Tuesday, April 12, 2011

thermal cameras look inside homes to monitor energy efficiency

 The city of Boston has been taken to task by the ACLU over concerns about a roll-out of thermal imaging cameras being used to monitor energy efficiency inside homes.

The project had been halted following public outcry about invasions of privacy, namely that  
“infrared cameras would reveal information about what’s going on inside the homes.”
Further objections have been raised about potential violations of the Fourth Amendment.

MIT, who helped develop the technology’s use for energy tracking, has already thermally-mapped the entire city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their press writers brag that automated cameras attached to vehicles would collect data “similar to the way Google Street View vehicles obtain visual imagery."
Apparently there is a training course being offered in level 1 Thermography
specifically for the purpose of home auditing.

No doubt the technology could be used for good, but only if voluntarily employed by individual home or business owners. Combining Google-style omnipresence and intrusion into the lives of ordinary people with cap & trade-like policies is certainly a recipe for tyranny.

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