CCTV: What Privacy?
Friday, October 16, 2009 by Elise
I find the subject of surveillance, in particular CCTV, really interesting because in my opinion, the notion of 'privacy' is quite fluid at this point in history. I lived in London for 3 years, and the CCTV is really obvious - for example, in Picadilly Circus you can look upwards and on the top of these big poles (as well as on traffic lights and buildings) there are cameras pointing down in every direction, and that's just one intersection in the whole of the city. So it was with great interest that I found this blog (http://www.c-p-p.co.uk/blog/get-paid-to-watch-cctv-on-the-internet.html) dated 7 October 2009 which states that while London has 4.2 million CCTV cameras, only 1 in 1000 are being monitored. It goes on to say that there is a new scheme which will actually pay money to regular citizens in order for them to monitor up to 4 cameras a day, I am guessing from their own homes, over the internet. The money paid is calculated using a points system by which people get 1 point for every suspected crime reported, and 3 points for every actual crime reported. Like any good points system (!), there are points deducted for wrong 'guesses'.
This. Is. Unbelievable.
Apart from the myriad of obvious ways that this scheme can be misused (people harassing people they don't like, people reporting petty nuisances which don't constitute as 'crime', etc.), there is a deeper issue here. That issue is that the boundary between public and private is being increasingly blurred due to technology, and the fact that ordinary citizens can now act as voyeuristic crime-busters is taking this blurring a little too far. In his book 'Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life', David Lyon (2001, 22) poses the question "Who... has access to the images and for what purposes? Can individuals control or limit the uses of the data derived from their behaviours?" However, in the face of this new citizen monitoring technology, the question is not just if people can limit / reduce / control the data that is collected about them, but also if people can collect / influence / store the data collected of other people.
My personal opinion is that society is not psychologically equipped to monitor each other using advanced technology such as this, especially when we live in a (Western) capitalist society which revolves around money. The fact that we are monitored by CCTV, and we cannot control the data, is scary. The fact that due to new technology we can monitor each other is even scarier. The prospect of citizens monitoring each other for financial gain is like a disaster waiting to happen.
This. Is. Unbelievable.
Apart from the myriad of obvious ways that this scheme can be misused (people harassing people they don't like, people reporting petty nuisances which don't constitute as 'crime', etc.), there is a deeper issue here. That issue is that the boundary between public and private is being increasingly blurred due to technology, and the fact that ordinary citizens can now act as voyeuristic crime-busters is taking this blurring a little too far. In his book 'Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life', David Lyon (2001, 22) poses the question "Who... has access to the images and for what purposes? Can individuals control or limit the uses of the data derived from their behaviours?" However, in the face of this new citizen monitoring technology, the question is not just if people can limit / reduce / control the data that is collected about them, but also if people can collect / influence / store the data collected of other people.
My personal opinion is that society is not psychologically equipped to monitor each other using advanced technology such as this, especially when we live in a (Western) capitalist society which revolves around money. The fact that we are monitored by CCTV, and we cannot control the data, is scary. The fact that due to new technology we can monitor each other is even scarier. The prospect of citizens monitoring each other for financial gain is like a disaster waiting to happen.