If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to be afraid of?

It's a tricky argument, but the CCTV, especially on Oxford Street, has reduced crime (shoplifting, pickpocketing, etc) by so much, simply by being there...

bmacd... earm.... i suggest you read 1984... Furthermore, Terrorism?! in Switzerland!!!? Jesus, some people are really paranoid. Talk about using bold arguments to reduce peoples privacy.

The "if you haven't done anything wrong" argument holds only in the case of terrorism. The system can however be used for a multiple of other issues contrary to a democratic development.

Thank you for your literary tip bastard. Suggest you watch Brazil - film adaptation of 1984 which is truly terrifying in parts - and quite amusing in others.

The Swiss have already reduced privacy a tremendous amount, it's almost more like a police state than most dictatorships sometimes. The difference is you don't tend to see it that often, they keep it better hidden - you only find out about it if they need to use some of the information they hold on you. CCTV is just another development along those lines, to be honest I'm really surprised they haven't already got more CCTV than they do!

And in conclusion, I agree that these systems can be abused, but at some point you have to decide which is the greater risk...

i saw a really good documentary about this. i shall upload it for all to see. the main issues that were touched upon was that cctv was being used for a lot of things it never was meant to..

50% of it is in english, where they interview the staff who are sitting in the underground control station in picadilly circus.. and the rest is in swedish..

a guy in sweden got arrested by accident (and held in custody) because he looked like the guy on the ccTV. In the end the person who was really on the picture contacted the police himself because he felt bad about someone else having to take his shit..

so i guess it works ;-)

wonder how long it will be until the best of CCTV volumes start appearing on dvd.. ;-)