Politician Caught with His Pants Down Sparks Privacy Debate
July 3, 2012 at 7:29 pm | Identity Theft News, Identity Theft Victims | No comment
The notion of leaders going wild will surely gain new meaning in the land most famous for Mozart and “The Sound of Music.” A recent Der Spiegel article reports that “[w]ildlife cameras set up in the woods of the Austrian state of Carinthia have captured the sexual exploits of an unidentified local politician.” This has led to something more than an embarrassment; a heated debate has ensued concerning the limits to surveillance and the tremendous need for personal privacy.
The identity of this randy politician has gone undisclosed, and will likely remain so as public debate rages as to the sanctity of discretion and its applicability to the elected official’s antics.
Certain interested parties have called for the elimination of video cameras from Austrian wilderness areas. Hunters in such regions have long relied on this technology to help them to spot game – red deer, wild boar and so on. Needless to say, should this ban on wilderness video cameras take effect, hunters in Carinthia and elsewhere will find their interests affected.
Hans Zeger of the nongovernmental organization ARGE Daten has spoken out against the use of videosurveillance in the woods. As the Der Spiegel article reports, Zeger has waxed critical on the issue, “saying that the automatic cameras pose a threat to individuals’ privacy rights.” He has thus recommended that, failing their removal altogether from wild Austrian spaces, they should at least bear telltale signs, so folks wandering the woods, upon seeing them, may “adjust their behavior and avoid the monitored areas.”
Yet blazoning forest surveillance video cameras with bright colors and big letters would essentially negate their effectiveness, which depends on camouflage and inconspicuousness in order to film their intended subjects. Evidently, however, these cameras may have proven a little more effective than intended, filming unsuspecting trysters along with the more frequently appearing fauna.
An attorney for the Carinthian hunters point to the uniqueness of this incident involving the unnamed politician. The isolated nature of this event surely doesn’t justify the wholesale removal of these vital tools of his clients, the attorney argued, pointing out further that the offended politician had violated local ordinances that prohibit venturing into monitored land.
The allergy to anything redolent of Big-Brother governance techniques has led to a general suspicion of surveillance technology among Austrians, who show themselves willing to grant the horny pol a pass for his sylvan exhibition. To date, footage of his activities remain under lock and key, and he can fully expect that they remain so for some time to come.
Though humorous, this story of the horny Austrian politician brings up the very serious issue of individual privacy, and the role that data play in this. Video surveillance has more or less completely saturated the landscape. This means that responsibility to protect yourself from exploitation falls to you – and you alone. Taking the appropriate action today can spare you a lot of grief in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
