A new service called ‘Internet Eyes’ is set to be launched in the UK next month by crowdsourcing surveillance. Members of the site will watch feeds from CCTV cameras, and if they spot a crime in progress, they may earn a cash reward for reporting it. Watching feeds from CCTV camera systems, a user who spots a crime in progress can press a button and a SMS message is sent to the CCTV camera operators. Of course, the site is in dubious legal territory. As pointed out by IT Pro, it flies in the face of ICO guidance on CCTV:
[it] would not be appropriate to disclose images of identifiable individuals to the media for entertainment purposes or place them on the internet.
There are a few observations that arise from this system, to both the ‘Internet Eyes’ system and CCTV more widely:
- Offering cash rewards will lead to an untenable rate of false-positives.
- Footage will need to be broadcast in high definition at considerable cost.
- The necessary definition will make faces clearly identifiable.
- Questionable lawfulness
- Professional voyeurs (also called CCTV operatives) often undergo reference checks, enhanced CRB or even counter-terrorist checks. Why is this system open to anyone?
- It exposes blindspots in CCTV coverage
- It exposes the lie of CCTV: All cameras cannot be watched all of the time.
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