The Art of Privacy InvasionWired News | November 3, 2005 CARDIFF, Wales -- Michelle Teran is the pied piper of wireless networks. Leading a band of followers through the city streets, the Canadian artist drags along a screen embedded in a suitcase that is showing supposedly secret images captured from cameras inside surrounding buildings. Call it war-driving for video. Although many people assume new surveillance technology that lets cameras transmit footage wirelessly to TVs and computers is private, Teran is on a mission to show them otherwise. Equipment that underpins in-store closed-circuit TV cameras, personal internet surveillance, even baby crib monitors and TV signal extenders, sends signals along the 2.4-GHz wave band, an unlicensed portion of radio spectrum that is firmly in the public domain. If the cameras are set up incorrectly, passersby with the proper equipment can easily grab images from them when they wander within range. Concealing a scanner and microphone under a thick black coat for a performance art project that turns surveillance inside out, Teran silently pounds the sidewalks searching for these invisible scraps -- and shows them to a gathering public band of spectators. "People don't really understand the technologies they're using," she said. "They are setting this up and (unwittingly) becoming broadcasters." Last modified November 5, 2005 |