No CCTV - campaigning against camera surveillance in the uk and beyond
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UK state makes play for ''law breaking powers'' - To get an understanding of how this situation has come about we need to look at the language used in the laws of war and see how it has made its way into the language of freedoms... more...

''Proportionality'' used to rubber-stamp mass surveillance - How did we get to a place where the police do not consider subjecting members of the public to automated police line-ups as disrespectful of a person's individual rights and freedoms?... more...

Mass Surveillance & the Dark Web of Pick'n'Mix Law - the story of how Johnson was able to sign away the liberties of millions of drivers in London illustrates the rise of a new administrative despotism... more...

New mass surveillance database and 1984 action day - It's time to start speaking out against this covert and insidious destruction of our basic inalienable right to be let alone... more...

The silent increase in London's mass surveillance network, one year on... - At the time no-one seems to have noticed. One year on the sound of silence is still deafening.... more...

Magna Carta - our ancestors never imagined we would stop short - It was only to exhibit to their children the means that made them free, that they left this memorial to after ages... more...

When The Language Of Freedom dies, Freedom Dies With It - It is through language that we communicate and understand concepts such as freedom... more...

Orwell's warnings as relevant as ever - It is only through our own actions that we can effect a change to thinking in our societies... more...

CCTV Looking Out For Them Not You - the Home Office told local authorities to talk up any apparent successes of CCTV... more...

8th June 2014 - Time For Big Brother to Retire - We are living in the dystopian world of '1984' now. But we can change it.... more...

Body cameras - The 5 Laws of FFUCams - it might be true that the camera never lies, but who operates the camera?... more...

The Manufacture of ''Surveillance by Consent'' part 2 - what happens when the whole state and its every function become one massive security service... more...

International Group condemns Facewatch - ''Facewatch forms part of a ubiquitous surveillance culture that spreads fear and distrust''... more...

Landmark CCTV case in Australia - Mr Bonner's tribunal victory is a timely reminder that a meaningful debate is long over due... more...

The Manufacture of ''Surveillance by Consent'' - a trojan horse has been snuck into every public space in England and Wales... more...

New CCTV Code Consultation - proposed code creates a truly Orwellian definition of 'surveillance by consent'... more...

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Hits Out At ANPR - Should not be used to track the movements of law abiding motorists... more...

Government appoints CCTV yes man ... again - No CCTV warned in 2009 that more regulation is not the answer and we issue that same warning again today... more...

Open letter to UK Surveillance Regulators - A healthy society depends on the law-abiding majority being respected and trusted as they go about their daily lives... more...

Where to mate? 1984 please - Taxi cameras are part of a growing ''just in case'' mentality that treats everyone as suspects... more...

NO CCTV - "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear"

The popularity of the phrase "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is one of the most disturbing indictments of our time. Each occasion this trite phrase is repeated, it would be interesting to know whether the person who said it has considered the following:

  1. what should it mean to live in a free country?
  2. does privacy just mean keeping bad things to yourself, or does it mean being the guardian of your own identity (surely you are the only person who knows who you are and who knows what information about you is factual)?
  3. does use of the phrase result from considered research and thought, or was it just something heard/read that sounded good?

The next time anyone you know says it, ask them what they think they mean...

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear
Just keep that line of vision clear
We've got you covered front and rear
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear
 
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
But leave that table leg inside
And forget Ashley was home naked when he died
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
 
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear
Unless a knife is a rose for Mcaleer
Or a gun a deadringer for Thirst's music gear
Or Waldorf for Martin; and Kevin, Ian, Blair
Or Jean Charles, no worries we'll be in the clear
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear
 
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
We'll film you all in case you lied
But trust us, we can be FOI'd
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
 
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear
We can shoot you or lock you up for over a year
With no evidence, charge or overseer
But if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear

The names mentioned in the poem belong to real people; just a few of the many examples of how the state literally and metaphorically gets away with murder - a state that does not trust us one jot, but expects us to trust it with our everything.

Harry Stanley, 46, was shot dead on his way home from the pub after police mistook the table leg he was carrying for a gun - 22nd Setember 1999.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3974461.stm

James Ashley, 39, was shot dead by armed police during a raid on his flat in St Leonards, East Sussex, on 15 January 1998 - he was unarmed and naked.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/may/23/ukcrime.nickdavies

Stephen McAleer spent 3 months in prison last Summer (2010) because a CCTV operator mistook the rose he was carrying for a knife.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/08/28/innocent-man-spent-three-months-in-jail-after-cctv-blunder-cops-mistook-rose-for-knife

Four members of Brixton-based band The Thirst were arrested at gunpoint by armed police after a gig on 21st November 2009 and held for 16 hours after a council CCTV operator mistook their music equipment for a firearm.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6705127/Arrest-of-rock-band-The-Thirst-referred-to-IPCC
http://www.myspace.com/thethirstrockband

Stephen Waldorf, a 26-year-old film editor, was shot and severely injured by Metropolitan Police officers in London on 14th January 1983, when he was mis-identified as an escaped prisoner, David Martin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Waldorf_shooting

Kevin Gately was a second year maths student at the University of Warwick who died as a result of injuries received during the Red Lion Square demonstrations in London on 15 June 1974.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Gately

Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor, collapsed and died during the 2009 G-20 summit protests in London, having been struck on the leg from behind by a police officer wielding an extendable baton, then pushed to the ground by the same officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson

Blair Peach was knocked unconscious by members of the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group in April 1979 during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall. He died the next day in hospital.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7109134.ece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Peach

Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian man, was shot in the head seven times at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground by the London Metropolitan police on 22nd July 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
www.justice4jean.com/
http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/Documents/stockwell_one.pdf

There are many more names than this on the miscarriages of justice list, and it grows by the day. Remember this fact, and the many victims of blatant but un-prosecuted state criminality, if ever anyone dares to tell you that "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear"...

Better community reduces crime, technology does not