RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

Reading this Boing Boing this morning, I find an absolutely crazy story (it is via US media…but still).

US “Sky Marshals” are required, by management, to file one SDR, Surveillance Detection Report, a month whether the surveillance is real or not.

The interview is with an ex-marshal who apparently lost his job after trying to change these procedures.

The ex-marshal, Tony Kovaleski, explains to the reporter that initially management did not want “inaccurate or frivolous” reports being generated.

Subsequent memos from management changed this line to “there may come an occasion when you just don’t see anything out of the ordinary for a month at a time, but I’m sure that if you are looking for it, you’ll see something”. Effectively requiring these unfortunate people to fabricate surveillance.

One example, according to air marshals, occurred on one flight leaving Las Vegas, when an unknowing passenger, most likely a tourist, was identified in an SDR for doing nothing more than taking a photo of the Las Vegas skyline as his plane rolled down the runway.

GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out.
The real bind for these Surveillance Officers is that the amount of SDR filed, is directly related to their pay, and bonus. Don’t file enough SDRs, and you don’t get a nice bonus.

This could have serious consequences on people who do everyday normal things, like take photos of skylines, etc…something everyone has done at least once.

TJ McIntyre also picked this up via Metafilter.

Technorati Tags: digital rights ireland , data privacy , surveillance