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CCTV Cameras In UK Get Loudspeakers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the 6079-smith-w dept.

An anonymous reader writes, "Big Brother is another step closer in the UK where the ever ubiquitous CCTV cameras are being fitted with loudspeakers so that camera operators who spot activities deemed 'anti-social' can berate the citizens below. In January 2004 there were more than 4,285,000 CCTV cameras in the UK (roughly 1 for every 4 households). No data about the number of CCTV cameras now in use in the UK is available."

4 of 484 comments (clear)

  1. The quote that says it all.... by Hex4def6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Afterwards she said: 'It's quite scary to realise that your every move could be monitored - it really is like Big Brother. 'But Middlesbrough does have a big problem with anti-social behaviour, so it is very reassuring.' " And this is why it is truly Airstrip One.

  2. Bored by CatWrangler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, just because it may be boring to you, does not mean it doesn't exist. We are rushing headlong into an age of massive amounts of ability to violate privacy due to the ability to store the data, and the medium to create it. We are not having a true debate in society about how to balance safety and privacy. It's a pity it bores you, but for some of us, we can at least make an attempt to have some dialogue about the issue before we jump into the abyss.

    --

    ---
    When you come to a fork in the road, take it! --Yogi Berra--

  3. Check out the other end by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The constant privacy concerns on slashdot ( which, btw, I tend to agree with ) are, in this case, focused on the wrong end. The important issue is not the number of public cameras ( as at least one poster has noted, they are in a public area where you could have no expectation of privacy anyway ), but who has access to the other end.

    A public webcam, which anybody can look at on the net, is very different from a public cam which only the cops get to look at. The people who control the data get to control the facts.
    Rather than bemoaning the number of cameras and now their accompaning audio, you should be complaining about the fact that you don't have access to them.

    Public crime is like bugs: if there are enough eyeballs, the problem will be fixed.

  4. Re:Joking aside.... by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Joking aside, many of us who were alive before and during WWII do see the parallels of today's Western society to that of Soviet Russia.

    Scarier than that, on "the other side of the line" people were wandering around saying things like "it can't happen here, we're a democracy" -- but it did.

    Thank God it can't happen here, happen here, happen here. . .

    KFG