4 ms·

the tldr seems to be that these streetlights are being presented as automated maintenance systems, but are being used by the police for surveillance. This is wo

the tldr seems to be that these streetlights are being presented as automated maintenance systems, but are being used by the police for surveillance. This is worrying, I would definitely support a law that said all government owned audio/video/3d/biometric/etc recording devices must be clearly marked as such. I might also be in favor of the same law for privately owned devices that are recording public areas. I didn't really read the whole thing though, it was painful, I wouldn't have made it past the first line but I saw that this thread seemed to be bumped by mods. so I assumed it must be for a reason.

sulam 4y ago
What was your signal that it was bumped by mods?
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  It came out of the second chance pool (go to the bottom, Lists -> Pool). Originally posted yesterday.
- dec0dedab0de 4y ago
  The original few comments had different timestamps if you clicked on them. That seems to have been updated since, but if you look in the commenters history it still has the old time stamp. It could just be an unrelated glitch, but my guess is that the story was submitted yesterday, never made it past new, and one of the mods thought it was important enough to deserve a boost and reposted it. Or maybe there was a natural dupe unrelated to mods. but then the two threads merged and the previous comments had their timestamps updated. Maybe there was a validation error and it was done manually to have the timestamps on the comments be larger than the timestamp on the story, or maybe its a bug in the merging process. really it was just a guess at hn internals.
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    It's not a glitch or an error, it's how the second chance pool works. They give them a new time when they get a fresh start. Their timestamp is temporarily updated, and any existing comments get that same timestamp. I think (but have never seen this confirmed) that this is a way to game the existing voting system (posts are ranked by a combination of votes, age, and comment activity). By giving them an artificially "young" age they move up in the ranking to hit the front page, giving them a chance for more votes (to remain on the front page) and comments. After a few hours the original timestamp gets restored. Revisit this tomorrow (certainly) or in a few hours and the times will change.
ianbicking 4y ago
Geez, streetlights ARE surveillance technologies. They get put in so people can see each other and surveille them. And what do they suggest police are going to do? Track the movement of political dissidents? Ain't no one got time for that kind of spy shit. People need to stop imagining they live in a dystopian movie. The one realistic use/abuse I can see now is tracking homeless people and keeping them from stopping anywhere overnight. Still way too much effort for most police, but maybe in some gated-community-wannabe location.
- dec0dedab0de 4y ago
  Geez, streetlights ARE surveillance technologies. They get put in so people can see each other and surveille them. The article makes that point too, but from the perspective that they have always been bad. Which I find almost as absurd as thinking it's ok to have disguised electronic surveillance run by the government and deployed at scale.

sulam 4y ago

What was your signal that it was bumped by mods?

Jtsummers 4y ago
It came out of the second chance pool (go to the bottom, Lists -> Pool). Originally posted yesterday.
dec0dedab0de 4y ago
The original few comments had different timestamps if you clicked on them. That seems to have been updated since, but if you look in the commenters history it still has the old time stamp. It could just be an unrelated glitch, but my guess is that the story was submitted yesterday, never made it past new, and one of the mods thought it was important enough to deserve a boost and reposted it. Or maybe there was a natural dupe unrelated to mods. but then the two threads merged and the previous comments had their timestamps updated. Maybe there was a validation error and it was done manually to have the timestamps on the comments be larger than the timestamp on the story, or maybe its a bug in the merging process. really it was just a guess at hn internals.
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  It's not a glitch or an error, it's how the second chance pool works. They give them a new time when they get a fresh start. Their timestamp is temporarily updated, and any existing comments get that same timestamp. I think (but have never seen this confirmed) that this is a way to game the existing voting system (posts are ranked by a combination of votes, age, and comment activity). By giving them an artificially "young" age they move up in the ranking to hit the front page, giving them a chance for more votes (to remain on the front page) and comments. After a few hours the original timestamp gets restored. Revisit this tomorrow (certainly) or in a few hours and the times will change.

ianbicking 4y ago

Geez, streetlights ARE surveillance technologies. They get put in so people can see each other and surveille them. And what do they suggest police are going to do? Track the movement of political dissidents? Ain't no one got time for that kind of spy shit. People need to stop imagining they live in a dystopian movie. The one realistic use/abuse I can see now is tracking homeless people and keeping them from stopping anywhere overnight. Still way too much effort for most police, but maybe in some gated-community-wannabe location.

dec0dedab0de 4y ago
Geez, streetlights ARE surveillance technologies. They get put in so people can see each other and surveille them. The article makes that point too, but from the perspective that they have always been bad. Which I find almost as absurd as thinking it's ok to have disguised electronic surveillance run by the government and deployed at scale.