Video Surveillance Gets Smarter in Verbania

Verbania, the capital of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, was created when the towns of Intra and Pallanza merged. The decision was made to design a video surveillance system for monitoring certain strategic locations in the town (which has the peculiarity of being divided into several sections), including streets and critical zones such as pedestrian walkways, ferry terminals and the dock area.

White House Shares Surveillance Documents With House Judiciary

The Bush administration agreed this week to show the full House Judiciary Committee legal documents related to its post-Sept. 11 warrant less surveillance program. The move came as House-Senate staff negotiations continued Thursday over an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which one aide expected to be “intense.”

Lawmakers Let Surveillance Law Lapse

Members of the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives allowed a law that expanded the U.S. government's surveillance capabilities to lapse this weekend rather than pass a more permanent measure that would give immunity to the telecommunications companies that had previously cooperated with the Bush Administration's potentially illegal domestic wiretapping program.

Rethinking Surveillance

Video surveillance has become a fact of everyday life. Each time you withdraw cash from the corner ATM, travel through an airport or visit a national monument, your image is probably being recorded.

But you may be surprised to learn that there are no federal laws governing how these images can be used, where they should be stored, with whom they may be shared and when they must be destroyed. In this age of YouTube, TMZ and "Cops," it's hard to know where your image might reappear.