Site Search:

Privacy Protected search

Latest Reports

Latest Articles/News

UK state makes play for ''law breaking powers'' - more...

''Proportionality'' used to rubber-stamp mass surveillance - more...

Mass Surveillance & the Dark Web of Pick'n'Mix Law - more...

New mass surveillance database and 1984 action day - more...

The silent increase in London's mass surveillance network, one year on... - more...

Magna Carta - our ancestors never imagined we would stop short - more...

When The Language Of Freedom dies, Freedom Dies With It - more...

Orwell's warnings as relevant as ever - more...

CCTV Looking Out For Them Not You - more...

8th June 2014 - Time For Big Brother to Retire - more...

Body cameras - The 5 Laws of FFUCams - more...

The Manufacture of ''Surveillance by Consent'' part 2 - more...

International Group condemns Facewatch - more...

Landmark CCTV case in Australia - more...

The Manufacture of ''Surveillance by Consent'' - more...

New CCTV Code Consultation - more...

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Hits Out At ANPR - more...

Government appoints CCTV yes man ... again - more...

Open letter to UK Surveillance Regulators - more...

Where to mate? 1984 please - more...

Britain under attack from 'talking' CCTV cameras - more...

Internet Eyes and media politics - more...

Back to the Future - UK CCTV debate stuck in time loop - more...

Royston's ANPR ''Ring of Steel'' - more...

Surveillance Camera Code Con - more...

No CCTV's Freedoms Bill submission - more...

CCTV / ANPR and the Manufacture of Consent - more...

Face Covering: Guest Article - more...

Mr Jolly at Parliamentary Committee - more...

Protection of whose Freedoms Bill? - more...

Exposing Naked Scanners - more...

Bad Boy of the Week - more...

BrumiLeaks, CCTV and democracy - more...

The true cost of CCTV? - more...

ICO's Surveillance Society follow up report - more...

CCTV citizen spy game launches - more...

Freedom not Fear demo in Germany - more...

Speed Cameras, ANPR and Project Columbus - more...

It's not as simple as CCTV cameras or crime - more...

Fox to review Birmingham CCTV chicken coop - more...

Rubbish CCTV - more...

CCTV in tower blocks - more...

Have your say on naked scanners - more...

The Surveillance State will not be beaten at the ballot box - more...

Pre-election warning - more...

CCTV election plege - more...

CCTV Robo-wardens - more...

Naked scanners update - more...

CCTV drones - more...

Naked scanners, naked CCTV and barefaced lies - more...

No CCTV on Red Ice Radio - more...

Scots fast becoming most surveilled in the UK - more...

Government appoints CCTV yes man - more...

BBC runs prime-time advert for CCTV game - more...

CCTV in Scotland: Broken Record - more...

Watch No CCTV's presentation - more...

ICO complaint seeks to halt CCTV game - more...

ANPR - policing by consent? - more...

Intenet Eyes - more...

Project Javelin - more...

Hounslow's ''Promise 10'' - more...

Silly Season, Schools and CCTV - more...

BBC breaches charter - more...

CCTV makes crime go up! - more...

CCTV Agenda creeps forward - more...

ANPR - the expanding network of checkpoints - more...

Proposed bill - CCTV expansion in disguise - more...

Students fight school CCTV - more...

Police's surrealist CCTV poster - more...

Victory in police surveillance case - more...

Study confirms ineffectiveness of CCTV - more...

Google Street Update - more...

Anti-CCTV advertising campaign - more...

Surveillance related consultations - more...

Councils misuse of surveillance - more...

Pub Landlord's CCTV victory - more...

Google takes curtain twitching to a new level - more...

Police admit storing images - more...

Back door CCTV expansion - more...

CCTV in pubs - more...

Modern Liberty Convention - more...

Surveillance report slams CCTV - more...

CCTV case at High Court - more...

Forest Fields Folks Against CCTV - more...

Cowley Road CCTV switched on - more...

Play the CCTV Treasure Hunt - more...

CCTV spies on diners - more...

2009: will decision makers heed CCTV warnings - more...

Beat the recession - cut CCTV - more...

London: In the Kingdom of Big Brother - more...

Update: CCTV sanity in Devon - more...

UK and Iran agree on CCTV and Human Rights - more...

Senior police officer calls for CCTV debate - more...

DPP slams surveillance state - more...

Body cams - more...

Freedom Not Fear - more...

CCTV in schools update - more...

Guilty...until we get the CCTV clock fixed - more...

NO CCTV in L'Express - more...

NO-CCTV finds the plot - more...

CameraWatch call for ''upgrades'' - more...

Blackpool CCTV review - more...

More evidence against CCTV - more...

CCTV industry calls for more cameras - more...

Security expert's CCTV warning - more...

Brown sexes up CCTV - more...

David Davis resigns - more...

China's CCTV laboratory - more...

Halt CCTV expansion - more...

UK surveillance sharing - more...

Cowley Road CCTV delays - more...

National cctv strategy starts to bite - more...

cctv in schools - more...

Police admit crime falling - so why install CCTV? - more...

CCTV sanity in Devon! - more...

cctv is a waste of money - more...

No cctv at oxford radical forum - more...

CCTV spies on restaurant diners and records private conversation - 13/1/2009

The Telegraph reports that CCTV has been used at a National Trust Restaurant to film and record private conversations of diners. A woman who, with her family, visited the Manor Restaurant in Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire discovered that their meal had been surveilled in this way after she wrote to complain about poor food and slow service.

But she was left astonished by the restaurant's response. Simon Offen, the catering manager, emailed her to say he disputed her version of events after he had "watched and listened with interest to the video recording of her table".

Increasingly CCTV is appearing around the country with the ability to record sound as well as images. This flies in the face of published guidelines. Last year the Information Commissioner's Office released a revised CCTV code of practice in which the issue of recording conversations was highlighted. The code states:

CCTV must not be used to record conversations between members of the public as this is highly intrusive and unlikely to be justified. You should choose a system without this facility if possible. If your system comes equipped with a sound recording facility then you should turn this off or disable it in some other way.

Yet signs, such as the one below, warning people that sound is being recorded are becoming increasingly common. Action must be taken now to stop this extension of already intrusive surveillance equipment. If you are aware of an establishment that either records sound or states that it records sound then you should contact them and tell them they are breaching the CCTV code of practice. If they do not take steps to remove sound recording or correct their signs then you should visit the Information Commissioner's Office and complete a complaint form. The CCTV code of practice is based on data protection principles laid out in the Data Protection Act.

In 2007 the CCTV advisory body CameraWatch stated that 90% of surveillance cameras may be breaching the Data Protection Act. Clearly the code of practice is currently not being enforced. Perhaps if enough complaints were received from privacy conscious members of the public things would change.

Posted in Anti-CCTV general - 13/1/2009

email: