This website aims to open up a debate about the extent to which powerful technologies such as linked CCTV camera systems, neural network facial recognition , car number plate recognition, multimedia image databases etc. are being applied in the UK.
Each successive New Labour Home Secretary - Jack Straw, David Blunkett and now Charles Clarke, with the support of Prime Minister Tony Blair, has been destroying, bit by bit, our long held liberties and freedoms, with the best of intentions in their minds. Nevertheless they are creating a Climate of Fear which is playing into the hands of terrorists.
Why, in the UK, is television reception controlled by licences, backed up by criminal penalties, but no licencing is required to install linked CCTV camera systems ?
Are CCTV surveillance systems vital to keep order on our streets, or are there substantial civil liberties problems to be addressed ? Has the cost effectiveness of Public CCTV surveillance systems been oversold ? Is crime reduced or just displaced next door ?
Are the existing schemes properly funded and coordinated with radio links to police or security patrols ? Or is one operator meant to monitor over 50 cameras for a 12 hour shift on his own ? Have the number of "bobbies on the beat" been reduced as a result of the "cost savings" of CCTV technology ?
Do you want CCTV images of yourself sold to broadcast TV and video companies, without your permission, and without paying any royalties to you ? Where CCTV images are used as evidence of crime, are there proper procedures to prevent unathorised editing or tampering with the evidence ? Is it right that CCTV systems can automatically tag your behavior in a public place as "suspicious" ?
What are the criteria for removal of suspects images in facial recognition or video ID parade databases ? Are they entered for the duration of an investigation, or are you branded as a suspect for life, in the same way as DNA databases seem to be abused ?
Will the results of facial recognition analysis e.g. number of women, numbers of whites, asians or blacks walking down the street, be sold to marketing companies, or handed over to racists ?
Should your car number plate be automatically read, recognised and logged ? Will this lead to private "burbclaves" or "no-go areas" ? Where are the safeguards to prevent foreign or UK intelligence agencies, terrorists, criminals or paparazzi journalists from gaining access to the individual vehicle traffic movement patterns of police cars, nuclear weapons or waste convoys, high value freight cargoes or VIPs ?
Should "in your face" policing be allowed to include video cameras aimed, especially at public demonstrations, literally in people's faces, to intimidate people, when no actual offences have been committed ?
Would you support criminal prosecution of those who abuse Surveillance technologies, including those currently hiding behind Crown immunity ?
Should CCTV Surveillance regulation become the model for the control of other technologies, including millimetre wave radar, thermographic imaging and biosensors ?
Does the judgement by the European Court of Human Rights show that all UK CCTV systems currently breach Article 8 of the European Declaration of Human Rights ?
Why does the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 not attempt to regulate CCTV Surveillance in any way ?
When is a CCTV system a covert surveillance device which is covered by the RIP Act ?
Does an overt CCTV system become a covert one if, like many systems, it is used to see beyond the range of normal human vision or in the dark ?
Should CCTV images be published of people who are merely possible indirect witnesses (not the victims or the criminals), as they have been in recent murder investigations ?
Should there be a minimum period for Data Retention of CCTV video and digital data? Is post incident Data Preservation adequate ? Should either of these be legally mandatory ? Should the Government pay for the extra costs involved ?
Should private individuals who install CCTV spy cameras on their property, without properly consulting their neighbours whose adjacent properties are in the field of view, be treated as Nuisance Neighbours and served with Anti-Social Behavior Orders by the Local Council ?