[DanaC]

If we can agree that your society is monitoring the daily activities of it's public...I can ask.......Is it ok to view the insides of private residences? Of "criminals" even? ... What if...now what if the police in your neighborhood decided to do their beat and use this power of technology to see the insides of homes of "criminals"? And otherwise!!
Is this ok?

Of course that's not ok. We don't even allow phone tapping as evidence in our courts. CCTV is very strictly governed. You cannot place one which, for instance, takes in part of someone's back yard, unless they've agreed. You certainly can't film inside somebody's house. Cameras are placed a) on publically owned, or coporate owned property (e.g Train Stations, Shopping Malls, Street corners, Town centres) or privately on someone's own property, as long as it doesn't in any way infringe on the privacy of their neighbours or passers by (e.g after a spate of harrassment or burglasries, an individual may place one which takes in their path and doorway).

Basically we consider that if you are in a public place, you have already waived your right to privacy (except in terms of one's own person). If you are inside your home then you have absolute rights of privacy and if the police want to search your home, they have to get a warrant from a magistrate.

Those databases that you don't like? I'm sorry, but CCTV likely has facial recognition and you are already in one. All it will take is your DNA match to complete the profile which has already been done because you probably visit a doctor's office that sends your samples and tissues elsewhere. Yeah...this has been done because you are likely going to see someone for your skin condition. (Just like the US) The databases have been linked.

Actually data sharing is so hampered by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection acts that sharing between bodies such as the Health Trust, the Youth Offending team and the Crisis Response teams have proved all but impossible for most regions to achieve (as a way of ensuring services link up to identify children whose lives are going into crisis and who may be subject to abuse).

The national DNA database does not exist. It is a proposal which has been very badly recieved by the public. One reason it's so unpopular as a concept is that the attempt to link up all the medical records and hospital appointments system with all the pharmacies and all the Gps cost a small fortune and has been beset with technical difficulties. The other reason is that people are of the opinion that such information should not be held on people who've committed no crime. Basically, the idea is that if you have not committed a crime then you should have every right to your privacy.

Your CCTV's are a wolf in sheeps clothing. There is an eye and a bunny....unfortunately you and I are bunnys. Whether you agreed or know or not. The only difference in our culture on this issue as that I do not agree, and I do not think that the real crime is misdemeanor bicycle riding of Londoners. "My culture" doesn't even agree with me, for the most part, so don't beg to differ on "my culture". The fact that I have a culture is debateable.

Perhaps 'culture' is the wrong word. The correct word would be 'mentalite'. Whether you like it or not, whether you turn away from or not, whether you rebel or not...you have been moulded by the culture and mentalite of your world. You and I have been raised with different mentalites.

The "culture" you are branding me with...who's is it? Do you even know where I am from?!? For crying out loud.......Dana, I respect you for what you do and I can identify with you on many levels...where is this disconnect that says there is a disconnect because I am living in the Southwest United States?!? Yes, I have cultural differences but you would first have to tell me what and where my culture is....Has someone armed you with these facts?!? Ok...I'll slow down. This is a rant. Everyone else shut it.

Like it or not you have been raised in a culture. That culture may have stark differences with the culture of a different part of the States and with different socio-economic sectors of your society. In mine also, there are distinct cultural differences (between the North and the South especially) born of diverse histories, and different class identifiers. But...there are fundamental differences in the base values on which our two societies are founded. There are fundamental differences in conception of space (Britain is a very small, densely packed Island), and the language we use has branched off in different directions over the past several hundred years.

I am not attempting to say that all Americans share one mindset or that all Brits do. What I am trying to say is that there are as many cultural differences between Britain and America as there are between Britain and France. The difference is we share a language. That gives us an impression of much greater cultural parity than there in fact is.

If you are fighting for civil liberties Dana...Can you not see the progression of threats to them? I think you have blinders on and you think I am a trifle american. What more can be said?

I see threats to civil liberities. I don't accept that CCTV is a threat to civil liberties. Changes in law regarding the amount of time a suspect can be held without charge when brought in under the Terrorism Act, is a threat to civil liberties. The way ASBOs can be converted into much more serious punishments without the same protections as someone who doesn't have an ASBO would recieve in the legal system, that is a threat to civil liberties. The use of 'Inderminate' and 'mandatory' sentencing is, I think a threat to civil liberties. The suggested change in the law to allow phone tapping as evidence in court, is a threat to civil liberties. The laws brought in under Thatcher which made 'Flying Pickets' a criminal offense, thereby taking employees civil action back into the realm of the criminal justice system, that was a threat to civil liberties. Laws prohibiting peaceful demonstrations in Parliament Square without written permission from the Police, that's a threat to civil liberties. Extending the rights of Stop and Search for the Police, that's a threat to civil liberties, and persisting with the ridiculous prohibition system on drugs is also, I think an attack on civil liberties.

There are many attacks on civil liberties. But CCTV is not one of them. Just being 'watched' is not initself dangerous. Do you really believe there was ever a time when we weren't watched? When you register the birth of a child, or the death of a parent, a marriage or a divorce, you are being watched. All that has changed is the technology. If laws are passed to allow the inside of my home to be watched, that would be a direct attack on my rights to privacy. There is no evidence, at all, to suggest that this is the direction CCTV is heading in. All the evidence is to the contrary, with CCTV being more strictly governed than practically any other mode of surveillance. The decision to place a CCTV camera, is not the province of Central government. IT is a decision usually taken either by an individual, or by the Police operating on locally agreed strategies and Councils.

It is not a wolf in sheep's clothing, it's a red herring.

Yes.....maybe you are too absorbed in your culture to see other sides...but wasn't it you who said that you have a talent that can speak to many sides? I think that it's true......

So what of that? Can you fill your own shoes and say 'maybe I can take another perspectiveist view and see how it looks from there'. Fill the shoes you have given me. Take a look around for heaven's sake. It may not be accurate but at least you'd climb out of the culture closet.

*sighs* Cic, I didn't say I couldn't see the other perspective. I was trying to tell you that I find it very hard to explain my culture's perspective because I keep running into walls. You are the one listening to my explanation. I am the one trying to give the explanation and I am telling you I keep running into the same wall with you as I have run into time and again with other Americans. And I am not suggesting all Americans are alike or think the same. I have had this argument with Americans who've each had very different political opinions and presumably, as they're from disparate parts of the states, culturally distinct perspectives. On some issues though, I run into the same walls. This is one of those debates when I run into what I consider to be cultural walls and find it almost impossible to explain what I am talking about. Another issue that has that same effect is the idea of it being illegal to print certain types of racist material.


You are the one who is refusing to step outside and see another perspective. I have tried in this thread to share that perspective and explain it. I do not deny your perspective. I simply suggest that as an outsider your view of my country runs contrary to my view of it.