Over wide areas of the urban first world, the Panopticon State is already very much a reality. Folks like us, the contributors to White Rose, Samizdata.net and the grizzled veterans over at Privacy International cry out warning pretty much daily alerting people not so much about the simple fact of surveillance per se but rather surveillance plus data-pooling.
Yet it is important to draw people attention to the basic facts and encourage them to notice the evidence right in front of their eyes, peering down at them like menacing mechanical crows perched on metal branches jutting from walls everywhere, that we are increasing under surveillance by the state directly…
…and by companies whose surveillance footage states are increasingly reserving themselves the right to gain access to on demand…
But the people who would like our every move recorded and subject to analysis are not fools. They would rather you did not actually notice what is before your very eyes and so we are seeing the second age of CCTV: more aesthetically pleasing and less intrusive cameras, rather than the stark utilitarian carrion crows which currently predominate…
…rounder, blending in with the background…
…looking more like the lighting fixtures than the all-seeing-eye.
The second age of security cameras is at hand…still quite literally staring you in the face, but increasingly hiding in plain sight, counting on a mixture of clever design and the fact that familiarity breeds contempt. But Big Brother is still watching, only with a little more style and taste now. That just makes it more dangerous.
Even taking those photos was risky.
Some years ago a friend and I went into central London to shoot some camcorder footage of CCTV cameras for an amateur drama film we planned to make. Within a few minutes two police cars drove up and armed police politely yet firmly quizzed us about who we were (name, address, phone number), what we were doing, where else we’d been filming, whether we supported “the Irish cause” (did they really expect us to say “yes, we’re IRA members planning an attack”?).
Of course we answered all their questions. It’s difficult to stick to your principles when surrounded by people with big guns. My one act of defiance was to leave the camera switched on, albeit pointing downwards, so that everything said was recorded.
During the interrogation one officer was on the radio and once he’d determined we were harmless (a bit insulting really) they sent us on our way – with a strict warning that if we wanted to film CCTV cameras in future we needed written permission. Otherwise, next time it might be “the anti-terrorist lot” who stopped us and we *wouldn’t* like that…
We abandoned the film permanently and went straight to the nearest pub.
Dear White Rose
This may come as a shock………
The output / content from many of the remote cameras in the UK will be available for purchase by you and I as browsable content on mobile phones within 30 months.
There are already initiatives well under way in this regard. Some of which I’m involved in. OOOOER…..How sinister!
The revenues will inevitably pay for the rest of the country to be “camera’d up”.
Once the country is completely wired we will effectively have another stealth tax by the state praying on Joe Public’s love affair with voyeurism.
Just thought you may be interested!
Kindest regards
Simon
Sounds like yet another desperate attempt by picture phone manufacturers to justify their product.
Even so, time to open the safe and dig out the GM2020…