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I saw a programme on More4 tonight about a guy who tries to disappear and two private detectives try and find him. The guy had a camera to film what he was doing and so did the two private eyes. It established that with modern communications anyone can be tracked, this was rather obvious and whenever he used his mobile phone or emailed he could be traced. None of that was particularly a revalation but the man himself did a bit of investigation into just how much of a big-brother society we live in before he headed off, and his findings were quite worrying.

He owns a low-emission car which means he doesn't have to pay the Congestion Charge in London but, having written to the authorities, he discovered that every time he has driven in and out of central London the exact time of his entering and leaving has been recorded and also the routes he's taken and where he's been. He also mentioned how he was reluctant to sign an agreement form for his daughter to go to nursery school because all of her personal details, medical records and eveything, can then be passed from any Government agency to any other and used for anything. He also revealed that Britain is the third most watched and recorded society in the world, only China and Russia are more so.
Disturbing, isn't it?

It certainly is. You only have to look at one of those CCTV control rooms, with banks of TV screens, to feel queasy.

The excuse is it's "Security"
Bollocks I say.
I have been in some control rooms and frankly it is disturbing how much some low paid security twatt can follow your every movement around town.
Brighton abounds with cctv but the fucking gendarmes aint so hot on arresting criminals when they are caught on camera, unless they are just around the corner in their nice cosy patrol car. Too fucking lazy to bother is one view down here.

We have 1% of the worlds population, and 20% of the worlds CCTV cameras.

The Shetland Islands has more CCTV than the San Francisco PD.

This in the news this morning:

Big Brother has come up with a new generation of speed cameras that will track you across entire road networks, not just between two fixed points.



But as ever, it's all for our own good of course. To protect us from ourselves.

- Eric

What amazes me is they can do all this, at vast expense even though it is largely pointless, yet they have to cut back on everything else - including some government funding schemes that help vulnerable people, the disabled, elderly, and so on. Why not scrap the big-brother society, which does nothing to reduce crime, and spend the money on something positive?

Interestingly despite having more CCTV surveillance per head than any country in the world the amount of successful prosecutions based on surveillance camera evidence is still in single figures.
Also there is evidence to suggest that areas with a lot of cameras become crime spots because where there are cameras there are no Policemen.
So apart from the companies that supply and service these things, and the people they "grease" I wonder who are the beneficiaries of this technology.

Tony and Gordon were to blame, they have unofficially set up a UK version of Homeland Security without going through parliament. Problem is the coalition has no intention of disbanding it. Orwell must be having a quiet chuckle in his grave.