With the recent discussion on the EU wanting access to our encrypted messages bringing privacy on the foreground again, there's another privacy issue I would like to point on.

Belgium (and especially Flanders Region) is building a dense surveillance camera network rapidly. Along (major) roads, most of these cameras consist of an ANPR camera and dome camera. Thus, they capture their environment as well as monitoring all passing traffic.

Originally intended (or so the government claims) to track criminal traffic, stolen cars etc., they have since been used for average speed checks on a large scale, and more recently for other law-enforcement purposes, such as tracking licence plates for which tax hasn't been paid.

However, the combination of the speed at which this network is being deployed, the right-wing government in Flanders Region, and the fact that they're used for far more purposes than they were intended to, may indicate a wider purpose: a government surveillance system.

Given the density of this network, it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid these government tracking devices. The fact that they're not just number plate readers means cyclists and pedestrians are not exception to the surveillance!

The first step to avoiding the eyes of the State is knowing where they are, and therefore it's important to have an accurate and complete dataset of surveillance cameras.

On #OpenStreetMap, surveillance cameras are represented by the man_made=surveillance tag; additional information can be represented by a variety of tags, which are well described on the OSM wiki.

Next time you pass one of these cameras, consider adding them to OSM! #MapComplete has a nice theme for surveillance cameras, which makes it easy to add them to OSM: https://mapcomplete.org/surveillance.html.

#OSMTaggingTips

Surveillance under Surveillance

Surveillance cameras and other means of surveillance

@queerthoughts it's the same in Wallonia and I'm sure it's against EU law. But of course the government is exempt from any such petty concerns.

The network is getting so dense it's becoming impractical to avoid being photographed on almost any journey. 🀬

@queerthoughts You should be careful with the wording. It’s probably not government surveillance on purpose, but will be what it ends up being.