Watching Big Brother

Surveillance cameras that keep watch over our daily activities are now being watched. An advocacy group has teamed up with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher to give pedestrians an online map of camera locations in Manhattan.

Tad Hirsch, a research assistant at MIT’s Media Lab, has adapted a desktop version of the iSee Project for use in handheld devices using Java programming language.

Walkers can roam Manhattan armed with information that will allow them to steer clear of cameras if they wish, though escaping the cameras’ unblinking gaze may not be easy.

Privacy advocates have added hundreds of cameras to the Manhattan map using a Web-based interface, developed by the Institute of Applied Autonomy, an activist organization concerned about surveillance.