Steve Mann's words from the politechbot link above are telling.
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 23:09:23 -0500 (EST)
From: mann@eecg.toronto.edu
To: declan@well.com
Subject: Re: airport security; What's the problem with totalitarianism...
Cc: mann@eecg.toronto.edu
Declan, here's a response for your list, which I think your politech readers
may find to be of interest:
In my new book (published through Randomhouse, Doubleday, with link
from http://wearcam.org/cyborg.htm) I introduce the notion of
sousveillance (inverse surveillance). Following Simon Davies' definition
of "totalitarian regime" we can use a camera as a simple totalitarian
tester, e.g. what happens when ordinary citizens photograph officials,
(and perhaps enter their faces into a database)? If the officials
are upset, we have what we might call a "totalitarian regime".
Davies notes that a totalitarian regime is one in which the regime
would like to know everything about everyone but reveal nothing about
itself. Thus the real question is not so much whether or not we
have face cams, but, the real question is whether or not officials
also submit to being held accountable (e.g. by way of sousveillance),
in the same way we submit to surveillance.
In my book I describe 20 years of wearing camera systems, in most
day-to-day life, and how people have responded. Most notable is
the response of officials. It seems that officials are the ones
most afraid of accountability.
Thus the creation of World Sousveillance Day (http://wearcam.org/wsd.htm)
every year, December 24th in which passengers photograph cab drivers,
customers photograph shopkeepers, citizens photograph police, etc..
There is also a photo competition to encourage participants to send
in pictures to be included in a national face recognition database.
********