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We are entering surveillance society. Just take a taxi from the San Francisco Airport and you will discover a little camera in the front of the car that films you all the way downtown to your hotel.

On the side window a warning sign says: “You are on camera” and the system is ironically called “silent witness”.It might be silent but it is real. The pictures taken in the cab are directly processed to the San Francisco Police Department. Whenever the folks down there want to watch you riding in the cab they can do so. I am not behaving badly in a taxi but do I want to be on camera every second of my ride? Do I want them to watch me making a phone call and hear what I’m saying? Do I want them to know where I got on the taxi and where it will drop me off? No, certainly not!

This system is mandatory for every taxi by San Francisco City Law for the sake of the drivers’ security. That’s an important aspect as well as my privacy. I am pretty sure this will be become one of the bigger issues of the next decade. Security versus privacy. While riding that taxi I guess: it already is.