Results of Cambridge Microphone Installation Discussions

[trysha.livejournal.com]

From my last post, I followed this and did some research..

The Department of Homeland Security has given Cambridge (and other cities) a grant to install "shot spotter" technology around in urban areas.
My understanding is that this coming to Somerville soon.

This is a series of microphones placed on poles all across the city that constantly analyze the sounds in the area. Once the system detects a sound pattern that matches a "gunshot" it triangulates the location and sends this information to the police. It saves the recording of this event and the system operators have access to this recorded data.

The Cambridge police have assured us that this can only detect high decibel events.
However, this system is capable of recording voices (at least loud ones).

Now, I know that Cambridge and Somerville police are not plotting nefarious schemes here.
They are excited about cool new toys and cool ways of helping people.

Let's step back for a second.
The police are placing microphones across the city and then saying "trust us, we will only use this to help find gunshots". The good guys have this today.

As a software engineer I can make reasonable guesses as to how the system works. Let's just say that I am concerned.

The shot spotter website:
http://www.shotspotter.com/news/article/producers-blog-privacy-and-security-in-the-balance
Essentially says (paraphrased) "You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public area, you give your info to advertisers all the time anyway, so what does it matter".

Comments

not entirely new to our area

[ron_newman]

Boston has had this for a while.

I wonder if the frequent use of illegal fireworks will also set it off.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I 110% support installing shot spotters in Somerville. I am also a software engineer, which is entirely irrelevant.

Even if "the bad guys" (what?) take over the shot spotter system, when you are shouting so loud that a shot spotter detects your voice, I think you have completely lost any reasonable expectation of privacy related to the content of that audio.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Any technology that can be misused, eventually will be misused.

I know the usual argument is that "you have no expectation of privacy in a public area," but that was the rule before the evolution of technology that enabled mass surveillance of entire populations. Used to be that you had to target a specific individual and assign a detective to tail them, stake out their house, plant a listening device, etc. Now you can just cast a huge net and capture everything, and then use computer processing to find items of "interest", whatever those may be.

Its like a giant wooden horse, left as a gift.

[siderea]

In light of the revelations that the NSA was compromising commercial products, I'm concerned whenever the Federal government encourages/bribes municipalities to buy a specific thing.

Maybe I have attained a higher level of paranoia than most, but I think we have to consider the possibility that, quite aside from whatever capabilities the devices advertise, they may be carrying additional software (or even hardware) that only Feds know about and which are much more invasive or otherwise problematic than what makes it into the discussion.

I mean, I'm now at the point where if the DHS offered a grant for buying Acme brand shovels to fill pot holes -- or any shovels from the DHS Approved Vendors list -- I'd be like, "How do we know those shovels aren't bugged?"

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

it will be interesting in use, since i would expect most of the gun shots will be FROM the police.

mmm...

perhaps it'll be harder to cover things up.

if the bad guys know about the microphones, they will be more likely to use suppressors...

perhaps we should be more concerned about the toys to intercept cell phones? or all the cameras? plate scanners? and more. police state much? :D

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[enhf94.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, but my sense has been that most folks are less concerned about these things than I. Previous thread about Som'l surveillance cameras: http://davis-square.livejournal.com/3272953.html

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Cor, don't discuss your illegal business loudly on street corners!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how accurate spotcrime.com (http://spotcrime.com/timeline/ma/somerville) is, but assuming they have access to any public records of shootings, you have to go back to November of 2010 to find one in Somerville.

To my mind even using an police administrator to open a cardboard box containing one of these things would already be a waste of public resources.