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by com2kid 3058 days ago
> Do you have cameras looking at you all day at work?

Anyone who works in an office complex does. Anyone who works in a retail store does. Bus drivers have cameras recording the entire time the bus engine is on.

Aside from a farmer in a field, I'm hard pressed to think of a job that doesn't take place under a security camera. Taxi Driver, delivery agents, street food vendors, and people who work at home remotely.

5 comments

> Anyone who works in an office complex does.

Maybe change that to "many people"; "anyone" isn't accurate. For example, at my workplace, there are security cameras at a couple of the doors, but none in the office itself. I don't think I'd stay long if there were a bunch of cameras here.

> Maybe change that to "many people"; "anyone" isn't accurate. For example, at my workplace, there are security cameras at a couple of the doors, but none in the office itself. I don't think I'd stay long if there were a bunch of cameras here.

All the big tech cos I've seen have cameras everywhere. The cameras aren't typically for the employees, they are to keep visitors from walking off with valuables.

I've heard of my coworkers having entire computers swiped, and smaller items like phones were also at risk. An old office manager had someone go through a pallet of desktops and haul more than one of them off.

With many millions of dollars of hardware just sitting around, not to mention the IP contained on the machines, security cameras are a rather good idea.

These buildings are of course locked, but lots of vendors pass through, and determined people can tailgate past checkpoints.

I'll explain my counterexample further.

I work at an office of a large tech company. I've worked in this office for almost 10 years at this point, and was here as we acquired 3/4 of the building (we shared with 3 other tenants when I started, and now are renting the entire building). We did some massive renovations when the previous tenants left, and I was in-office during the buildout. There are cameras at some entrances. There are cameras in the lab. There are not cameras anywhere in the main office areas.

I'm part of "anyone", and so are my several hundred coworkers here, and the hundreds that have worked here in the past.

Fair enough. :) I imagine you have better front desk security than the places I've worked!

I'd still argue that the majority of workers are under surveillance, at least in cities.

Of all the financial tech firms I know in London, only one has cameras on its staff.

None of the non-financial tech workers I know have cameras on them all day.

I don’t know if my anecdotes are enough to extrapolate and generalise from, but yours are enough to ensure I stay on this side of the pond.

I think I should have put "all day long" in quote in my original comment.

This is an exaggeration for sure, I just wanted to say that when you can been seen on the screen while commuting to work, while walking in the street, walking through the business center etc - this is basically "all day long" in my book.

I'd leave immediately (Australia) if my company decided to put cameras in that point at my desk, or even any of the general work area of my office.
> Anyone who works in an office complex does.

My office is full of cameras.

None of them are pointed at my workspace.

It's the difference between having the street full of cameras, and having them pointed at my living room window.

> Aside from a farmer in a field

While not constant, farmers probably do have cameras "pointed on them" in their fields - land surveys using aerial and satellite photo capability are common. I'm sure competitors also overfly each other's fields using drones and whatnot to keep tabs on who is growing what and when. Plus there's the fact that some farmers use drones on their own fields for a variety of reasons (though this last doesn't really count).

Taxi drivers have cameras pointed at the customers often.

But I'm surprised you can't find other examples. The bank I go to has a camera. Maybe the supermarket at the exits. That's pretty much it for the town - almost everyone I interact with has no cameras. Some never will - for example doctors.

Many of us remote/home office workers do not. I'd like to keep it that way.