September 2001
Watch Battery
Call it paranoia or call it sensible awareness: an anonymous group of folks at
www.DERGROSSEBRUDER.net are watching Munich’s government observing you. In a leaflet being circulated around the city by the surveillance protesters, the group claims that Munich’s train and subway stations are currently fitted with more than 650 video cameras, its innercity with more than 150—many of them disguised as ultra-modern light fixtures. Indeed, a surf on the DGB Web site reveals photographs of numerous hidden cameras throughout the Bavarian capital. Though DGB concedes that some of the cameras are meant to deter shoplifters or to help find sought criminals, the organization poses the same question opponents are asking worldwide: how are the video tapes being evaluated and at what point is government peeping an invasion of privacy? For more information—albeit in German—on this and other such issues as censorship on the Internet and cellular phone call monitoring, visit the DGB Web site, where you can take part in a discussion forum. (No hat and sunglasses are required.)
