Is there any right to privacy?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kobrin, Steve" <kobrins () wharton upenn edu>
Date: October 16, 2005 5:13:32 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Is there any right to privacy?


I just took a cab from the SF airport into the city and noticed a  
sticker that said something to the effect that the cab was equipped  
with a camera and pictures would be taken of every passenger.  Sure  
enough there was a large camera port staring at me from the top of  
the dashboard.



What right does a taxi company have to take my picture as a condition  
of transport?  Whose business is it other than mine that I choose to  
take a taxi at any point in time?  Any argument that pictures of taxi  
passengers could be valuable in solving a crime or terrorist attack  
is true but trivial.  So would embedded RFD tags in all of us or a  
complete map of surveillance cameras in every city.  At some point,  
the invasion of privacy has to be justified in terms of potential  
results.



Furthermore, as I suspect that not every passenger in a taxi would  
like who they are riding with or where they are going – to say  
nothing of what they may be doing in the back seat -- to be public  
knowledge, the potential for misuse of this information is very real.



Steve



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