Always On CCTV

<p>Do private individuals realise the impact of their own CCTV and other monitoring devices? Do we really need to be capturing everything that goes on around our lives and homes? It's said cameras can aid crime prevention, though being watched all the time can lead to paranoia, and here in the UK we seem to be one of the most watched nations in the world. Do you have any thoughts around being monitored? Perhaps you feel if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to hide? Is this really true?</p> <p>Regular listener Paco from Wimbledon, England has sent in another question for Stuart and William to explore and it goes like this:</p> <p>“In the UK I often hear it said it's a police state and that we’re monitored by CCTV and other cameras. I also hear most footage captured is done so by private cameras on our own homes or work premises, and via dashcams these days. 96% of UK cameras are private as our homes are bristling with tech and monitoring devices. Maybe those saying we live in a police state, or those concerned about how the state can monitor us, should target their words towards us private individuals not the state?"</p> <p>Your co-hosts discuss that there does seem to be more CCTV these days with private door bells, dash cams etc, so why wouldn't the police and others tap into this footage?</p> <p>More people got the video doorbell technology during lockdown to reduce social contact, so is this the thin end of the wedge with CCTV easily leading to totalitarianism. This footage is potentially open to abuse, and not just by the police or government etc. Some people make the big jump from CCTV coverage to the novel 1984, is that too big a jump, too soon?</p> <p>Back in the 1980’s radio personality and journalist Bill Heine said he never put his name down on things where it could be stored in a master database somewhere, did he have a point that monitoring comes in many forms, and the line between privacy and traceability is often too blurred?</p> <p>This podcast's overall themes are nature, philoso