Waking up in the panopticon
Mar. 21st, 2009 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylI'll admit to a certain wry amusement over the complaints about the launch of Google Street View in the UK.
Yes, Google have managed to capture images of people in potentially embarrassing situations. And yes, the images are there on the web for all and sundry to gorp at. But the images are static — yes, I realise that if you were caught doing something stupid, that isn't really much comfort, but it does mean that if you weren't caught doing something compromising, you're unlikely to get caught again — and there is a process for requesting the removal of the images.
Now compare this with the proliferation of CCTV cameras in the UK.
According to the estimates, there are around 1.5+ million cameras monitoring public spaces in the UK. This means that you might as well assume that your every action, in busy public spaces at least, is subject to monitoring, not just on a single occasion, but constantly and endlessly. And, unlike Google, it is — I believe — difficult to images removed from the monitoring archive (although it is possible to request footage of yourself from the owners of the cameras under the Data Protection Act), and it is usually unclear who, if anyone, might be monitoring the footage from the cameras at any given moment.
It's not clear, as yet, whether anything significant might come of these complaints. Sure, Google might remove the offending images from their systems, but its not clear if, having woken up to find themselves in the panopticon, these people are going to question the prevailing surveilance culture or if they're simply going to bleat about Street View and then return to their untroubled slumbers...
Yes, Google have managed to capture images of people in potentially embarrassing situations. And yes, the images are there on the web for all and sundry to gorp at. But the images are static — yes, I realise that if you were caught doing something stupid, that isn't really much comfort, but it does mean that if you weren't caught doing something compromising, you're unlikely to get caught again — and there is a process for requesting the removal of the images.
Now compare this with the proliferation of CCTV cameras in the UK.
According to the estimates, there are around 1.5+ million cameras monitoring public spaces in the UK. This means that you might as well assume that your every action, in busy public spaces at least, is subject to monitoring, not just on a single occasion, but constantly and endlessly. And, unlike Google, it is — I believe — difficult to images removed from the monitoring archive (although it is possible to request footage of yourself from the owners of the cameras under the Data Protection Act), and it is usually unclear who, if anyone, might be monitoring the footage from the cameras at any given moment.
It's not clear, as yet, whether anything significant might come of these complaints. Sure, Google might remove the offending images from their systems, but its not clear if, having woken up to find themselves in the panopticon, these people are going to question the prevailing surveilance culture or if they're simply going to bleat about Street View and then return to their untroubled slumbers...
