The Surveillance Society and the Digital World

Why Surveillance Society? We are being watched like never before. Techniques include CCTV, monitoring, holding of personal info on DBs and tracking of buying habits. Growing concern in Britain about the infringement of civil liberties. There are more than 4 million CCTV cameras in Britian, one for every 14 people. (Independent, 2007) “Britain sleepwalking towards surveillance society” – Richard Thomas, UK Information Commissioner, 2006

The End of Privacy? "When one's self as a social entity, with history, with transactions, is all out there, then privacy is not the same old notion.” Nigel Shadbolt, co-author of The Spy in the Coffee Machine Privacy International’s 2007 survey showed a worsening of privacy protection around the world. Russia, Singapore and the UK fared the worst. (The Guardian, 2008)

The power of computers makes it easy to share and amalgamate databases to reveal obscure information. Tom Owad – Amazon + Google Earth DNA Database Lost CDs "People have to be aware of their digital footprint” Shadbolt

In Whose Interest? There is no concrete proof that increasing number of CCTV cameras has any effect on crime rates. “The United States government seeks to secure its borders from "terrorists" who might use the Internet and thereby threaten it. But the dangers to the population are and have always been far greater from this state apparatus itself than from so-called terrorists.”- Mark Poster, Only wrong-doers should be afraid, right?