Talk:Mass surveillance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe we could find at least something on the pro-side in the Prelinger archives to balance the ciritique. --Vinsci 20:37, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
This article states "Amongst the western democracies, the United Kingdom is perhaps the country subject to the most surveillance." Which sounds really biased considering that UK is one of the few countries in EU/Europe without ID cards. Perhaps the author is from the UK but doesn't know about other western democracies bar the USA?
- I think the sentence itself is POV, and should be removed. Still, the UK does have a lot of cameras. It sounds like London is literally covered in them. When I think surveillance, I think cameras, not ID cards. And they are trying to implement the ID cards anyway. Rhobite 16:39, July 16, 2005 (UTC)
The whole article is quite POV, and frankly doesn't do the privacy lobby any favours, by not mentioning any of the many specific examples of abuse that have been detected. Trying to work on Closed-circuit television to fix similar issues there. Morwen - Talk 14:35, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
Under "movies critical of mass surveilance" you could include Enemy of the State. (Starring Will Smith) That movie always comes to mind about how information could be abused. One of the scenes that is quite invasive of privacy is the one where they switch his watch, put a bug in his shoe, replace his pen with an identical pen but with spy technology inside it. And all of it without his knowledge. They use satellites to track him, cameras to spy from a distance, and pretty much do whatever they can to destroy the evidence to coverup a murder. Pretty scary stuff, but when you look at today's environment and compare it with this movie (made before 911) it is shockingly accurate in how today's people feel about big brother and the potential for the digital age to be open to so much abuse from high.
You don't have to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist to feel you are being watched anymore. People's gradual acceptance of the loss of thier privacy means thier attitudes have changed to be accepting of the surveilance. But when this movie was made, the characters are cynical and reflect what most people were thinking about and thier concern at this loss of freedom. here is the imdb link to the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/
I think given the themes it is worth considering for inclusion into that section of the article. Within the boards some have pointed out to strange "coincidences" in the movie and 911: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/board/threads/
another link highlighting some eerie coincidences before 911: http://www.letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9537&start=0
I think you could include Gattaca as a movie against, in relation to DNA databasing.18:07, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
Some news: "USA Today reported Thursday [May 11, 2006] that the three largest U.S. telephone companies--AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth--have handed over millions of wireline phone records to the National Security Agency without a court order."[1] Shawnc 13:40, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Facts
The "United States" section seems to be sorely lacking facts and/or sources and seems mostly filled with conspiracy-theory-sounding rumors ("The National Security Agency has been alleged as a major figure in this type of activity because of ECHELON, although this was never solidly proven to be surveillance directed against American citizens."). This is an interesting subject, but this is an encyclopedia and it should sound like a reliable source and not be littered with this kind of nonsense. —Cleared as filed. 15:45, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- Also, is the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange really "surveillance" as this article seems to be talking about it? Just having a huge database of facts doesn't necessarily equal surveillance. I'm going to make a stab and clearing some of the nonsense out of this section. —Cleared as filed. 15:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
-
- Does anyone have a citation for British telephone boxes including recording equipment? It sounds unlikely to me, surely someone would have to collect all the tapes regularly? Jameskeates 16:29, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
The statement about ECHELON being used for economic espionage has been [citation needed] for about six months. Time to delete it? - 69.219.1.50 01:38, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] United Kingdom
"Amongst the western democracies, the United Kingdom is perhaps the country subject to the most surveillance."
Why does wikipedia keep referring to Britain as a democracy?
The House of Lords is the Government of Britain, excepting the very limited and constrained powers the House of Commons has through the obsolete Salisbury convention and the token use of the Parliament Act. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the House of Lords do not even respect the Salisbury convention and the Parliament Act's use is limited, it can only be used once in the period of a government i.e. about once every four years!
The House of Lords makes law in Britain through the amending of legislation passed from the House of Commons. The House of Commons is nothing more, in practicality, than a glorified advising chamber to the unelected House of Lords. The House of Lords is the government of Britain and it is not democratically elected. Therefore, Britain cannot be objectively described as a democracy!
- Wrong, the House of Lords is a watchdog mainly for civil liberties, it can block legislation but this has only been use 6 times in the last 30 odd years (last time was 3 month detentions.) Any amendments made (not many are) means the Bill goes back into the commons to be re-reviewed. Britain is a democracy, albeit with noticeable flaws (first past the post..) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.135.213.205 (talk) 23:41, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
