Vidéo surveillance anglais

Alheritiere Aidan

12/03/2020

Tache finale anglais :

   Nowadays, video surveillance arround the world has been growing to be able to have a bigger and more imposing place in the security « industry ». This new form of guaranteeing security has helped a lot. By placing video cameras in the streets, cafes, restaurants and other public places, the camera footage gives additional proof in case any crime was commited. Some pepole think that having this additional surveillance system is great and verry helpful but others think that it’s huge a privacy violation. We will ask ourselves to what extend does video surveillance infringe upon individual privacy ? To answer this question we will see where the cameras are installed, and to what use will the footage serve.

   Firstly, where do we encounter cameras and when is it too far ? Cameras can be found in various public places such as restaurants and some highly frequented boulevards. The most common reason they are installed is to guarantee security to citizens. If cameras stay in these places and aren’t massively installed, then privacy is kept. But if we take the example of London, this highly secure city due to her 500.000 CCTV cameras installed, and about 15.500 more in the underground stations, these numbers makes us think about our private life staying private. An article said that the average londerner is seen about 300 times per day on camera. Some pepole are extremely cautious about getting filmed beacause they think that their right on privacy is not being respected. In deed knowing, or not, that in London the police knows exactly where you are at all times can, and will of course question the fact that our privacy right is respected. Then it also depends a lot on what kind of information does the camera record beacause there is obviously a difference between a CCTV camera and the camera that you have installed in your house.

   Now we can ask ourselves what is the recorded information used for. We talked about London and its multiple cameras, they say that the footage is kept during 2 weeks. As we don’t know what they do with all the recording, we could imagine that no one whatches it and it is simply deleted after 2 weeks. But what if they used the 300 times a londerner is catched on camera to sell information to companies or even more intrusive, make a public opinion on the person like in China. The chineese state uses AI (artificial intelligence) to recongnise and give a public grade on its pepole. For example if you buy alcohol your grade goes down, but if you buy nappies for your child this shows that you are responsable and your grade goes up. Being around pepole with a « bad mark » makes your own go down as well which eventually, leads to social exclusion. This extreme case shows that we have no control or idea on what is happening behind the screens.

   So when does video surveillance infringe upon individual privacy ? Firstly it all depends on where you are being whatched and at which frequency. If it is only in restaurants or in public places it stays acceptable. Then it also depends on what the recorded information is used for.

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