Overview -- CCTV and Beyond

09/08/2004

In the past decade, the use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) for surveillance and crime control has grown to unprecedented levels. In Britain between 150 and 300 million pounds (225 - 450 million dollars) per year is now spent on a surveillance industry involving an estimated 300,000 cameras covering shopping areas, housing estates, car parks and public facilitiesa in great many towns and cities.

While Britain is clearly the lead nation in implementing CCTV, other countries are quickly following. North America, Australia and some European countries which a few years ago would have rejected the technology, are installing the cameras in urban environments.

CCTV is very quickly becoming an integral part of crime control policy, social control theory and Community consciousness. It is promoted by police and politicians as primary solution for urban dysfunction. It is no exaggeration to conclude that in Britain, the technology has had more of an impact on the evolution of law enforcement policy than just about any technology initiative in the past two decades.

Privacy International has consistently expressed its concern over the development of this technology. This page offers information and advice about the downside of a technology which we believe will have a profound effect on future generations.

Older News Stories

• BBC, School installs spy cameras in toilets, November 5, 1999.
  
  
• BBC, Government maintains CCTV vision, August 11, 1999.
  
  
• BBC, CCTV out of focus with crime, July 14, 1999
  
  
• BBC, Keeping an eye on secret cameras, May 11, 1999.
  
  
• CNN, Neighborhood spycam helps catch murder suspect, February 9, 1999.
  
  
• BBC, Unmasking Criminals - Facial Recognition, November 25, 1998.
  
  
• Sydney Morning Herald, Council pays $1.5m to keep eye on city, December 18, 1998.
  
  
• BBC, Internet cameras to guard school? October 13, 1998.
  
  
• Sydney Morning Herald, Privacy worry over bosses' video eye on workers, September 10, 1998.
  
  
• Surveillance in New York City, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1998.
  
  
• Prejudice drives CCTV targets, KDIS Online, October 24, 1997.
  
  

  "People are selected and targeted by "Spy-cameras" according to the prejudices of the CCTV operators, a damning new study by one of the regions top Criminologists shows. "The young, the male and the black were systematically and disproportionately targeted, not because of their involvement in crime or disorder, but for 'no obvious reason'", says the study. Also targeted were young people described as "scrotes", the homeless, and "anyone who directly challenged... the right of the cameras to monitor them....1 in 10 women were targeted for entirely "voyeuristic" reasons by the male operators, according to the researchers."
  
  

• CCTV - Big Brother in Bradford, KDIS Online, March 1997.
  
  
• Footage of video surveillance from ACLU video on workplace privacy.
  
  
• CNN, Peeping Tom goes high tech. Technology surpasses laws governing privacy, March 28, 1996.
  
  
• CNN, Public cameras draw ire of privacy experts, March 29, 1996.
  
  
• Boston Globe, "Video aided arrest raises privacy concerns", April 18, 1995.
  

  
  

Related:
PI warns London Metropolitan Police on their latest surveillance promotional campaign
PI Files complaint about expansion of CCTV on Toronto transit network