Case Studies

Britain becoming ‘mass surveillance society’: BBW

by Mark Rowe

The extraordinary scale of surveillance in 2018 Britain affects all of us, says a report on the ‘state of surveillance’ by the campaign group Big Brother Watch (BBW).

It warns that Britain is shifting to a ‘mass surveillance society’: “The rapid emergence of new surveillance technologies is being matched by their fast and often lawless adoption by private companies and the state. Police forces can watch and track citizens without suspicion, increasingly using algorithms fed with personal information and data scraped from the internet to construct ‘suspicion’, assert ‘risk’, or even predict crime. Facial recognition cameras have crept onto our streets, making border style security and frequent identity checks a norm.”

The 60-page document covers intrusive policing methods against targeted groups such as protesters; ‘the spectre of surveillance over sensitive professions’, such as investigative journalists; and monitoring of vulnerable groups by public services, such as for immigration enforcement and by the Department for Work and Pensions on benefits claimants. Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Jay Watts wrote that since 2012, ‘unprecedented new techniques of sanction, surveillance and deterrence have had a profound and devastating effect on the mental and physical health, and life expectancy’, of claimants.

As for schools, Jen Persson of data privacy campaign group defenddigitalme, suggested that children in schools and young adults at universities are subject to state and commercial surveillance ‘perhaps more than any other community in England’. Visible surveillance tools like CCTV in playgrounds, corridors and private spaces such as bathrooms, are on the rise.

In its conclusion, BBW called for a halt to the ‘silent erosion of our rights’. “Suspicionless surveillance not only affects the individual but skews our perception of others, and risks morphing our society into a repressive and authoritarian one where principles of free speech and expression are under-valued. Privacy is key in the delicate power balance between the citizen and the state.”

Related News

  • Case Studies

    Servator video

    by Mark Rowe

    Begun in North Yorkshire in April 2017, as elswhere Servator sees visible and covert police officers deploy, to deny, detect and deter…

  • Case Studies

    Hotel chain CCTV

    by Mark Rowe

    Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotels has agreed a long term single source supply relationship with the professional security division of Samsung Techwin, which…

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing