Big Brother Surveillance Society: A fantastic essay

This snippet is from a 8 page essay on our Big Brother Surveillance society by Don Butler. Ottawa Citizen news link

Are we addicted to being watched? by Don Butler

We're being watched like never before by organizations of all sorts. What are the implications for our lives and our liberties?

"We're seeing just an unbelievable intensification of monitoring capacity," says the University of Alberta's Kevin Haggerty, a surveillance expert.

"There's an ability to connect all of this stuff across realms that is just a little unnerving."

That has immense implications for each of us. As American security guru Bruce Schnier has observed, those who control our data control our lives.

The information others are compiling about us can determine whether we get a mortgage or a job, whether we're allowed on an airplane or into a country, even whether the service we get from a company is attentive or desultory.

Surveillance is a condition of modernity, integral to the development of the nation-state and to global capitalism, writes University of Victoria political scientist Colin Bennett in his new book, The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance.

"It is that important."

I say we should develop tech that allows each of us to record our perspective - and ensure that we are the sole owners of that perspective - i.e., we cannot be called upon to "testify against ourselves."

But we can stand as witness as we see fit.

If they can watch us, we must watch them.

Come to the UK where there is 14 cameras for each person here, this is the testing ground for the big brother take over that is to come around the world all networked and linked together into one hub. scary.

So basically, we are seeing an organization who wishes to be all knowing and omnipotent? Seems like I've heard of something like that before.

But really, this is nothing new. Just another inquisition unfortunately.

Originally posted by stealthyaroura
Come to the UK where there is 14 cameras for each person here, this is the testing ground for the big brother take over that is to come around the world all networked and linked together into one hub. scary.

It certainly is a bit scary,I've read that if you were to walk around George Orwell's old house in London,your image is now captured on surveillance camera over 33 times -I don't think Mr Orwell would be too impressed.
I think the term 'Panopticon' is appropriate when attempting to describe the British establishment's obsession with surveillance cameras:

Panopticon - The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience".
Bentham himself described the Panopticon as "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by badmedia

Sounds like someone wants to play at being Q.

It is scary though in london, they have quite a big area of the city covered by face regognition cameras now that in 2003 could analyze 4 faces a second. Whats that like now?

This book should also be essential reading

"Ive got nothing to hide and other misunderstandings of privacy" - Daniel J Solove:
www.scribd.com...