Big brother is watching you
By Michael Im Nov. 13, 2024
Millions of surveillance cameras and mass data collection are the reality in the United Kingdom, where a new government surveillance bill has reignited the persistent debate over the British government’s growing ability to violate its citizens rights to privacy. While the government claims the bill is designed to protect the public, tech corporations and privacy advocates are campaigning against what they see as a blatant attempt to restrict companies from defending their users’ private data.
The bill seeks to amend the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, which legally sanctions the government’s authority to intercept private digital communication methods. The proposed amendment would expand these powers even further, allowing the British Home Office to prevent tech companies from publishing technical updates that may obstruct the data collecting capabilities of British intelligence agencies and authorizing these intelligence agencies to obtain and use bulk social media data.
These proposals have been met with backlash by tech industry representatives and privacy advocates. The tech industry trade association TechUK aired several complaints in an open letter to British Home Secretary James Cleverly, including accusations that the amendment would erode digital privacy by effectively allowing the British government to undermine basic security measures in the name of public safety.
Additionally, privacy advocacy groups like Big Brother Watch have warned that while government access to social media posts and public camera footage may seem innocuous, access to this bulk data may be used for more sinister aims, like the training of AI facial recognition models or the identification and manipulation of social trends. To them, the amendment amounts to an expansion of surveillance powers, with no regard given for citizens’ privacy rights.
However, the British government has denied any accusations that it intends to use these new powers in this way, although they noted their belief that privacy should not come at a cost to national security, and that democratic institutions should be involved in these decisions over data rights. The bill appears to be on track to pass without modification, despite the tech industry continuing to beg British lawmakers for greater scrutiny on it.
This new debacle arose in the context of an already extreme surveillance state in the United Kingdom, with previous Acts giving governments sweeping access to private data, including phone calls, emails, texts, social media posts, personal images and web history. In the city of London, the police have begun to use cameras to monitor and track the faces of suspects on a scale only seen in China, with almost two million cameras discretely deployed in most public spaces. Combined with AI facial recognition models trained on the aforementioned harvested social media posts, privacy has become an illusion in many cities in the United Kingdom.
“While this surveillance may be helpful to the police for finding criminals or preventing crimes, it is a violation of people’s natural rights to privacy. No one would want to be stalked 24/7, neither in private nor in public,” Junior Ethan Luna said.
In 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights deemed the British government’s mass data collection a violation of the rights to privacy and free expression. Privacy advocacy organizations have been opposing these surveillance actions since 2013, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the British government had been collecting the private communications of millions of their own citizens.
“None of this can be justified, no matter what lies about protecting children or preventing crime the British government says to try and excuse their surveillance of millions of innocent people. At the end of the day, too much surveillance will cause more damage to the public than too little,” Senior Pinak Paliwal said.
Outside of the British Isles, governments around the world have been increasing their authority to surveil their citizens, with methods ranging from placing cameras at every street corner to secretly collecting texts, in the name of public safety, purportedly preventing terrorism, crime and social disruptions. However, there are many who are willing to resist this trend, whether it be through legal bans on data harvesting in Oakland or vandalism of cameras in London. Whether or not the United Kingdom continues to increase surveillance measures, the same debate between safety and liberty will continue.
About the Contributors
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Michael Im
staff writer
Michael Im is a Junior at Leland High School and this is his first year as a Staff Writer at journalism. He likes to learn about random topics, play with his dogs, and sleep.
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Ryan Park
artist
Ryan Park is an Artist for Advanced Journalism in Leland High School. He wants to be able to improve his drawing skills during his time in Journalism. He likes watching anime, hanging out with his friends, and going to the gym.
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