With an estimated 4,200 public and private cameras in Lower Manhattan alone, New Yorkers should just resolve to frequently being captured on ‘film,’ right? Well not if the Institute of Applied Autonomy can help it. The technology and activist group has created a map called iSee Manhattan, where a user can plot their journey through the city, and the map will send them on the “path of least surveillance.”

Say goodbye to your schedule, however: You might need to go pretty far out of your way to avoid cameras, as the map above shows. And with the Police Department planning another 3,000 in the area, you might end up having to go through Jersey to get from Wall Street to Union Square.

But why would anybody feel the need to do such a thing?

“We all do things that are perfectly legal, but that we still may not want to share with the rest of the world. Kissing your lover on the street, interviewing for a new job without your current employer’s knowledge, visiting a psychiatrist – these are everyday activities that constitute our personal, private lives,” the site says of the average Joe. ” While there is nothing wrong with any of them, there are perfectly good reasons why we may choose to keep them secret from coworkers, neighbors, or anyone else.”

But they offer specific reasons for activists, “outsiders,” and minorities, among other subgroups.
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