Too Much Video Surveillance?

In the series, "Someone is Watching You," "Early Show" consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen took a look into the growing number of surveillance cameras that are popping up and capturing people's daily activities.

Is all this technology costing us our privacy?

Koeppen remarked that cameras today are advanced; they can tilt, zoom and pan. They can also capture your license plate from a mile away, and can help catch criminals. And while proponents say cameras make us safer, others say cameras are eroding our privacy at an alarming rate, Koeppen said.

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Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, an affliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, told Koeppen, "Everybody is caught on camera dozens and dozens of times a day. I don't think you could walk two blocks in the city without being captured on video camera."

So Koeppen and her team decided to test that out by walking six blocks with Lieberman from Koeppen's office on West 57th Street in New York City to the famous Carnegie Deli six blocks away.

Koeppen and Lieberman counted 80 cameras in six blocks -- and those were the ones they could see. And inside the deli when they arrived, Koeppen and Lieberman spotted six more.

Lieberman said, "They've got us from every angle some from the left some from the right, they're capturing every move we make."

Koeppen reported the Department of Homeland Security has given cities and towns more than $1 billion to install cameras in public places -- and that's in addition to private cameras in stores and other businesses. Koeppen said there are lots of cameras, but not a lot of regulation.

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Lieberman said, "Cameras aren't all bad, but if there are no safeguards in place, that's a real worry."

In New York City, cameras captured a man embracing a woman on a private terrace. The video was captured by police from a helicopter during protests at the Republican National Convention. The couple had no idea they were being videotaped.

The man in the video spoke to CBS News, but asked us not to mention his name or show his face.

"I felt violated," he said. "...That was really my first reaction."

He continued, "Not only did they capture me, but they kept coming back to us repeatedly as if it were a game for them."

He filed a complaint -- but the New York District Attorney's Office decided not to initiate a criminal investigation.

Lieberman said, "What kind of society have we come to when the police are spending tax payer money to spy on romance?"

Lieberman would like to see a national registry of surveillance cameras -- and better checks and balances for how and when they're used.

"When you can't walk six blocks without being caught by 80 cameras along the way," Lieberman said, "there's just too many."

Koeppen added on "The Early Show" that experts say say there are so many cameras in America -- it's impossible to say just how many exist.