World's most pervasive surveillance undermines basic liberties, say peersAlan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian, Friday 6 February 2009
Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, says report published today. The steady expansion of the "surveillance society" risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.
The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.
Alan Travis on a Lords report warning that CCTV is a threat to freedom Link to this audio The report, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, by the Lords' constitution committee, says Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, with an estimated 4m cameras, and in building a national DNA database, with more than 7% of the population already logged compared with 0.5% in the America.
The cross-party committee which includes Lord Woolf, a former lord chief justice, and two former attorneys general, Lord Morris and Lord Lyell, warns that "pervasive and routine" electronic surveillance and the collection and processing of personal information is almost taken for granted.
Although many surveillance practices and data collection processes are unknown to most people, the expansion in their use represents "one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the second world war", the report says. The committee warns that the national DNA database could be used for "malign purposes", challenges whether CCTV cuts crime and questions whether local authorities should be allowed to use surveillance powers at all.
The peers say privacy is an "essential prerequisite to the exercise of individual freedom" and the growing use of surveillance and data collection needs to be regulated by executive and legislative restraint at all times.
Lord Goodlad, the former Tory chief whip and committee chairman, said there could be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about an individual being recorded and pored over by the state.
"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other organisations risks undermining the long-standing traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for democracy," he said. "If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used."
The constitution committee makes more than 40 recommendations to protect individual privacy, including the deletion of all profiles from the national DNA database except for those of convicted criminals and a call for the mandatory encryption of personal data held by public and private organisations that are legally obliged to hold it.
But the report is silent on proposals from Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, for a "superdatabase" tracking everybody's emails, calls, texts and internet use and from Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to lower barriers on the widespread sharing of personal data across the public sector.
But the peers are critical of whether local authorities should continue to exercise their surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. They say examples of local councils using covert surveillance operations to stop fly tipping, reducing dog fouling, and investigate fraudulent school place applications led them to question how they acquired such powers. Ministers should examine whether local authorities, rather than the police, are the appropriate bodies to mount surveillance operations, the peers say. If they are, then their use should be confined to crime investigations that carry a minimum two-year prison sentence.
The peers say individuals targeted by such operations should be informed when it is completed, as long as no investigation is prejudiced.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Monday, 2 February 2009
Deadline for text submissions - Thursday 5th February
Hi All
Hope you all had a good weekend. Lots of snow up here in Suffolk. Hope everybody gets some valuable snowman time.
Just a quick update on some of the planning. Phillip posted the themes that we have finalised on:
- Creation
- Love
- Joy
- Despair
- Destruction
- Farewell
We have been running the blog for text submissions last week and we will continue to run this week - the deadline for text submissions is this coming Thursday 5th (there are a bunch of presentations and talks planned at ditto@digit). The final selection will be Friday 6th. This gives us time to work through the 'briefs' which the artists will then be working off.
Thank you so much to all who have contributed so far - if you haven't please get your thinking hats on and get blogging over the next couple of days. You can put your submissions here, on the dittotv Facebook wall or email me at mike@ditto.tv
Wrap up warm!
Mike
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Proposed Piece for Ditto
I'd like to propose this passage from Slaughterhouse Five for War...
'Billy turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks.
The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.'
'Billy turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks.
The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.'
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Ditto - The next step.
After much deliberation we finally have the sub contexts for 'the human condition'.
These being the following six themes.
- Creation
- Love
- Joy
- Despair
- Destruction
- Farewell
The next step is for us to select written pieces to represent these headings, so everyone is invited to respond to this blog by adding passages of written word which you feel are relevant to the headings, and please state which heading you feel the piece relates to.
Hopefully there's enough scope there to inspire, without having to crowbar stuff in.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Phillip
ditto@digit Thursday 5th February 6pm
Our good friends at digit have kindly offered to host a ditto@digit session at their studio on Thursday 5th February from 6pm. Address:
6 Corbet Place
Hanbury St
off Commercial St
All ditto friends, artists and contributors welcome. Bring 4 beers and 1 great idea. A great opportunity for us to share ideas and inspiration. We plan to run through the project, the emerging briefs and how we are progressing.
See you next week. Many thanks to Daljit & Andy and all the team at digit - a very cool and funky space, and very much appreciated. The plan is to host the session every two weeks during the project run. So very kind of them indeed...
ditto.
Way To Blue Give a Helping Hand
Way To Blue www.waytoblue.com guru's of digital PR have offered a tremendous hand of help to ditto and will assist in all of our press, marketing and PR associated with the project. Many, many thanks to Olly, Jazmin, Adam, Louise and all the team at WTB.
Do it together!
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