Thread

1. Grombobulous · 1790375209 · focus · HN ↗

   I keep wondering if there’s some kind of positive correlation between prestige of an institution and level of immaturity and fragility of their employees.

   Look, I’m not trying to be pro-surveillance state or whatever, but in what universe is a handful of cameras (less than 10 per building) in a publicly accessible space on a private university unusual or alarming?

   I thought every university had this, but I guess I’m now learning that my university wasn’t prestigious enough to be exempted from reality.

   My high school also had cameras. Isn’t that rather typical?

   Keep in mind that pretty much 100% of schools this size have assaults take place every single year on school grounds, in a country where school shootings happen on a literal weekly basis.

   Speaking of the supposed cost waste of these cameras: I would be surprised the university can get reasonably priced insurance without them.

   Edit: this comment has picked up a lot of attention. I encourage those who are disagreeing with me to go directly to the university’s FAQ on the subject that is linked in the article. They directly state that this surveillance system isn’t new, it merely has some new cameras added to the existing system, audio isn’t recorded, facial recognition isn’t used, AI isn’t used, budget from other programs wasn’t sacrificed to add cameras, and data is stored inside an MIT data center. That’s one reason why I hold skepticism about the objectivity of the authors. I thought the authors were not very generous to the school’s willingness to clarify, and based on that FAQ a lot of accusations/assumptions in the article and discussion seem to be false.

   <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;evpt.mit.edu&#x2F;campus-security-cameras-frequently-asked-questions" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;evpt.mit.edu&#x2F;campus-security-cameras-frequently-aske...

   1. AngryData · 1790378461 · focus · HN ↗

      Your high school has responcibilities over minors and the video never gets seen except when an incident is reported. Do you think office spaces or libraries need face tracking and ai cataloging surveillance too?

      To me that is no different than having someone follow me and everyone else around and writing a report on all my daily activities and submitting it to arbitrary self-appointed authority.

      1. Grombobulous · 1790378761 · focus · HN ↗

         Private office spaces can and do exactly that as long as it complies with the various privacy and biometrics laws out there. MIT is a private university.

         I don’t say this as someone who is in favor of that sort of thing beyond a certain point.

         Technically the university could literally send a real human to follow you around while you’re inside their buildings. Your professor actually kind of sort of does that while you’re in class and even bases your grades on your behavior, and can report code of conduct violations.

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