Prick up your ears. And your eyes. CCTV is doing more than just watching you. It's figuring out your race.

Benjamin Males, a twenty-five year-old mechanical engineer and recent graduate of London's Royal College of Art, has written software and retro-fitted a CCTV (Closed Caption TV) camera that he bought on eBay to identify individuals by race. The Racial Targeting System is called The RTS-2. 

PCW Business Center has the story:   

The RTS-2 (Racial Targeting System) is essentially an automated racial-profiling tool, one that governments and police have not dared touch due to privacy and human-rights concerns, even though the technical capabilities already exist.

However, Males built the camera in an attempt to raise awareness of such issues among the public, which often appears oblivious to how frequently it is surveyed by CCTV (closed-circuit television) due to the prevalence of the cameras, especially in the U.K.

Surveillance cameras "have a significant effect on our lives and civil liberties," Males said. "We, as the public, aren't really in a position to discuss them or critique them because they are developed behind closed doors."

Fascinating. CCTV cameras have been a permanent fixture in London going back to the 1960s when they were first used as a tool to watch and track terrorists dispatched by the IRA. Images from London's CCTV cameras have more recently identified several high-profile Muslim terrorists, including Yassin Omar, a failed 7/21 train bomber who tried to flee the country dressed in a full-length black burka and carrying a white handbag. Last week, Omar's fiancée, Fardosa Abdullahi, was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in helping Omar escape. 

CCTV cameras are springing up all across America. Look up at your next traffic light and you'll see. 

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