Last assignment

« The advantages of a surveillance society far outweigh the drawbacks».
To what extend do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Introduction

Over the last few years, different forms of surveillance such as DNA databases, biometrics, CCTV, identity cards and tracking systems have been considerate as major tools for fighting crime. England seems to be the lead nation in implanting these technologies; billions of pounds are spent by the British Government and corporations claiming a safe society (Kevin Dowling, Times). While they intend to increase dramatically their investments, some people put the case against a widespread of those technologies, warning about the negative effect on future generations, such as the infringement on privacy. This essay will weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of a surveillance society, in order to decide which of them are greater. The discussion will provide in the first section an overview of urban dysfunction evolution under the monitoring systems, and then it will identify some of their lurking negative aspects.

Paragraph 1: Home Office statistic reports show a reports fall in some of crime areas as in robberies and burglaries proving the efficiency of different forms of surveillance.

Paragraph 2: Firstly, a depth analyze of Home Office reports suggests a rise crime rate in other crime areas and not all criminologists agree with this effect of reducing or preventing crime (the statistics seems to be compromised and the only effect of CCTV is to move crime away from the cameras…)

Paragraph 3: Secondly, the private information registered in national databases could be used by wrong people and the purpose of using high technologies to fight crime raises doubts (around £4000 are saved in a trial with monitoring systems evidences (Jane Wakefield ,BBC News)).

Paragraph 4: A final drawback of a surveillance society which alerts most of the people is the infringement of privacy by the intrusion of this Big Brother system. A citizen is “caught on CCTV cameras 300 times a day” (BBC News Online's Jane Wakefield). If people expect that cameras invade their privacy for “their security”, they didn’t realize that most of the time they are tracked by hidden monitoring systems such as oyster card, Radio Frequency Identification tags, fidelity cards and other sophisticated softwares. Another example of branching human rights and privacy concern the national DNA database. Information about 857000 people with no criminal record is kept without reason. Consequently, few days ago, the European Court of Human Rights, had put the case against this policy witch infringe the private life, demanding the British Government “to destroy all DNA samples taken from innocent people” (Richard Ford, Times).

Conclusion: The essay indicate that, on the whole, the cons of a surveillance society far outweigh the pros and suggest the doubtful feature of the purpose of investments in this forms of surveillance and identification.


Words: 447