JASON BENNETTO, INDEPENDENT, U K - Britain has sleepwalked into becoming
a surveillance society that increasingly intrudes into our private lives
and impacts on everyday activities, the head of the information watchdog
warns.
New technology and "invisible" techniques are being used to gather a
growing amount of information about UK citizens. The level of
surveillance will grow even further in the next 10 years, which could
result in a growing number of people being discriminated against and
excluded from society, says a report by the Information Commissioner,
Richard Thomas. . .
The major surveillance techniques include:
- Video cameras monitoring buildings, shopping streets and residential
areas. Automatic systems can now recognise vehicle number plates and
faces.
- Software that analyses spending habits and the data sold to
businesses. When we call service centres or apply for loans, insurance
or mortgages, how quickly we are served and what we are offered can
depend on what we spend, where we live and who we are.
- Electronic tags to monitor offenders on probation.
- DNA taken from those arrested by the police and placed on a database.
- Information stored about foreign travel.
- Smart cards in schools to determine where children are, what they eat
or the books they borrow.
- Taps on telephones, e-mails and internet use that can screened for key
words and phrases by British and US intelligence services. . .
The group of academics who compiled the report have also predicted
future trends in surveillance in the next decade. The include:
- Shoppers being scanned as they enter stores. This will be matched with
loyalty card data to affect how they are handled, with big spenders
given preferential treatment over others.
- Cars linked to global satellite navigation systems which will provide
the quickest route to avoid congestion and allow police to monitor speed
and to track selected cars.
- Employees subjected to biometric and psychometric tests plus lifestyle
profiles with diagnostic health tests common place. Jobs are refused to
those who are seen as a health risk.
- Schools using card systems to allow parents to monitor what their
children eat, their attendance, academic and drug test results
- Facial recognition systems to monitor our movements using tiny cameras
in lampposts and walls, and unmanned aircraft above.
BRITAIN UNDER SURVEILLANCE
- The national DNA database holds profiles on about 3.5 million people.
- There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain: one for
every 14 people.
- Since 2002 there have been more than 8 million criminal records checks
for jobs, of which around 400,000 contained convictions or police
intelligence information.
- There are plans to expand capacity to read vehicle number plates from
35 million reads per day to 50 million by 2008.
- Some 216 catalogue companies in the UK are signed up to the Abacus
data-sharing consortium, with information on 26 million individuals.
- The database of fingerprints contains nearly 6 million sets of prints.
- An individual can be captured on more than 300 cameras each day.
- By the end of 2002 law enforcement bodies had made more than 400,000
requests for data from mobile network operators.
- The number of motorists caught by speed cameras rose from 300,000 in
1996 to over 2 million in 2004.
- In the year to April 2005 some 631 adults and 5,751 juveniles were
electronically tagged.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1948209.ece
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