‘Strong opposition to San Diego’s “Smart” streetlights has been reported before. In addition to invading privacy, for many years already The American Medical Association (AMA) and other health experts have been warning about the serious biological and environmental risks associated with them. An increasing number of Americans are NOT happy about having them installed in their communities.
Thanks to PrivateInternetAccess.com for providing an update including more unsavory details regarding San Diego’s situation.
As you walk down the street, it’s hard to imagine that your privacy could be violated by the street light above you – but in San Diego, California, this nightmare is currently reality. San Diego’s City Council is seeking a moratorium on a contract that allowed General Electric (GE) to install thousands of surveillance cameras and microphones in city street lights, and sell the data collected from these cameras and microphones to third parties. The Union Tribune also found that San Diego’s city council had approved police access to these cameras and microphones.
The total amount of money that GE has earned from selling information garnered from their street light cameras is currently unknown, though California Globe claims it to be over 1 billion USD. What is known, is that GE earned 30 million USD from San Diego’s city council to install these cameras and microphones in street lights under the guise of looking at traffic flows and environmental data and has the legal, government granted rights to sell whatever “source data” is gleaned from the surveillance equipment.’
