A new video sharing system is being developed by Homeland Security Department. The network would allow officials to relay video in real time to anyone else on the network, access to which would be limited to law enforcement agents. However, privacy advocates say the department should proceed cautiously.
The Homeland Security Department is testing technology that would allow its agents to use cell phones or e-mail devices to covertly share live video of possible terrorists over a law enforcement network. The idea is prompting concern from privacy advocates.
Department officials call the security surveillance system "RealEyes" because it instantly broadcasts images to anyone connected to the system. It can stream the video across the country to computers and give the law enforcement agencies a front-row view of what's going on in real time.
Terrorists, Disaster Victims, Lost Kids
If it passes a privacy test, the technology could allow air marshals, border officers or Secret Service agents to videotape surreptitiously in airports, at border crossings and anywhere else where there's a possible threat.
A live video feed could be shared with "dozens or hundreds of authorized users," Homeland Security spokesperson Amy Kudwa says.
It could help agents identify and track down a suspect, help police find a lost child or guide firefighters to disaster victims, Kudwa says. It could be a "very valuable" tool in the government's security and emergency-response efforts, she says.
Will Privacy Get Punk'd?
The technology is raising privacy worries. Melissa Ngo of the Electronic Privacy Information Center , an electronic privacy watchdog, says the department should proceed cautiously because the government has a post-9/11 record of "expansions into surveillance when there's no credible threat."
The Homeland Security Department, after spending US$168,000 on field tests late last year, is conducting a privacy impact assessment, Kudwa says. She doesn't know when it will be finished, but the department has already budgeted another $532,000 for tests.
Brian Geoghegan of Reality Mobile, which is developing the technology, says FBI agents tested the system at the Super Bowl in Detroit in 2006. Concerned that protesters might try to disrupt the event, agents filmed people in the lobby of a hotel where some of the football players were staying.
The FBI, however, did not buy the technology, he says.