I'm a private person about a lot of things, but I'm obviously not a privacy nut. I use my real name as my web address, and my picture is published on the internet for everyone to see. But despite this, I have some real problems with the traffic camera systems that are appearing almost everywhere these days.

First, let's start off with some distinctions. When I talk about "traffic cameras," I'm referring to the camera systems that are mounted atop traffic lights that are simply designed to monitor traffic flows to help deal with congestion. "Red light cameras" on the other hand are the much larger, usually standalone cameras that take a picture of your license plate if you run a red light. Both types of cameras fall under the blanket term I use: "Gestapo Cams" for a variety of reasons.

Traffic cameras are passive devices that simply observe activity that happens within their field of view. While I'm not privy to the exact details of the technology, it's reasonable to assume that this video is then either actively monitored or (more likely) recorded for future review. The danger of these systems seems pretty clear: it wouldn't take too much effort for someone with access to these feeds/recordings to monitor your movements. Traffic cameras are almost everywhere now-- I've even seen them prevalent at intersections in rural areas. Sure, some of these cameras are likely fakes, or broken, but there's no way that I know of to tell the difference.

So why would I care if someone monitors my movements? Well for starters, one can learn a lot about someone else by following them throughout the day. Even if one isn't doing anything illegal or embarrassing, there is an inherent vulnerability that comes with being monitored without your knowledge. Anyone who's ever seen a movie about a big heist knows the cliché about the guard who always takes his coffee break at 11:15, at which time the bad guys decide to break in. While you may not be as predictable, I think any stalker or kidnapper would love to know exactly where their target victims are in real time.

"But how will the bad guys get access to this video?" you might ask. The assumption everyone makes is that because traffic cameras are run by their government, only authorized people will have access to them. Sure...and Sandy Berger was authorized to remove classified documents from the National Archives [1] by shoving them in his pants... The fact is that no matter what methods are in place, as long as the infrastructure exists, shady people will find a way to access it.

More importantly, sometimes the "bad guys" are in the government. I'm sure it comes as a shock, but sometimes governments do things they aren't supposed to. The Gestapo used all kinds of tactics to monitor and track down enemies of Nazi Germany. Imagine the French Resistance tring to operate during World War II with a vast network of cameras every 20 yards tracking them to and from their meeting sites...

And a government doesn't have to be flat out evil for this to be a problem. I'm sure we'll see the day when an overzealous police detective decides that the best way to solve a murder is to track the every movement of a suspect through this system. Sounds fine on its face, until you consider yourself in the role of an innocent person accused of a crime.

Red light cameras have a whole different set of issues in play. Here we have a fully automated device deciding your guilt or innocence in a manner that you have virtually no defence against. A human cop can use judgement to decide that you might not deserve a ticket for missing that yellow light by one second, but the cameras won't. I'm pretty sure most cops would rather you miss the light by a hair than violently slam on your brakes, causing people to rear-end you and possibly be injured. Cameras, on the other hand, just blindly issue tickets, regardless of the circumstances.

More importantly, red light cameras simply take a photo of the license plate, and the ticket is mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle. If you let a friend or employee borrow your car, and they run a light, it will be up to you to prove that it wasn't you driving. What happened to "innocent until proven guilty?" What's worse is that the only way for you clear your name is for you to rat out your friend, unless they admit to it themselves.

Need more? You the citizen have no opportunity to be sure that the red light cameras are functioning correctly. If one of them takes your picture while you legally cross an intersection while the light is green, you'll have no way to prove that you're innocent. Sure, they'll let you examine the cameras if you want to pay for a high-priced expert to testify for you. But who's to say they didn't fix it after the fact to cover up their error? Or worse, what if no one on either side can find a problem, because it only gives a false positive occasionally? Again, you're faced with a "too bad for you" scenario.

Now I'm sure that most red light cameras work just fine, and most traffic cameras aren't being used to illicitly monitor anyone. But that's not the point. Even if they're being used only for the most noble of causes (stopping accidents and fighting crime), they're still a bad idea.

Anyone who has read 1984 knows that having cameras monitoring everything is a bad plan. It's an idea that will be abused sooner or later by someone. More importantly, it provides an environment of fear and worry, even in the innocent. Before anyone says "if you're not doing anything wrong, you shouldn't worry" let me remind them that everyone will sooner or later do something wrong. Maybe it will be minor, but it will happen. And before we allow a wide-reaching monitoring system to invade our lives, let's take a moment to examine a world in which everyone could be punished for every minor crime.

I've often heard that a cop can always find a reason that you're breaking the law, even if you're standing there doing nothing (loitering). But no one really stands around in fear, because there isn't a cop every 20 yards. But a network of cameras have the potential to be just that. While the technology of today only allows cameras to give us tickets for running red lights, it is entirely possible that tomorrow's systems will be able to ticket us for jaywalking, spitting on the side walk, or yes, even loitering. Do you want to live in an automated police world in which cameras will time how long you stand in one spot before they take a photo, compare it to your drivers license picture, and automatically debit your bank account for the applicable loitering fine? I certainly don't.

The point is that people need to start taking a hard look at how deep we want government invading our lives. Personally, I'd rather live with more traffic accidents than the possibility of defending myself against a bogus ticket, or hiding from an omnipresent camera-assisted cop. Paranoia aside, I want government less involved with my life, not more. And traffic cameras certainly don't work toward that goal, no matter how you justify them.