The 'Million Dollar Sighting' contest will reward people for putting up cameras in their home and capturing irrefutable proof of extraterrestrials.

Technically, “automatically” would mean it gets sent all the time, while “without consent” would mean it might’ve got sent on request, just without consent.

Fair enough. In both cases, it’s without the camera “owner” consenting, and that’s the main problem.

“Automatically” would be a perfectly reasonable word choice if a request from the police is granted without interaction. In all honesty even if a human has to send it, if the process doesn’t allow them any kind of autonomy or authority to decline the request, that probably qualifies, too.

Hm, I guess you’re right. That’s an interesting reflection on the concept of “automation”.

I think automated means “no human”. I don’t think automatic necessarily does, especially if humans don’t have agency.

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