The tech changes over the years but the requirements and targets remain similar.
What is different is it is now available and affordable to anyone although for civilians it is way quicker cheaper to get the bits yourself – though existing privacy/anti harrassment laws as well as other about the safe use of model aircraft and/or radio equipment (some of which needs to be licensed) still apply.
In some parts of the UK cyclists often have cameras attached to their bikes, often semi covert and built into LED lights. They are most commonly used simply for getting action video of bike rides but are increasingly being used to expose bad behaviour by other road users (not just car and truck drivers but that of other cyclists and pedestrians).
Small UAV’s/drones are still noisy and obvious in their operation and can create safety hazards to the local area and their operators. They are of limited use outside open country areas in wartime, overflying an event in a fixed location such as a music festival or public gathering or when the authority using them also wants to make it clear surveillance is in operation as a deterrent.
A camera like this hidden in a childs car seat inside a vehicle (behind its glass windows) is only going to work well in bright light but not direct sunlight shining on the windows (due to reflections).
Putting aside for the moment the wider ethical issues of who the end users might be; there could be perfectly legitimate and valid reasons for its deployment even in a democratic country; such as a female detective taking a victim or witness of domestic violence (a young woman of similar age) to point out areas where an offender may be.
it would be less safe for her to be seen crammed into an obvious looking larger vehicle flanked by two big heavy looking bald dudes either side of her (which would also block her view of the things she is supposed to be pointing out) and two female officers in the front seats (which is exactly what a special unit of cops in many Northern European countries would look like). The same two detectives plus the witness in a smaller car (with the rest available for backup if needed) would be less dangerous to everyone involved and the camera equipment in the baby seat can help identify relevant locations.
Unfortunately many countries priorities are set wrongly so kit like this ends up being used by less democratic nations for less pleasant purposes.
That said, its a bit ironic the link comes from a private website where the very first thing I see from them is a whinge about my use of an adblocker [this being also used to protect my work computers from malware]; which hints the sites code is looking more closely at how I am viewing it.
The article also ignores the potentially more effective mobile phone monitoring equipment from the original piece of info it is riding on the back of – a longer report published by a legitimate and well respected privacy activism organisation.
https://www.privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/DemandSupply_English.pdf
