By Megan Garber, The Atlantic, June 17, 2012

Here is a Canadian initiative: Airports and border crossings are being fitted with cameras and microphones that can eavesdrop on travelers' conversations. The Canadian Border Services Agency announced the installations this weekend, noting that audio-video monitoring and recording are already in place at "unidentified CBSA sites" at airports and border points of entry across the country. The new initiative will be an extension of that. The point will be, as it always is, to enhance "border integrity, infrastructure and asset security and health and safety."

The point will also be, however, to serve as a preemptive deterrent to drug smugglers and other criminals. A 2008 report identified at least 58 organized crime groups as "active" at major airports [....]

[....] And the Canadian government's focus on the relatively public spaces of the airport and checkpoint make it positively tame compared to the massive citizen surveillance scheme the U.K. unveiled last week.

What makes this particular approach noteworthy, however, is how politely it plans to surveil [....]