crying over spilt milk

[Eugen Leitl]

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7872425.stm?ad=1 

Warning over 'surveillance state'

Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are "pervasive" in
British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned.

CCTV cameras and the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy,
the Lords constitution committee said.

It called for compensation for people subject to illegal surveillance.

The government said CCTV and DNA were "essential" to fight crime but campaign
group Liberty said abuses of power mean "even the innocent have a lot to
fear".

'Orwellian'

Civil liberties campaigners have warned about the risks of a "surveillance
society" in which the state acquires ever-greater powers to track people's
movements and retain personal data.

Controversial government plans for a database to store details of people's
phone calls and e-mails were put on hold late last year after they were
branded "Orwellian".

Ministers are consulting on the plan, which would involve the details but not
the content of calls and internet traffic being logged, saying it is
essential to fighting terrorism.

In its report, the Lords constitution committee said growth in surveillance
by both the state and the private sector risked threatening people's right to
privacy, which it said was "an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of
individual freedom".

People were often unaware of the scale of personal information held and
exchanged by public bodies, it said.

"There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards
every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state," committee
chairman and Tory peer Lord Goodlad said.

'Misuse of powers'

Among areas of most concern were the growth of CCTV cameras, of which there
are now an estimated four million in the UK.

The UK is said by privacy campaigners to have the most cameras per head of
population in the world, but no definitive figures are available.

According to a 2004 European Commission report, Britain has the highest
density of CCTV cameras in Europe. It found 40,000 cameras monitored public
areas in 500 British towns and cities, compared to fewer than 100 cameras in
15 German cities and no open street CCTV at all in Denmark.

In its report, the Lords committee said the use of cameras should be
regulated on a statutory basis in the UK, with a legally binding code of
practice governing their use.

There was evidence of abuse of surveillance powers by some councils, with
cameras wrongly being "used to spy on the public over issues such as
littering".

The UK's DNA database is the "largest in the world", the report concluded,
with more than 7% of the population having their samples stored, compared
with 0.5% in the US.

Police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can take DNA and fingerprints
from anybody arrested on suspicion of a recordable offence and the samples
can be held indefinitely whether people are charged or not.

Campaigners say anyone not convicted of a crime should have their DNA
removed, a position endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights in a
recent ruling in the case of two British men.

Ministers should comply with this ruling quickly, peers said, and legislate
for a new regulatory framework for the database.

Other recommendations include a requirement for any new data scheme to be
preceded by a public assessment of its impact on privacy and for the
information commissioner to be given powers to carry out inspections on
private companies.

"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other
organisations risks undermining the long-standing tradition of privacy and
individual freedom which are vital for democracy," Lord Goodlad added.

"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."

'Right balance'

The government said CCTV and DNA were "essential crime fighting tools" but
acknowledged personal data should only be used in criminal investigations
where necessary.

"The key is to strike the right balance between privacy, protection and
sharing of personal data," a Home Office spokesman said.

"This provides law enforcement agencies with the tools to protect the
public... while ensuring there are effective safeguards and a solid legal
framework to protect civil liberties."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has rejected claims of a surveillance society and
called for "common sense" guidelines on CCTV and DNA.

She recently announced a consultation on possible changes to the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act, under which public bodies can conduct covert
surveillance and access data, to clarify who can use such powers and prevent
"frivolous" investigations.

The Conservatives said the government's approach to personal privacy was
"reckless".

"Ministers have sanctioned a massive increase in surveillance over the last
decade, at great cost to the taxpayer, without properly assessing either its
effectiveness or taking adequate steps to protect the privacy of perfectly
innocent people," said shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve.

Human rights campaigners Liberty welcomed the report.

Director Shami Chakrabarti said: "Liberty's postbag suggests that the House
of Lords is more in touch with public concerns that our elected government.

"Over the past seven years we've been told 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear'
but a stream of data bungles and abuses of power suggest that even the
innocent have a lot to fear."

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, urged the
government to "reassert" its control over the use of data.

He said: "Governments tend to think that gathering new information on
citizens is a good thing. But that's not true if our privacy is undermined
and our data isn't secure.

"We need to see privacy by design: you can't bolt on privacy at the end of
big government IT projects, we need privacy safeguards built into systems
right at the start."