BBC - UK is already a surveillance society.

[Roger the Horse]

Thursday, 2 November 2006, 09:03 GMT - BBC
Britain is 'surveillance society'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6108496.stm

Fears that the UK would "sleep-walk into a surveillance society" have become a reality, the government's information commissioner has said.
Richard Thomas, who said he raised concerns two years ago, spoke after research found people's actions were increasingly being monitored.

The Surveillance Studies Network report said there are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras - about one for every 14 people.

Other techniques are used to record work rate, buying habits and movements.

Surveillance will increase in the next decade, the report added.

'Looser laws'

The report's co-writer Dr David Murakami-Wood told BBC News that, compared to other industrialised Western states, the UK was "the most surveilled country".

"We have more CCTV cameras and we have looser laws on privacy and data protection," he said.

"We really do have a society which is premised both on state secrecy and the state not giving up its supposed right to keep information under control while, at the same time, wanting to know as much as it can about us."

The research says surveillance ranges from the US national security agency monitoring all telecommunications traffic passing through Britain to key stroke information used to gauge work rates and global positioning satellite information tracking company vehicles.

The report also highlights "dataveillance" - the combination of credit card, mobile phone and loyalty card information for marketing purposes.

Mr Thomas called for a debate about the risks if information gathered is wrong or falls into the wrong hands.

"We've got to say where do we want the lines to be drawn? How much do we want to have surveillance changing the nature of society in a democratic nation?" he told the BBC.

"We're not luddites, we're not technophobes, but we are saying not least don't forget the fundamental importance of data protection, which I'm responsible for.

"Sometimes it gets dismissed as something which is rather bureaucratic, it stops you sorting out your granny's electricity bills. People grumble about data protection, but boy is it important in this new age.

"When data protection puts those fundamental safeguards in place, we must make sure that some of these lines are not crossed."

'Balance needed'

The report will be presented to the 28th International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners' Conference in London on Thursday, hosted by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The office is an independent body established to promote access to official data and to protect personal details.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs said there needed to be a balance between sharing information responsibly and respecting the citizen's rights.

A spokesman said: "Massive social and technological advances have occurred in the last few decades and will continue in the years to come.

"We must rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities it provides for individual citizens and society as a whole."

[Busker]

There's a great comment on the BBC site to counter the "If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear" retort.

The poster simply says, do you have curtains in your home? Is so, why?

[Roger the Horse]

The readers recommended bit for the surveillance debate on the BBC Have your say forum is fantastic. Could find hardly any people actually supporting the massive expansion of surveillance in the UK. In most of the posts you could really sense the increasing rage people are feeling at Blair's Brave New World.

[Newspeak International]

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4595&&&edition=2& ttl=20061102213422

[jason67]

[telecasterisation]

Who exactly is doing all this observing? The vast majority of the people working this equipment is simply Joe Public, in fact my neighbour works as a security operative and all the footage that is recorded is overwritten every 7 days.

Even if the 'government' is behind many of the surveillance devices out there, they are still manned by ordinary people and not black suited herberts in a bunker somewhere.

Could someone detail why they are 'disturbed' by CCTV cameras - I simply don't get the downsides??

[Patrick Brown]

Are these cameras really there to help the people or help the state? When the *-hits-the-fan and the masses begin to awaken the government will be able to pin point and shut down protests as well as watch enemies of the state every movement. If you use your cash-point card or credit-card they will be able to pin point your location and then watch as you pop into McDonald's for a quarter-pounder and fries!

People are being forced into accepting these spy cameras because of a lack of investment into on the beat policing. As many are saying “if you don't tow the line you we be labeled a terrorist”.

[telecasterisation]

[Newspeak International]

What about a computerised database of images, where individual monitoring by the Solid State Crime Database (SSCD) would link directly
to a printout ala Minority Report.

Once the data of where you go and who you meet,for say a discussion group on I don't know er civil liberties issues, the powers in charge could just round the whole group up and charge them with spurious terrorism
acts against the state.

I suggest it's not far a jump in the first paragraph, and in the second well that already happens to some "groups".

[John White]

[telecasterisation]

[scubadiver]