alt Hacker NewsI'm of two minds when it comes to surveillance. I don't like that businesses, airports, etc do it but it is their property. I don't like that they can run video feeds through software, either in real time or after the fact, to so easily find and track my every move. But again, its their property.
Where the line is always drawn for me, at a minimum, is what they do with the video and who has access to it.
Video should always be deleted when it is no longer reasonably needed. That timeline would be different for airports vs convenience stores, but I'd always expect the scale of days or weeks rather than months or years (or indefinitely).
Maybe more importantly, surveillance video should never be shared without a lawful warrant, including clear descriptions of the limits to what is needed and why it is requested.
The complicating factor is that it isn't just "their property", it's an essential destination of many people's ability to function in society, which makes them adjacent to public utilities. If the water retailer which services your home started adding substances which could be used to track and identify their customers, you'd be pretty unhappy. Private ownership doesn't absolve an entity from public accountability, especially when there is extremely little option to not engage them.