Oh, the irony!
‘Orwellian’ CCTV in shires alarms senior police officer – Guardian.co.uk: Things must be really bad when you have a senior police officer worrying about the level of surveillance happening in the U.K.
Britain risks becoming an “Orwellian” society as CCTV cameras spread to quiet villages with low crime levels, a senior police officer warned yesterday.
Ian Readhead, Hampshire’s deputy chief constable, said he did not want to live in a country where every street corner was fitted with surveillance devices.
He also criticised rules which meant DNA evidence and fingerprints could be kept for the rest of a teenager’s life once they have been arrested for an offence, even if they never get in trouble again, and said there was a danger that speed cameras were seen by the public as a revenue-generating process rather than a genuine effort to reduce casualties.
you are under surveillance by the private sector 24/7 and have been for quite sometime
the surveillance itself is not a big issue really, and in an emergency can be quite helpful (who mugged me?, where is my wrecked car? etc)
the real question is: do you trust elected public officials to have access to that surveillance.
i for one, do not. and i am suspicious of anyone who does.
I live in America. But yeah, the sheriff is a glorified tax collector and little else. Since I have lived here there have been three murders. Not a single one has been solved. Also the rape that happened here has not been solved. And they have solved none of the burglaries.
However, seat belt compliance is very high! Huzzah!
Just think how safe we’re all gonna be when RFID devices are implanted in everyone (except the rich and politicians and probably lawyers, who often qualify on both counts) and cameras follow us from room to room in our own houses (babysitter cams!), from house to house, from house to store, from house to workplace, from one workplace to another, from the front door to the taxi, then in the taxi, to the restaurant, in the restaurant, etcetera.
Actually, that’s happening already, so why aren’t we already perfectly safe? Do you think we need more cameras to be perfectly safe? Probably.
Of course, the next big thing has already started and every sound we make will also be recorded – just to make sure we aren’t pedophiles or bank robbers or terrorists or………..
Sigh!
If you don’t have anything to hide, why would you even think about complaining about this sort of thing? I think people who complain should be sent straight to jail, where we can watch them even more (if that’s possible).
I am sure we/you all think the camera’s that are perfectly lined up with the isle at the grocery store is for theft.
The store sells the tapes to companies i.e. GE want to see how you shop for Light Bulbs, and General Mills wants to watch the battle between you and JR. over the box of cereal you do not want to afford.
Yes, the evil government. But not a peep about every cell phone having a built-in camera? And posting to YouTube and a lawless internet.
So Big Brother is motivated to undefinably misuse footage of ordinary people – but not private citizens or private industry?
Then wait until everyone – and every thing – has a cheap clip-on 24 hr camera recording every moment like a cop car dash camera. I’d be far more worried about Little Brother – for all the good that will do.
While we’re at it, let’s also ban government from using computers.
RBG
The story says, “Britain risks becoming an “Orwellian” society”.
Risks?
Am I to believe that they aren’t already? I know we are in the US… But unlike Orwell’s short sighted vision, it isn’t the government, but rather corporations and their marketing departments that do it the best.
#6…OFTLO…..compared to Britain, we are the most UNwatched people on the planet. That little scenerio that #3 starts his post with is almost completely true in the UK. There are few places to go that you aren’t being video’d.
After nearly 4 years of telling my friends in the UK that we Yanks are 1000 times more free than they are and being laughed at by them, they are finally waking up to the fact that I was right.
You really have to live in the UK and have experienced life here in the US to understand just how deeply a Brit’s life is watched and monitored and controlled by the goverment. It has just gotten out of control in the last 10 years under Labour because they have gone far in completely centralizing every aspect of goverment in the UK.. Our federal goverment only wishes it had the control all the way down to the local level that the Brits have. In fact, what keeps us as free as we are is our multi-layered forms of goverment. The Brits don’t have that.
Joshua…
In the US we are currently far less under the watchful gaze of video cameras than our English friends… But its funny how much mail I get from companies I’ve never heard of offering me things based on knowledge about me that I can’t imagine anyone knowing.
Like I said, it isn’t Big Brother yet (that’s to come later) but rather Sleazy Uncle Larry in the marketing department. They are sifting through our phone records, hotel registries, credit card activity statements, car rental reciepts, gas station reciepts… They know where we go, who we see, what we do…
You think you are saving 30 cents on orange juice, but before that bar coded data collection card, the 30 cents offwas offered to everybody, not just the people willing to forgo some privacy.
Now gas stations and grocery stores aren’t forcing people to use real identifying info yet, because most of us are good little lemmings who color inside the lines and would never dream of rocking the boat.
Me… I get a new grocery store card every time I walk in the store, every time with a different minor celebrity name and a different fake address (typically in Chicago on Addison).
Why? Because today its coupons for toothpaste… Tomorrow its my employer’s insurance provider deciding not to cover me for heart conditions in the future because they don’t like how much red meat I’m buying today.
The information we are giving away without a thought today will be our downfall tomorrow.
And in 20 years, when you are all reduced to serfs and slaves under the cracking whip of your new corporate overlords, don’t beg me for help… I’ll still remember being told what a loonbat I am today, and I won’t be very motivated to be too concerned with your plight. 🙂
I guess, my point is, there is more than one kind of surveillence.