I didn't know which blog to publish this in, so I 've used my most popular blog, with over 65,000 page views:
The average American is now videotaped and recorded more times in a day than a Hollywood star fifty years ago. Americans today accept all the cameras watching them. Public surveillance cameras and traffic light cameras. Inside hospitals, Uber cars, restaurants, and maybe your own home. A smartphone tracks everywhere you go, and those data provide incredibly detailed information about you.
According to Social Media Statistics 2020: Top Networks by the Number Facebook alone has over 300 million photos uploaded DAILY. An article published by the Daily Mail reports that the typical American is recorded by security cameras 238 times a week. The information was obtained from Safety.com whose security team conducted a study on surveillance technology. Their average figure includes:
Video taken at work:
average employee spotted
on cameras 40 times per week
Video taken on the road:
Americans are filmed 160 times while driving
Video taken in stores
Video taken in homes and
neighborhoods: 14 times per week
A survey from IPVM in 2016 found that most people assumed they were being recorded less than five times a day. The example of a typical day was taken from that report:
Here's a theoretical example of reality with a running total of 58 cameras likely to be photographing you on typical day:
8:00AM:
4 Cameras – Get a cup of coffee – 4 cameras in Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts
8:30AM:
24 Cameras – School or office – cameras in parking lot and interior, you will be picked up at various angles by 20 cameras at least.
12:15PM:
30 Cameras – Stop at ATM before lunch for cash. Bank will have exterior cameras, ATM will have close-up camera
12:30PM:
38 Cameras – Go get lunch – 4 cameras at lunch spot, plus 4 more easily ay surrounding businesses
5:00PM:
45 Cameras – Leave work, go to gym to work out. Camera at check-in desk, plus in 6-8 in workout area
5:45PM:
46 Cameras – Stop to pick up dry cleaning. Camera at front register
6:00PM:
52 Cameras – Stop for gas. Cameras at pumps and in store
6:15PM:
54 Cameras – Quick car wash. Cameras at entry and in-bay
7:00PM:
58 Cameras – Pick up kids from practice/game. Cameras in school parking lot or on building exterior
Dan Avery, author of the article on the Daily Mail writes reports that by next year, there will be approximately one billion security cameras operating around the globe. And 10 to 18 percent of them will be in the United States. In 2019, with 70 million cameras in the US, there was at least one security camera for every 4.6 Americans, putting the US as the second-highest ratio. China, being the first, has 4.1 cameras per person.
An International study carried out by Queen Mary University of London and the Chinese Academy of Science discovered they could tell if someone was home, and even what they were doing in the home, just by looking at data uploaded by their home security camera, without monitoring the video footage itself. And of course as we just published, the microphones embedded in your smart devices can record you and are being used more and more often by police.
I thought you'd be interested.
Men, be sure your fly is zipped up at all times!