These days, even the sound of the word ‘Olympics’ elicits an automatic cringe from me. Between skyrocketing budgets, skewed political priorities (don’t get me started on funding these games in the first place with all the other worthy places for the money to go) and the long term ramifications of the whole shit show, now I read this: http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/02/05/OlympicPrivacy/ .
Let me see if I have this straight: I am going to pay almost six times the original amount that I didn’t agree to in the first place to be spied on and recorded not just for the few weeks of the Olympics, but likely for the rest of my days in Vancouver?
Awesome, just wanted to make sure.
I think there are way too many cameras in this city already, let alone setting up millions of dollars-worth more, and leaving them in place as a post-Olympic “security” network. Reading through the comments, a fairly consistent thread was that if you’re not doing anything wrong, then technically you shouldn’t mind the surveillance. Well frankly, I mind. There’s no evidence that they even work. I’m grateful that both the provincial and federal privacy commissioners are behind the removal of cameras post-Olympics, but there are still so many concerns about treading on people’s privacy during the games, that I must admit, I still have my reservations.
