Track 22

Unit 8

Political science

Big brother and the surveillance society

Pages 76 and 77

Listen for main ideas and listen for details

one controversial aspect of civil liberties with not touched on yet is surveillance start with the definition that we know what were talking about surveillance is the act of carefully watching a person or place especially one that suspected well I’m sure we all have our own opinions on this civil liberties groups in most countries are concerned that were becoming a so-called surveillance culture that in the name of national and personal security national governments are obtaining detailed information on their citizens and tracking their movements Internet use financial transactions and so on and it’s not just the government today it’s possible for savvy private organizations to get information on individuals from different sources and build the kind of composite picture profile if you will some people think that this is fine if it helps the government or if there local supermarket knows their shopping habits they shouldn’t have anything to hide right but most people don’t like it they feel they become part of an Orwellian big brother culture it’s enclosed inclusion of privacy are they right well you can judge for yourself because I’m gonna take you through some of the surveillance mechanisms that are out there will start by looking at a few of the more familiar ones and then move on to a more recent and technically sophisticated method. Cameras today these are everywhere closed circuit TV cameras are in stores monitoring shoplifters in cash machines identifying fraud gangs and on public transport watching vandals and thugs but of course they are also watching perfectly ordinary innocent people like you and me going about their daily lives completely unaware that they’re being monitored you know today in the US for example there are probably upwards of 6 million surveillance cameras in New York City alone they’ve increased 50% in the past few years and in Britain that figure is 4.5 million cameras that’s one camera for every 14 people recording each citizen up to 300 times a day then there are traffic based cameras monitoring vehicles via their registration numbers right now the UK government is considering recording all car journeys taken on main roads as a deterrent to terrorism and crime generally these cameras are being used way beyond their original purpose it’s downright invasive cell phones have given the authorities another useful surveillance tool records of incoming and outgoing calls can be checked and used to solve crimes that’s right just like in the movies and something I didn’t know cell phone users can be tracked using a system called triangulation this is when a cell phone’s communication with different cell phone towers is used to locate the user’s position and seen as these days almost all of us have one of these phones what’s there to stop security services from checking on any one of us then we have credit card transactions where all familiar with this one I’m sure every time we use a credit or debit card were making an announcement of where we are how much were spending and on what again useful for crime busting Wednesday unusually large amounts of money are suddenly spent uncharacteristically but do we really want people to know this stuff we want anyone having access to our financial records okay let’s look at one of the more sophisticated surveillance techniques biometric facial recognition which uses computer programs to analyze images of human faces for identification purposes and they do it taking an image safe from a photo or video frame then they measure facial characteristics like the distance between your eyes and the length of your nose for instance then they create a template which the software can compare with another image like a person going through airport security if there is a match then hey presto that person gets pulled aside for questioning they’ve got the system operating at a number of airports it’s also been used at major sporting events like the Super Bowl where pictures were taken of every person entering the stadium and then compared against the database now all the instances of surveillance I’ve mentioned are products of the digital age of technology that now so easily available that it’s just too simple and tempting for security agencies and commercial organizations not to take advantage of and here’s the catch just to function in today’s world requires us increasingly to expose ourselves to these threats to our privacy we basically have no choice let’s face it how many of us these days can really manage without a credit card and ID card email or cell phone it’s almost as if well if we would have these things that we have to accept the surveillance that goes with them right now I’m no conspiracy theorists but like many people I don’t believe all this surveillance is for our own good I don’t believe that those of us with nothing to hide have nothing to fear so it’s reassuring that there are organizations out there protecting the rights of ordinary citizens like you and me let me wrap up with a quote from Mark Rutenberg president of the electronic privacy information Center epic who says that the kind of open ended surveillance we are now seeing is quote the digital electronic equivalent of allowing police to go through your home without a warrant now that’s a sobering thought wouldn’t you say