Big Brother Insecure Mother

Internet Cameras. What are they? The price is a dead give-away that these devices are not your usual web cams. Like web cams, Internet cameras are... well they're “cameras” capable of capturing photos and videos but the similarity stops there. While a web cam needs an attached computer to function, an internet camera does not. With its built-in video stream encoder and the capability to function as a stand-alone web server it can function by itself. When connected to a wire or wireless network it can transmit the pictures and video it captures to any computer on the network or, if the network is itself connected to the internet, to any computer that has an internet connection outside of the network.

So really what’s so special about it, you ask? Well it makes for one excellent monitoring device. Picture this: you’re a proud over-protective parent of a two year old baby girl named Krissy and you had to let your previous yaya, let’s call her Ten-Ten, go because Ten-Ten unexpectedly found the “boy” next door a little bit too interesting. Feelings, as it turned out, were mutual and an “accident” occurred prompting you to seek new help. Suddenly yaya no. 2, let’s call this one Manang, walks to your door step and offers her services. You don’t know her, but you also can’t find any other person able to fill in for Ten-Ten and your boss has extended one too many sick leaves for your benefit.

What do you do?

Before internet cameras came along you either took a very large leap of faith with Manang hoping against hope she doesn’t turn out to be one of those maids from hell you read about in your Crim 2 cases or you hire someone to install a several hundred thousand pesos CCTV system in your home in the hope that at the end of the day you could watch either your faith rewarded or the evidence recorded for future criminal prosecution. In either case it was hard to keep an eye on what Manang was doing at home with you in the office all day. With an internet camera set up in your home together with a router and a reliable internet connection you can affordably keep reasonable tabs on Manang, watching her remotely through the camera from your office PC, hopefully catching her early enough to call the neighbors or the police if it ever comes to that.

Another feature which calls for another imagine scenario is motion detection. Imagine again if you please: You decide to bring the entire household for a week’s getaway in Cebu, with no one left except your chuwawa - Chewy to guard the house. An internet camera, in security mode, can keep tabs on your home by sending you an email with an attached photo or video clip in case someone unexpectedly enters your home. The camera does this by detecting motion in its field of vision. So if someone decides to rob you while you’re away in the far-flung island of Cebu you get the honor of finding out first, assuming you check your email often enough, and watch them haul away everything you own while your chuwawa barks helplessly in the background. Hopefully you regain your momentum, call the police and shout enough sense into them to send a dispatch early enough to catch the thieves before they can make a quick getaway.

This device can also have applications in places of business as well as the home. Having a few cameras pointed at key places (cashiers, places of entrance and exit) can go a long way to preventing loss of property from theft or robbery by acting as a deterrent.

Of course not everything that happens in the home or even in places of business may be desirably recorded. If people regularly visit you to talk about confidential matters, they may be turned off by the fact that cameras are pointed at them. It may even be a problem if you happen to forget to turn off the cameras and record a sensitive conversation, without the consent of the other party. This might even open you up to criminal liability down the line. I guess that’s probably the reason why these devices have such bright blue lights that turn on whenever they’re activated. Bright blue neon lights do not blend into backgrounds that well.

Another concern is that, when enabled, the ability to view the camera remotely (from a PC outside your network) opens up the possibility of someone else gaining access to the cameras after having successfully hacked your security measures. As a spying tool this technology presents an ethical problem. Undoubtly there are areas in the home and workplace where the employment of these devices violates a person’s right to privacy. The temptation is always great to monitor each and every aspect of business or the home to the point of near omni-presence but not everything that can be seen should be seen. It may be useful to remember that at least at one point in time in the Garden of Eden even God chose to be blind. Like a doubled edged sword this technology, which opens up amazing possibilities for over-protective parents and obsessive compulsive businessmen, is fraught with technological and ethical pit holes which one must learn to navigate around for it to be utilized it to its full potential.

Linus Madamba
Post#9