Surveillance cameras must vanish after Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics

[Bluebear]

Refreshing!

====

Surveillance cameras at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver must not be used by police to monitor the city's residents after the games, the privacy commissioners of Canada and British Columbia said Monday.

"People who spend a lot of time thinking about the privacy of our citizens are worried that once the games are over, the surveillance may not disappear, and there may be new ways that are thought up to justify keeping the surveillance apparatus with us," said federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.

"That's very, very worrisome."...

Stoddart and B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukidelis spoke at a Victoria security and privacy workshop focused on the Olympics.

Of particular concern were hundreds of security cameras expected to be placed in and around Olympic venues. After the 2004 games in Athens, police there turned the cameras into a citizen-surveillance network.

"I can ensure you any plan or proposal or supposition that the City of Vancouver will keep video cameras in the downtown core simply because they are there after the Games, simply doesn't fly with me," Loukidelis said.

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=a48cc2a0-962a-4721-881b-718c18f9ed6e