Police Directive for Surveillance of Businesses; In the Name of 'Suppression'?

Following the statements of a trade official in Iran regarding the police directive for installing 'surveillance cameras in public places', Mehdi Sarami Far, a technology journalist, told Voice of America that such directives could be aimed at 'controlling and suppressing' citizens. Mehdi Omidvar, spokesman for the Iranian Chamber of Guilds, announced that based on the directive from the Public Places Supervision Unit of the police command, a system called 'Public Places Surveillance' has been established, allowing the security and intelligence officials of the Islamic Republic to visually monitor commercial and service units. According to the announcement of 'Septam', which stands for 'Public Places Surveillance System', this system is responsible for 'cleaning public places and other urban activities (excluding the municipality)' and operates based on 'police supervision regulations for public places, special for security level one'. According to what is stated on the 'Septam' website, these cameras provide 'complete visual surveillance coverage around the business unit or public place' at 'least at the level of observation' to the police and allow 'online viewing of images from all' centers equipped with them, and provide 'at least one month' of 'storage review' of recorded images by each camera to the authorities. According to the report from the Chamber of Guilds website, Mehdi Omidvar announced on Wednesday, October 3, that 'according to the regulations and supervisory directives of the police supervising public places, a system has been created with the help of the private sector called the Septam system (Public Places Surveillance System)'. Mehdi Sarami Far, a journalist and technology researcher, commented on this plan to Voice of America, stating that such regulations could have various consequences. He recalled how the Islamic Republic implemented the stratification of the internet, starting with the pretext of wanting to create a clean and safe internet for children. In this case, they have now mentioned jewelry stores, but it remains to be seen whether the installation of these cameras will take place across all trades. Mehdi Sarami Far also stated that the 'Septam' system should be viewed 'like other systems of repression, censorship, and surveillance of the Islamic Republic'. He noted that while the full implementation of this plan may take up to 10 years, we have previously seen that the Islamic Republic has gradually reached a point in the area of stratified internet and national information network where it has one of the closed global networks and can largely impose suppression and control. Meanwhile, according to the spokesman for the Iranian Chamber of Guilds, '39 categories and about 280 homogeneous categories including jewelers and restaurants will now be linked to the police system through the national licensing portal and will learn about the technical specifications of the special camera for that category by referring to the Septam system'. Mehdi Sarami Far also told Voice of America that the trades have been instructed to install specific cameras, and it should be noted what the police's goal is with this action. Perhaps trades can be forced to install cameras that the Islamic Republic's system can monitor live. Previously, Reuters reported that 'Islamic Republic officials are installing cameras in public places and streets to identify and punish women deemed improperly veiled'. Islamic Republic officials have previously identified and arrested some protesters using images captured by surveillance cameras. Meanwhile, a group of citizens and business owners have engaged in civil disobedience by refusing to provide recorded footage from their surveillance cameras and have destroyed that footage. Earlier during the nationwide protests of 2022, the principal of the Raza Ni Nejad high school in Kerman was dismissed for resisting security forces in providing surveillance footage to identify protesting students.