It’s official; Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, says that more and more personal data is being collected and stored on all of us, both by the the UK Government and UK businesses.
Britain now has more CCTV cameras (both public and private) per head of population than any other country in the world – some five million at the last count, that’s about one for every 12 people!
And now in the latest twist to this modern surveillance society, many police forces have asked that all CCTV cameras be upgraded so that they can take advantage of new technologies that can automatically identify people and analyze their behavior!
To use a borrow a quote from Richard Thomas, the UK is “sleepwalking into a surveillance society“.
I agree with the argument that we need to able to track down criminals and terrorists when the need arises, but surely this ‘total’ coverage is going too far.
What I wonder will be the next step, the recording of sound with the video and perhaps having them talk back to you!!! Oh! I forgot, that’s already happened!
Couple all this up with the UK National DNA database, the UK ID card project, the UK Children’s Database it seems that we are truly sinking under the weight of surveillance.
Where will it end? Will we all have to get a barcode tattooed on our skin so that we can be scanned? Maybe I’m being too paranoid, we will have to see!
Beasley's Place 
I like your blog, but I think that this subject is the most interesting of your last posts (for me). Bye, Lucy Relatos.
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