For decades, Americans have grown used to being videotaped just about everywhere, especially since 9/11. We’ve grown to accept this invasion of privacy as the new norm. But occasionally we let our guard down and, well, end up having our secrets shown on a Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.

For a long time now, videocams have been at stores, bars, parking lots, hotels, hospitals, government offices, and events – they're just about everywhere. I’ve even seen drones used in local parks and trails for surveillance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the state DEC had cams mounted on deer heads to film hikers deviating from marked trails or lighting cigarettes.

And online? Our every click, viewing time and content is tracked and shared with multiple companies and entities; we have no control or knowledge. And until now, we’ve mostly been OK with all of it. We live in glass houses – fully transparent whether we like it or not. Surprisingly, few states nor the federal government have offered much privacy comfort. New York doesn’t have a singular statewide ban on using the latest surveillance technology – facial recognition (biometrics) in private businesses. But people are starting to wake up, and push back.

The situation seems to be changing in part because these cameras have gone from passive recorders to being connected to AI and networks. Video cameras now act like networked scanners that continuously search for “misbehavior” and automatically dole out punishments in real time, everywhere. The nature and implications of this are huge. But what seems to have set off this latest pushback is, of all things, automated speeding tickets.

People hate automated speeding tickets because they’re widely viewed as revenue-generating cash grabs rather than genuine safety tools. There are also concerns about fairness, due process, and financial hardship. Automated systems lack the common sense and flexibility of a human police officer. Also, flat-rate fines hit low-income families and working-class drivers the hardest, while wealthy drivers treat them as a minor "cost of doing business.” As such, Kingston and Ulster County’s sense of social justice beg the question – is this fair? In addition to questioning the fairness of it all, there is also a growing sense that we are losing something intangible that we have a right to expect – the right to privacy.

It's interesting to note that the word "privacy" does not appear anywhere in the United States Constitution, and there is no amendment that explicitly states that citizens have a right to privacy. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized an implied right to privacy, or "zone of privacy,” derived from unstated guarantees of several explicit constitutional amendments, as well as the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause. But today, technology is driving right through those limited protections. Flock cameras and facial recognition, online monitoring, spyware, ring cameras, drones, social media and other technologies have effectively stripped away our privacy. And we’ve done most of this willingly, and in some cases, actually pay for it.

You may have wondered if our cell phones really listen in on our conversations. Well, it’s a complicated answer of yes and not entirely. But “all is OK, if you're a law-abiding citizen – then you don’t have to worry” is a common reply when privacy concerns are raised. But this is backwards. We should have a right to privacy and it should be protected.

Our current situation is exactly what Edward Snowden, the former in-exile CIA employee, warned us about. The extensive deployment of video scanners - called ALPRs (for Automated License Plate Readers) have helped to create a mass surveillance society like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Newer software and camera capabilities go beyond license plate reading to detecting human features, body structure, clothing, bicycles and even wireless/Bluetooth signals. These are technologies that a police state like China and North Korea employs. But in our nation, this technology is in the hands of private companies, who are increasingly offering to deploy it for local governments. For money-hungry governments, this seems like a great solution to their fiscal woes. Local governments sell their citizens right to privacy for a buck, while a private company makes money up front on installation and also takes a large percentage of all ticketing, profiting more from more tickets. It is here where moral hazard lies.

Last week, Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger issued an executive order prohibiting the county from using Flock camera technology and other AI-assisted surveillance tools. It’s a start and a good move. Flock Cameras, by the way, are a specific brand of ALPRs and today the name is often used generically to refer to any type of ALPR, like Kleenex is for tissues. In addition to the latest county executive’s move, the county sheriff’s office has announced it will also stop plans to add more ALPRs, but as of now, they will continue to use the AI-assisted surveillance tech. These are encouraging developments. In the meantime, the City of Kingston continues to use its scanning cameras to automatically send out thousands of tickets to speeders around three schools in town. And the funds from those tickets are already accounted for in the city’s budget. Guess they’re here to stay.

It's not just governments going all in on surveillance. As the lines between one’s home and office blur, so to have the lines of surveillance, to encompass everything, everywhere all at once. Remember, New York State is an “at will” employment state – in the absence of an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any legal reason or no reason at all, anytime and anywhere. Your email, internet habits, and behavior are recorded and monitored. If you are blending personal and company cell phone use, computer use or Wi-Fi use, you open a window for your employer to monitor almost everything. And it’s all perfectly legal! so long as the company notifies you in writing at some point (often at time of hiring, or hanging a poster in an office) that they have the right to do so. And as bad as surveillance is in the private sector, government employees can expect even less of a right to privacy. Public employees work in a virtual fishbowl with everything monitored and videoed – like the 10 cameras surrounding the UCAT headquarters.

I applaud the county executive’s recent decision to halt using ALPRs and mass surveillance tech. But since it doesn’t impact the sheriff's office, or carry weight beyond county property, it’s limited.

What we need is for our state representatives to push forward several privacy bills currently being considered in Albany, including a Constitutional Right to Privacy (N.Y. Senate Bill 2025-S3920): This proposed concurrent resolution seeks to amend Article 1 of the New York State Constitution to explicitly establish a fundamental right to personal privacy. There are many reasons to insist on the right to privacy, but to me, the most important is that it gives people the freedom to think, feel, experiment and make personal life choices (such as relationships, faith and medical decisions) without the pressure of being judged or monitored.

It’s about personal autonomy and dignity. As AI and technology continue to erode our humanity, making sure we have a right to privacy needs to be explicitly outlined as rights of citizens. Thankfully, in our community, this important discussion has finally been started.