protecting average citizens from property crimes, it's a complete afterthought.
  
  In my experience they don't give a rat's ass about cameras. Mostly because the cops don't give a rat's ass about the footage either.
This looks like a rental unit with all the numbers on the mailboxes. Might be stalking other tenants?
- He was posting videos online and playing neighbourhood police.

31 comments