Weekly newsletter

Even when Thatcher’s ministers were being pulled from the rubble of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, we never allowed threats to distort our way of life. Now, we let accusations of dog fouling and fiddling school catchment areas to justify unprecedented snooping. We face the prospect of improving technology allowing the state to monitor us in every moment of our lives.

DNA profiles of over a million innocent people are still on the national database, and despite all promises to the contrary such records are still being added.

Local councils authorise themselves to mount covert surveillance of residents under powers meant for serious crimes and terrorism – to catch people putting bins out at the wrong time, for dog fouling, breaking the smoking ban, littering, noise nuisance. It’s entirely out of proportion; the cure is worse than the disease. Innocent victims have no right to know that they were watched, so it’s not scaremongering, but simply stating the obvious, to say it could have happened to you.

Council-run CCTV cameras have trebled in the last ten years. We’re the only country that’s gone so far down this path: the Shetland Islands have more CCTV cameras than San Francisco’s Police Department. The capture and retention of the images of innocent people without their consent is now de rigueur. ‘Nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ we’re told – but the reverse should apply in a free society. If you have done nothing wrong, why should the state record your whereabouts and what you’re doing?

CCTV is being used on a routine basis to monitor and identify peaceful people exercising democratic rights to protest – exercising their freedom of assembly, speech, movement. Automatic Number Plate Recognition takes up to 14 million photographs of vehicles and their occupants each day. The Intercept Modernisation Programme, under which the details of all telephone records and emails are recorded, was too much even for Labour, but the Government plans to continue with it.

Many children have their fingerprints taken in school for registration purposes or in order to get school dinners or library books. Schools are beginning to use facial recognition technology instead of a register.

Our research revealed that 2.6 million households have had microchips installed in their dustbins (and none of them had been told about it). ‘Pay as you throw’ schemes have been banned but chips continue to be installed ‘to encourage recycling’ – it’s the same technology and can be switched to other uses, and it is equally intrusive.

We are building up data sets of personal information which is valuable and open to future abuse, especially given the rapid development of facial mapping. Only a fool would presume that all people in power in future times will be benign.

► BIG BROTHER WATCH STICKER CAMPAIGN
Have you seen a poster that coerces you to stay silent? Are you followed by surveillance cameras on your way to the shops? Is there a building or institution near you which stands as an icon of our overbearing state?

We have thousands of stickers like the one on the right of this page and we want to give them away so that you can name and shame the everyday invaders of your privacy.

If you would like to order a batch of stickers, please click here.

► BLOGS OF THE WEEK

World's largest association of pilots boycotts body scanners

The world’s largest association of pilots has announced a boycott of full body scanners at airports, citing health risks.

The stance is taken following the suspension of an American pilot for refusing to be scanned, and the emergence of news that scanners may deliver 20 times more radiation than was announced by the authorities who introduced them.

Summary of the Summit on Net Neutrality and the Open Internet

“Net Neutrality means so many things that it doesn’t mean anything at all,” said Robert Pepper, Cisco’s Vice-President for Global Advanced Technology Policy yesterday at the EU’s Summit on the Open Internet and Net Neutrality in Europe. Mr. Pepper’s statement sums up the summit accurately – the summit wasn’t about Net Neutrality per se, it was about growth, innovation, new business models, and the digital economy.

The case against Control Orders

Following on from an article by Robin Simcox which supported the use of Control Orders as a law enforcement tool, Big Brother Watch's Alex Deane has written for Critical Reaction offering the opposing case.

"Each time a case actually goes to court, the Government loses and another such order falls. Control Orders should be abandoned immediately, rather than defeated on an ad hoc basis as the Government loses case after case. It is unjust enough to limit the liberty of a person in this way - but to continue to do so, knowing that the case will be decided against the Government when it wends its way to court, but keeping them so ‘controlled’ until then, is morally bankrupt. It entails further months of unjustifiable action in each case, simply on the basis of which one gets to see the inside of a courtroom first. How can that be intellectually justified even for a moment?

Google: protecting your data, removing your data

Despite Big Brother Watch's recent criticism of Google for its harvesting of personal information from domestic WiFi networks, the company's search facility remains one of the most invaluable and innovative tools online. For those wishing to promote their websites, ensuring a page finds its way "onto Google" is crucial.

The Government wants all of your personal financial information

It was reported today that the Coalition Government is planning on changing the law requiring all companies and banks to hand over details of the earnings of the out-of-work and tax credit beneficiaries. Essentially, if the Government does not have this information already, they will be allowed to legally seek and receive the information. The plan is that eventually all bank details and account information of all UK wage earners and benefit recipients will be obtained by the government so that HMRC can aim to reduce the high number of recent tax errors.

► MEDIA COVERAGE

Daily Telegraph - Warning of new era of surveillance state 

Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Surveillance in Britain has been expanded out of all proportion and it is getting worse.

"Now we face the prospect of improving technology allowing the state to monitor us in every moment of our lives."

Daily Mail - Beware the Robowarden! Now drivers face parking patrol teams equipped with £500 head-cams

 Daniel Hamilton, of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘This type of surveillance is both intrusive and unfair. Our local  council officials should stop pretending to be James Bond.’ 

Daily Telegraph - Big Brother Britain has grown out of all proportion

Britain’s surveillance culture has been expanded out of all proportion to any threats we face – and it’s getting worse, says Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch and former chief of staff to David Cameron. 

Metro - Pilots ‘risk cancer from body scans’

Alex Deane, director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘Scanners are dangerous. There’s a reason that the nurse stands behind a screen when you get an X-ray at hospital. If pilots aren’t going to be scanned, why should members of the public?’

Yorkshire Post - Tenants face photos order

Daniel Hamilton from Big Brother Watch, which fights intrusions on privacy and liberty, said: "I am at a loss to work out what practical need Hull Council has to keep this kind of information. This is a hugely intrusive scheme.

"Keeping records about tenants' behaviour and payment history is one thing but holding a database of their photographs is another."

Tech-Eye - Allied Pilots Association to boycott full body scanners

Alex Deane, director of the civil liberties campaign group said: “Scanners are dangerous. There’s a reason that the nurse stands behind a screen when you get an x-ray at hospital. Radiation is potentially harmful, even in small doses, and the regularity with which frequent flyers are exposed to potentially cancer-causing radiation.

“If pilots aren’t going to be scanned, why should members of the public? This stance from a professional group, the world’s leading association of pilots, must shake the government out of its absurd position on scanners.

He also warns that in the UK alone you "cannot opt for a pat-down search instead of a scan”

Network World - Welcome to Skynet, the CCTV Surveillance Society

Big Brother Watch has covered numerous CCTV programs in Europe that seem especially over-the-top total surveillance society. The Samurai project uses CCTV to look for people "acting suspiciously

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