It’s not just paranoia. You are being watched. The period following Sept. 11, 2001, has been a technological Renaissance Era for agencies and companies that monitor, track and record the activities of everyday people.

By comparison, the legal system charged with regulating these new surveillance systems is still in the Dark Ages, critics say, with technology outpacing lawmakers every step of the way.

Low-cost digital video cameras, Internet monitoring software and myriad consumer tracking systems that convert behavior into data have raised new questions about how far a society should be allowed to go in scrutinizing its members.

In short, when innocuous surveillance becomes ubiquitous, does that make it insidious?

No amount of spying or intrusion substitutes for common sense regarding your child’s development

The “nanny cam” is billed as a device that allows parents to identify an abusive, neglectful or incompetent baby-sitter simply by monitoring their young child’s activities at home by remote Web access. It’s also a hidden surveillance system spying on the activities of everyone who enters the house - from the nanny, to the gardener to the plumber, to friends.

When does personal responsibility begin and the threat to privacy and the false sense of security end?

According to a release sent to RAW STORY by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, government officials were illegaly wiretapped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to advance a public corruption investigation.

A 2002 complaint by FBI Special Agent Gilbert Graham alleges that an FBI task force on which he was serving used counterintelligence wiretaps primarily in order to spy on US government officials.

“It is the complainant’s reasonable belief that the request for ELSUR [electronic surveillance] coverage was a subterfuge to collect evidentiary information concerning public corruption matters,” the just released complaint shows.

The next time you walk by a shop window, take a glance at your reflection. How much do you swing your arms? Is the weight of your bag causing you to hunch over? Do you still have a bit of that 1970s disco strut left?

Look around _ You might not be the only one watching. The never-blinking surveillance cameras, rapidly becoming a part of daily life in public and even private places, may be sizing you up as well. And they may soon get a lot smarter.

Researchers and security companies are developing cameras that not only watch the world but also interpret what they see. Soon, some cameras may be able to find unattended bags at airports, guess your height or analyze the way you walk to see if you are hiding something.

Most people aren’t surprised to learn that nearly everything they do on the sidewalks of Manhattan is captured by a video camera, but as the technology to remotely observe specific areas becomes cheaper smaller communities have begun wiring their streets as well.

A few months ago a pair of Union Street landlords in Taunton, with grant money and the blessing of the City Council, installed a surveillance camera on the crime-plagued road in the hopes of reducing crime. In Raynham, cameras spread around town are constantly scanning for criminal activity, including one perched high above the main commercial strip on Route 44.

The proliferation of electronic surveillance has raised privacy concerns from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, but locally the issue has caused barely a ripple among local lawmakers, many of whom face ever-tightening budgets and short-staffed police departments.

San Diego police have a new tool in their crime-fighting arsenal — it’s called the video investigator.

Police told NBC 7/39 some high-profile suspects have been nabbed thanks to the eye in the sky. Those suspects include the so-called floppy-hat bandit, the rotten-tooth bandit and the Reagan-mask bandit.

Detectives said they are now able to enhance surveillance video and change the way they solve crimes.

They are using the same technology first used by NASA for space technology.

Requirements Loom for VoIP Providers

Although the FCC has yet to define VoIP service providers as regulated common carriers, with each passing month the regulatory distinctions between VoIP and telecom common carriers are harder to discern.

This past summer, the FCC imposed a series of Universal Service filing and payment obligations on certain VoIP service providers. Now, the FCC has announced deadlines for interconnected VoIP providers to submit filings concerning compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) rules.

The FCC’s CALEA (http://www.fcc.gov/calea/) rules require communications carriers, now including interconnected VoIP providers, to assist law enforcement entities by, among other things, implementing the following capabilities in their networks: call intercept, access to call identifying information (CII), and the ability to deliver “reasonably available” CII and other information to law enforcement agencies pursuant to a court order or other authorization. In order to comply with CALEA, many VoIP providers will have to make certain changes to their networks, including perhaps softswitch replacement. The current deadline for VoIP providers to comply with these CALEA regulations is May 14.

Surveillance cameras are coming to downtown St. Louis.

St. Louis police Chief Joe Mokwa recommended the $30,000 project at Wednesday’s Police Board meeting and it was approved.

The cameras will be like the nine cameras used at the recent Mardi Gras celebration in Soulard.

Additionally, those nine cameras will be updated and incorporated into the program for an extra cost of $100,000. IBM Corp. will pick up most of the tab.

For a married individual, there is nothing worse than experiencing the feeling that eats away at you when you suspect that your better half is turning to another for attention.

Whether you see the common signs, find clues or want to relieve the paranoia, there are ways to get to the bottom of this lingering mistrust without letting your partner know your intentions. One of the best and most discreet approaches to this matter is to enlist the help of a wireless camera. Catching a cheating spouse has never been easier.

Throughout the years, hidden cameras have caught countless cheating wives and husbands. Many users enjoy the freedom of being the only ones to catch their spouses in the act, eliminating the usual hiring of a private investigator. Hidden cameras are safe and do not entail a stranger following your loved one wherever he or she goes. They are also very easy to use and are only detected when your significant other uses a hidden camera detector, which is highly unlikely.

Some parents use cameras, surreptitiously tucked into desk clocks, stuffed animals and houseplants. Others use blogs or affix license plates to their strollers, so passersby can e-mail the plate number to a watchdog Web site if they see any wrongdoing.

In the world of nanny surveillance, technology has evolved in recent years to make it easier for people to to keep an eye on the person who cares for their most precious possessions: their children.

Tuesday’s arrest of a North Woodmere nanny after a camera caught her abusive behavior on tape underscores the popularity of such scrutiny. On Long Island, where more two-parent households are working, the need is growing, experts and parents say.

• Group for Private Investigators
• Group for Process Servers