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Newark Airport's Lights Are Spying On You
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 18, 2014
Modified Feb 18, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 18, 2014
Modified Feb 18, 2014
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Your computer watches you, your GPS helps the FBI keeps tabs on you and that sign above that Basics Plus store is probably telling the NSA you stopped to scratch your nether regions on West Broadway. So it should come as no surprise, then, that even LED lights can zero in on your every move, and it seems a couple hundred lights are doing just that over at Newark Airport.
The Times reported today that Newark just installed 171 LED light fixtures that, in addition to casting an even brighter glow on Chili's Too, serve as security sensors. Created by smart LED developer Sensity Sensors, these lights boast computer chips connected to cameras and sensors that can gather data on movement, suspicious activity, license plates numbers and can even identify long lines. They cannot un-cancel your flight to the Dominican Republic.
Naturally, not everyone's super comfortable knowing they're being stalked by a bunch of big lightbulbs. Fred H. Cate, the director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, called the data-grab “terrifying,” voicing concern that the Port Authority was storing vast amounts of data with no specific plan to use it. And though the Port Authority says the smart LED lights are just part of a "pilot project" and limited to Newark's Terminal B, the agency isn't alone in adopting the technology; the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, for instance, plans to use LED street lamps to help control traffic and tell when garbage cans are full. And Chicago's interest in the technology has one company claiming it'll funnel $100 billion in development over the next decade.
The Port Authority tells us that the lights are only present in public areas, and they will not be sharing the data with anyone else, unless a law enforcement agent requests it via subpoena or warrant. Then again, they note that "how video footage collected through this type of deployment is used in the future is a decision that will be made by appropriate PA security management after the results of the pilot have been evaluated." It's only a matter of time before that temper tantrum you threw on a two-hour TSA line becomes Xanax advertising fodder.
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led lights
new jersey
newark
newark airport
security
Rebecca Fishbein
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