Surveillance: are we just wasting tape?

Surveillance of the UK and USA: are we just using unnecessary tape?

It seems like every corner you turn, we are constantly being witnessed by someone, or other. Whether you’re in a supermarket, walking along the high street or wandering up your own front porch: there is a high possibility that you are being caught on camera (and not in an ironic way). Now, we’re told this is for protection, I think not.

Current news stories in the UK have been arising concerning our said privacy and how people in officials can abuse it, because of power. What a beautiful word. An undercover police officer recently spent 7 years living at the heart of the environmental protest movements where he was “playing a front-lie role in some of the most high profile confrontations” according to Rob Evans of the Guardian. The problem is he worked in authority and to support a movement which is therefore promoting a not-so-neutral view on things. The officer, Mark Kennedy, adopted a fake identity to disrupt the “UK’s peaceful movement to combat climate change”. After changing his image and gaining a fake passport, he attended the G20 protests in London among with almost every other major demonstration in the UK, where he not only became an activist but also helped to organise and fund some of the protests.

This ultimately shows just one story in a line of hundreds where peoples trust has been broken through an authority and surveillance scandal.

In the UK, this story comes at a time when hacking has been at the fore-front of the media for a while. Incase you’re not familiar with the story - ex-newspaper ‘News of the World’, were caught hacking household names, politicians, celebrities of all agendas and even some working class people, just to be able to gain an exclusive news story. Many people of authority argued the pros and cons and legalities of this until it eventually led to the editor giving a full confession and the closure of the paper.

But, is it any wonder? In America you could walk for miles and feel free, feel like the only people watching you are those you catch sight of.

Where, Britain is ‘Surveillance society’, boasting that: “Per capita there are more surveillance cameras than in any other country in the world - more than a million according to a recent estimate” (BBC News), and that article was written over ten years ago. Think about all the recent demonstrations, conflicts between government and the working people and I’m sure that number has increased considerably.

What is happening with all of these images they have of us? We aren’t the only country wondering. To be surveilled but the info unveiled. In the US Air Force, recent claims that “data collected by US government satellites and aerial surveillance platforms has increased 1500% over the last five years, but the American government’s ability to process the information has only increased by 30%” (Defence Web)

Therefore, are we really protected more or are we just using a lot more tape than before, because we can and have the power?