Big Brother watching British 24 hours a day
- Source: Global Times
- [21:21 March 07 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Marion Masar
Four million surveillance cameras are in use in the UK at any given time, making the British one of the most heavily monitored societies on earth. The average person is captured on camera 300 times a day.
What is more worrying, however, is that innocent people, photographers and tourists are being harassed by police for taking pictures of high-profile buildings and tourist sites, such as the iconic London Eye, to mention just one example.
Under the Terrorism Act 2006, which the British government introduced after the July 7 London bombings, anyone can be detained by police and held without charge for up to 90 days. Since its introduction, the controversial act has been heavily misused and misinterpreted by the authorities.
Among the most bizarre cases is that of Sally Cameron who was held for four hours after being arrested under the act for walking on a cycle path in a controlled port area in Dundee. While cyclists were free to pass through the port zone, she was arrested and detained.
Another example, from October 2008, was the stopping by police of a 15-year-old schoolboy in London who was taking photographs of a railway station for his school project. He was questioned under suspicion of being a terrorist.
And as if this was not enough, some UK police forces have recently announced their plans to introduce the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), spy planes that will be used for monitoring of motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers. According to the manufacturers, infamous arms dealers BAE Systems, these unmanned drones could be in use as early as 2012 and the company have already received orders from several police forces, border agencies and other government bodies.
Yet the British state obsession with surveillance does not stop there. In the most recent plan to spy on people's private lives, the government has given the go-ahead for the unlimited elec-tronic surveillance of the whole UK population.
This surveillance of citizens' electronic communication is even more intrusive than that of surveillance cameras on the streets of Britain. According to current proposals, the police and security services are set to monitor every phone call, text message, e-mail and website visit made by private citizens.
The details are set to be stored for a year and will be available for monitoring by government bodies.
All telecom companies and Internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer's personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.
When it comes to privacy, the UK is one of the least free societies in the world. Imagine, whenever you make a phone call or send an e-mail to a friend, relative or your lover, the government will keep track of that information.
Since the announcement of creation of such database, there has been a wide outrage against it in UK.
So far, as many times before, the government refuses to listen and the plan of legal "state-spying" is still scheduled to go ahead. The governments' insane obsession with collecting the data of citizens on such a scale is truly worrying. Anti-terrorism laws are even being used by local governments around the country to snoop on residents suspected of littering and dog fouling offences.
Not only is this a huge waste of time and energy, but it also is a massive waste of money. An estimated $750 million of public money has been spent on surveillance cameras alone in the last 10 years and more money is being allocated for various other surveillance projects each year.
And to what end? Only 3 percent of crime in London has been solved using camera images. Britain's futile obsession with surveillance stands as a warning to other nations traveling down the path of increased State power.
The author is a European national currently living and working in London. forum@ globatimes.com.cn
