When I came to UK two years ago, I noticed CCTV sign everywhere I go! In shops, taxi caps, and later I found out that even the streets are full of them. In the beginning I had a general positive impression about the idea that cams are everywhere to protect us from danger, but when I think about privacy I become somehow confused! Now I start to ask myself, how many CCTV have got my face on my way from my place to the university?! Very logical question.
The issue now is no longer that normal CCTV is everywhere, because this is a fact and societies are adapting with it, but what next? A report published in the Guardian last November said “Technologies that used to be the subject of speculation have moved into mainstream use” Link. The report is concerned about the new methods of surveillance such as tracking staff by GPS applications on their mobiles, CCTV in classrooms to control pupil behavior but also monitor teacher performance and the example of a Japanese company developed some weird function on mobiles to monitors cleaner`s way of scrubbing and sweeping!!. Based on this report, Information commissioner Christopher Graham is asking government for new privacy safeguards.
In 2001, few weeks after 9/11 attacks on New York, the US congress passed the Patriot Act, which expanded the government authority to spy on its own citizens like monitoring their phone calls and emails without a warrant in case would help stop terror acts. The Patriot Act was and still controversial. Mr Bush who was the US president at that time and his supporters argued that:”the legal safeguards traditionally granted to criminal suspects left the US ill-protected against further attacks”. Yet many American political groups claim that the act is unconstitutional infringements of personal liberties. Link
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