Selling something in person? Meet in a public place, and bring a friend if you can. Libraries, police departments and municipal buildings are all safe bets. Check out police department safe-trading zones in your area.
See all the police surveillance tools used in your city
Over a million hobby drones are registered in the U.S. You may never know when you’re being watched. Check out my guide to avoiding drone surveillance. We wrote this after one hovered over my pool while I was swimming.
Have you ever stayed in an Airbnb? Hosts sometimes spy on their guests with hidden cameras. Yes, that happened to me, too. Use these tricks to catch them in the act.
Police departments are stepping up their surveillance, adding drones to their tech collection. How closely does your local department monitor you? Here’s a searchable website you can use to see.
Big Brother is watching
Atlas of Surveillance is a searchable database project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It shows which surveillance technologies — such as drones, automated license plate readers, and facial recognition — are used by law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
The pilot program began as a collaboration between the EFF and the University of Nevada’s Reno Reynolds School of Journalism in 2019.
The information comes from public records, crowdsourcing, data journalism, news stories, social media posts, press releases, and volunteer assistance. As of November 2022, the Atlas of Surveillance had 10,000 data points, with at least partial data on 5,500 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states, plus most territories and districts.
The Atlas of Surveillance site says its information is only as good as the source and that government agencies can withhold information. Plus, there’s always the chance of misinterpretation.
While it’s impossible to fact-check every data point, each one is reviewed by multiple journalism students and staff. Let’s have a closer look at what it shows.
Types of surveillance in use around the country
Does a camera on every street corner make you nervous? Do you worry that your face is constantly being scanned against a database of who-knows-who? Some people don’t mind it, and others are bothered by it.
Check this site to see all the high-tech surveillance your local police use
There are over a million hobby drones registered in the U.S. Add in the unregistered ones, and who knows how high the numbers go. The point is you may never know when you’re being watched. Here are a few steps you can take to avoid invasive drone surveillance.
🚦 Cop-out behavior: Two Missouri police officers got busted using traffic stops as a way to see naked pics of women. One former officer reportedly searched 20 different phones last year. He told the victims he was looking at their phones for insurance info, then, if he found racy pics on their devices, he snapped photos of them with his own phone. He and another trooper pleaded not guilty.
$108,150 salary
To be a cop in Plano, Texas. Big-city police departments were having trouble recruiting, so they pulled out all the stops (paywall link). Perks include take-home cars, paid workout hours and a relaxed tattoo policy. It’s working — more officers joined in 2023 than in the four years prior.
List: 10 cities where surveillance cameras are always watching
Want to get away from the hustle and bustle? Rental companies like Airbnb and Vrbo can provide the space you need anywhere you want. Can you truly relax knowing that you might be on camera? Tap or click here for a hidden camera detector to bring to your hotel room or rental.
Police could access your security camera feed, unless you take this step
For some time now, Amazon’s Ring has been partnering with hundreds of police departments across the country. If a crime occurs near homes with Ring cameras, police can ask to look at video footage from them.
Ring’s surveillance partnership doesn’t exactly sit well with everyone. Some say it’s a form of security overreach. Tap or click to see how many police departments are working with Ring to fight crime.
You can stop police from asking for your Ring doorbell videos - here's how
We’ve seen a lot of news about Ring video doorbells lately. None of it good.
For example, we recently learned hackers found a way to take control of Ring devices that have microphones and built-in cameras. Not only that, but thousands of Ring passwords were leaked online. Tap or click here for all the gory details.