Electronic surveillance

Rise of the Surveillance Scooters?

Imagine being falsely accused of a crime, and even though you know you did nothing wrong, you’re forced to wear a tracking device that monitors every time you leave the house: where you go, when, and for how long. Even though you’re completely innocent, suddenly every errand and day trip is recorded, indefinitely, to be scrutinized, analyzed, and maybe even used against you.  Go to the doctor? They know. Go to AA? They know. Go anyplace where you prize your anonymity, and the government will still know.

Under Los Angeles’s new Mobility Data Specification, this could become the reality of millions of Angelenos in the coming months. No, I’m not actually talking about accused criminals — these Californians are charged with any no crime — rather, Los Angeles will deploy a massive surveillance dragnet targeting the less than menacing threat posed by…bikes and scooters. That’s right, a city-wide, real-time tracking network, a veritable Orwellian surveillance state, targeting the same sort of scooters popular with middle schoolers.