SRC-DST

Video surveillance will take on a whole new meaning if the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is successful in implementing
technologies being developed under contracts to private firms worth
nearly $20 million. The method, dubbed the Video and Image Retrieval
and Analysis Tool (VIRAT) will analyze regular video as well as
infrared scanners and archive based on classes of activities or events
which includes digging, loitering, walking to following, gathering,
kissing and even shaking hands. This system is aimed at indexing and
searching databases of videos of movement automatically without human
interference.

Previously, EPIC had urged the scrutiny of the Department of Homeland
Security's proposal of overseeing vast amounts of digital fingerprints,
photographs and other personal information. Few years earlier, the
General Accounting Office had issued a report that identified almost
200 Federal data mining projects that were operational or were being
planned. EPIC had also obtained under the Freedom of Information Act
internal communications between DARPA employees considering data broker
Acxiom as a supplier of personal information for Total Information
Awareness (TIA).

DARPA building search engine for video surveillance footage:
http://epic.org/redirect/102408_ArsTechina_vidsrvlnc.html

DARPA Contract Description Hints at Advanced Video Spying:
http://epic.org/redirect/102408_WPOST_darpa.html

EPIC's page on Total Information Awareness:
http://epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/

- The rights to data protection and privacy are fundamental
rights of every individual irrespective of his nationality or
residence.
- With the expansion of the information society, the rights to
data protection and privacy are essential conditions in a
democratic society to safeguard the respect for the rights of
individuals, a free flow of information and an open market
economy.
- The globalisation of information exchange and personal data
processing, the complexity of systems, the potential harms
derived from the misuse of more and more powerful
technologies and the increase of security measures require a
quick and adequate answer to guarantee the respect for rights
and fundamental freedoms, and in particular the right to
privacy.
- The persisting data protection and privacy disparities in the
world, in particular due to the fact that many states have
not yet passed adequate laws, harm the exchange of personal
information and the implementation of effective global data
protection.

More:

Council of Europe, "Convention for the Protection of Individuals with
Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data"
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/108.htm

Council of Europe, "Convention on Cybercrime":
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/185.htm

EPIC, Privacy Law Sourcebook (contains COE Convention 108):
http://epic.org/bookstore/pls2004/