Waking up to a surveillance society
Britain is waking up to a surveillance society which is intruding into our private space, according to research led by a University lecturer.
Dr David Murakami Wood (pictured) headed the Surveillance Studies Network which produced the report for the Information Commissioner’s Office. It made national headlines with coverage on national BBC TV and radio and most national newspapers.
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, launched the report at the International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners’ Conference in London.
The report looks at surveillance in 2006 and projects forward ten years to 2016. It describes a surveillance society as one where technology is extensively and routinely used to track and record our activities and movements.
Surveillance methods include systematic tracking and recording of travel and use of public services, automated use of CCTV, analysis of buying habits and financial transactions, and the work-place monitoring of telephone calls, email and internet use.
The surveillance can often be in ways which are invisible or not obvious to ordinary individuals as they are watched and monitored, and the report shows how pervasive surveillance looks set to accelerate in the years to come.
Dr Murakami Wood, a lecturer with the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, said: “The surveillance society has come about almost without us realising. With technologies that are large-scale, taken for granted and often invisible, surveillance is increasingly everywhere.
“We describe techniques such as automatic classification and risk-based profiling as “social sorting” which can create real problems for individuals - social exclusion, discrimination and a negative impact on their life chances.”
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, said: “Two years ago I warned that we were in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us.”
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published on: 8th November 2006