Did you forget where you parked your car? Well, a new camera-based surveillance system in parking lots can help:

Santa Monica Place recently unveiled the nation's first camera-based "Find Your Car" system. Shoppers who have lost track of their vehicle amid a maze of concrete ramps and angled stripes can simply punch their license plate number into a kiosk touch screen, which then displays a photo of the car and its location.

But what's the price of that convenience? Can this system be used by Big Brother to snoop on where you are and what you're doing?

But what if that magic involved an array of 24/7 surveillance cameras and was also available to police and auto repossessers? What if it could be tapped by jilted lovers, or that angry guy you accidentally cut off in traffic? Would the convenience be worth the loss of privacy?

Those are some of the questions civil libertarians and others are asking as technology capable of spying on motorists and pedestrians is converted to widespread commercial use.

Martha Groves of The Los Angeles Times has the story: Link (Photo: Mariah Tauger/LA Times)