If you drive through school zones, airports or various pedestrian-rich settings you are likely familiar with digital displays that provide “thoughtful” feedback on your current speed. I’m intrigued and humored by these devices. The added cost of these systems provides information that is completely redundant with my speedometer. The systems are widely non-punitive – they do not automatically issue citations nor are they accompanied by live law enforcement. But they seem to work. A study from city engineers in Garden Grove, CA proved that drivers slowed an average of 14 percent when passing through the display zones.
There are many explanations regarding the effectiveness of these systems. One is that the location and novelty of the information are driving factors. Most drivers focus on the environment immediately outside their vehicle and not their speedometer. Compared to the vast majority of static, reflective signs, these radar-display systems are relatively rare. We are thus open to their feedback because it’s unique and presented in the pertinent field of view. The feedback invokes our social consciousness and activates our intent to contribute to the public safety. This makes perfect sense but does not explain the queasy feeling I get when my speed is broadcasted well over the posted limit.
Perhaps the fear of punishment overwhelms my understanding that these systems are non-punitive. Others insist a more visceral cue is responsible: When we realize we are being watched we fall in line accordingly. I suspect few are immune to this powerful effect.  Once we realize our actions are measurable and sharable, we place greater scrutiny on how we may be perceived – and how we behave. Is this feedback alerting our social consciousness or is it manipulating our ethics via social engineering?  Good question. In either case, a broader opportunity looms to steer human behavior. It is both exciting and a bit unsettling.
Similar concepts have been effectively deployed across innovative companies. In his recent book, “Great by Choice,” Jim Collins emphasized the value of clear metrics, carefully imposed by inspirational CEOs. Collins cites medical device firm Stryker Corp. under  CEO John Brown. From 1977-2002, Brown led Stryker to exceed his peers by over tenfold. Part of his success was due to a perennial “march” to grow net income by at least 20 percent annually. Executives falling below Brown’s waterline received a snorkel award. They were asked to display the snorkel prominently in their offices until the metric improved. Brown’s executive team was quite committed to avoid this award and Stryker delivered this income growth more than 90 percent of the time.
Personally, I’ve worked with clients to help internally benchmark performance and enact similar feedback loops.  A favorite recent example was a Fortune 500 large equipment manufacturer. Looking to improve component availability in final assembly, they ranked worst performing facilities on a small set of key metrics.  Through technology, performance was visible in real time across the supply chain organization. Like the radar equipped speed limit signs, there was no immediate punitive impact. However, these dashboards served as an ever present reminder: you knew your management and peers were monitoring you.
The bottom line: Advances in data visualization and simpler analytics offer executives intriguing opportunities to shape team behavior. I like to think we are advancing the art of Total Quality Management: providing real time awareness on key performance measures; leveraging positive and negative feedback systems; continuously adjusting metrics to insure novelty; encouraging open, transparent communication. When in a less optimistic mood, I wonder where Big Brother may be lurking.  What do you think?
Bruno Silvoli pictured outside the Manly Court. Picture: Manly Daily Source: News Limited
A SLEAZY 75-year-old landlord was caught lurking in an air vent with a camera – filming his young tenants having sex, a court has heard.
Bruno Silvolli, of Narrabeen in Sydney, also cut holes in the bathroom wall of his tenants’ apartment so he could spy on those inside.
The married man is due for sentencing in January after pleading guilty in the Manly Court to several counts of filming and watching without consent, as well as indecently assaulting a female tenant, the Manly Daily reported.
He first came to police attention last year when a young couple, who were renting the apartment below Silvolli’s home, reported the old man had groped the woman’s breast while she hung washing out and later exposed himself.
When interviewed by police, the woman also recalled regularly hearing a sound like a camera was operating when she left the shower and went into the bedroom to get changed. It became so frequent she started getting changed in another room.
This year, on October 22, another couple, who were renting the flat from Silvolli, were having sex when they heard what sounded like an electronic device being turned on.
The man approached the air vent in the corner of the room and saw the louvres bent and a silver video camera inside. He looked closer and saw Silvolli holding the camera.
The couple reported the incident to police, who carried out a search warrant of Silvolli’s unit the following day – seizing a video camera, digital memory cards and digital video cassettes – and subsequently arrested Silvolli.
Investigators were able to identify the woman from the 2010 incident on 27 occasions in videos of her in the bathroom and bedroom, undressing, naked and engaging in private acts.
Police also identified her boyfriend as well as three other unknown women.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fed up with a decade of police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to the police with their concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups.
Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to a lawyer before speaking with the authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. Some members of the community have planned a demonstration for next week.
Some government officials point to this type of outreach as proof that Muslims aren’t cooperating in the fight against terrorism, justifying the aggressive spy tactics, while many in the Muslim community view it as a way to protect themselves from getting snared in a secret police effort to catch terrorists.
As a result, one of America’s largest Muslim communities — in a city that’s been attacked twice and targeted more than a dozen times — is caught in a downward spiral of distrust with the nation’s largest police department: The New York City Police Department spies on Muslims, which makes them less likely to trust police. That reinforces the belief that the community is secretive and insular, a key reason that current and former NYPD officials cite for spying in the first place.
The CIA was forced to curtail its spying in Lebanon, where U.S. operatives and their agents collect crucial intelligence on Syria, terrorist groups and other targets, after the arrests of several CIA informants in Beirut this year, according to U.S. officials and other sources.
“Beirut station is out of business,” a source said, using the CIA term for its post there. The same source, who declined to be identified while speaking about a classified matter, alleged that up to a dozen CIA informants have been compromised, but U.S. officials disputed that figure.
U.S. officials acknowledged that some CIA operations were suspended in Beirut last summer. It’s unclear whether full operations have resumed. Beirut is considered a key watching post for turmoil in the Middle East.
Senior CIA officials have briefed congressional staffers about the breach, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, visited Beirut recently to interview CIA officers. Committee staff members want to determine whether CIA operatives used sloppy practices that revealed sensitive sources and methods.
Much in the case remains unclear, including the extent of the damage and whether negligence by CIA managers led to the loss of the Lebanese agents.
Depending upon who you listen to, GPS tracking shouldn’t be your only concern when you are out and about on the streets. The ACLU hammered license plate scanners as ‘logging our every move,’ a different investigative report concluded your car is spying on you, and some even claim the street lights are out to get you.
The ACLU reported on the “widespread tracking of citizen’s movements” via the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs). “It has now become clear that this technology, if we do not limit its use, will represent a significant step toward the creation of a surveillance society in the United States.” The ACLU does, of course, regard GPS tracking without a warrant as intrusive on privacy, but license plate reader “technology is rapidly approaching the point where it could be used to reconstruct the entire movements of any individual vehicle.” Some might call that paranoid, but the ACLU said of such accusations, that it is always “amazed by the speed and consistency with which our worst fears for these kinds of technologies turn into reality.”
If you drive through school zones, airports or various pedestrian-rich settings you are likely familiar with digital displays that provide “thoughtful” feedback on your current speed. I’m intrigued and humored by these devices. The added cost of these systems provides information that is completely redundant with my speedometer. The systems are widely non-punitive – they do not automatically issue citations nor are they accompanied by live law enforcement. But they seem to work. A study from city engineers in Garden Grove, CA proved that drivers slowed an average of 14 percent when passing through the display zones.
concluded your car is spying on you, and some even claim the street lights are out to get you.