Tag: mass surveillance

Michigan Governor: Up To Six Months In Prison If Businesses Don’t Surveil Customers For Contact Tracing

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is requiring restaurants, barbershops, tattoo parlors, recreational facilities, and entertainment establishments to record the names, contact information, and visit times of all customers to “aid with contact tracing.” Any establishment that does not comply is threatened with a maximum $200 fine, a misdemeanor charge punishable with up to six months in prison, and a $1,000 civil fine for violating the state’s emergency orders.

The order, announced Friday, comes as Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her administration began backtracking on the state’s latest reopening plan and tightening COVID-19 restrictions, citing rising hospitalizations and deaths. Other states including New York have implemented similar contact tracing rules, requiring restaurants to record diners’ information in the case of an outbreak.

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Michigan unveils order forcing restaurants to record ‘names and phone numbers’ of customers

Restaurants in Michigan will be required to take down the names and phone numbers of customers beginning Monday, Nov. 2.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the new order on Thursday, which will require restaurants to note the date and time of entry for customers who visit the premises.

“All dine-in food service establishments must maintain accurate records of the names and phone numbers of patrons who purchase food for consumption on the premises, and the date and time of entry,” the order stated.

The order also requires schools and businesses to “aid in contact tracing and case investigation efforts” during a time when positive tests for the virus have surged in the state.

The press release also noted changes in the capacity limits for indoor events such as weddings, parties, and banquets. The order reduces the number of people who can gather at these events from 500 to 50.

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The Most Surveilled Cities in the World

According to a study by research website Comparitech, most of the world’s most surveilled cities are located in China. The country has been making headlines for its generous use of surveillance technology and is featured heavily throughout the whole ranking that looked at the 150 most populous cities worldwide, excluding those for which insufficient data was available.

The Chinese city of Taiyuan, located in the Shanxi province roughly 300 miles Southwest of Beijing, tops the list with 120 public CCTV cameras per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest-ranked non-Chinese city is London, also notorious for its strict surveillance of public spaces, with 67 cameras per 1,000 people, with Los Angeles the highest-ranked U.S. city in the ranking with 6 cameras per 1,000 inhabitants.

CCTV technology is controversial in many places around the world, with proponents touting its benefits for fighting crime and opponents cautious about surveillance’s potential to be used as a tool of public control and to violate privacy rights. The makers of the survey said that they found little correlation between lower crime rates or a heightened feeling of security and surveillance in the cities surveyed.

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National Guard Spy Plane Monitored Racial Justice Protest in Sleepy Sacramento Suburb Where Commander Lives: Report

Residents of a Sacramento suburb were left scratching their heads and asking questions on Sunday following a report that a National Guard spy plane was deployed to the largely gated community—where the commander of the California National Guard resides—to monitor racial justice protests earlier this year. 

The Los Angeles Times reports RC-26 reconnaissance planes were deployed to monitor protests in three major cities in early June: Washington, D.C., Phoenix, and Minneapolis, where police killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on May 25.

A fourth RC-26  was dispatched to an unlikely location: the affluent Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, where it—along with an Air National Guard Lakota helicopter—watched protesters below. 

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