Earlier this month, I attended the Hitachi Information Forum where Chris Jensen, solution consultant for physical security at HDS, discussed the evolution of security cameras (you can find the article here). I'm intrigued by the marketing aspect he introduced— how surveillance video can be utilized in retail stores for observing much more than the kid in the back with the large knapsack. And I understand the benefits to applying video surveillance on the streets, in terms of observing pedestrian traffic flow during events or alerting first responders in case of emergency. But I couldn’t help feeling slightly creeped out by the Big Brother connection.

And then I came across this Coca-Cola commercial. I guess I’m a bit of a sucker for these feel-good advertising campaigns, but I liked that it offered another perspective.

We rely heavily on video every day. People often like to see what’s happening on the news rather than simply hearing or reading about it. So the more video surveillance, the greater our chances for capturing the exciting (and frightening) moments we would otherwise have to rely on a couple witnesses to describe for us... right?

And now with video analytics, we can do so much more with this data.

Still, I can’t get the image of the watchful eye out of my mind. How long will it take before these systems find a way to really invade our privacy? Or are we already there?

Great post! Thought the Coke commercial brings up a good point. It has a great angle, but how many of these people knew they were being caught on camera? How many of them would have acted differently if they knew?

And, more importantly, how many companies can use it to their benefit?

If I saved someone from getting hit by a speeding train, not sure I'd want the video footage to be used to sell a bottle of pop.

There are a few vendors (HP/Autonomy comes to mind)(youtu.be/rh6F8UCoydY) that are showing how big data and video can be used by companies to target specific groups of people. Most of this all has to do with advertising right now, but how long until it can be used for other more Orwellian means?