[seabee]

> But we have an even lower crime rate due to the private CCTV cameras, and council run CCTV systems.

Don't stretch your assertions too far. From the reports I read (think it might have been a Home Office report) there was no significant change in crime rate, but crimes were less likely to take place where there was a CCTV camera. The criminals move on to unprotected areas, you could say.

n.b. the top comment in the thread is certainly BS. CCTV is installed in public (or quasi-public e.g. shops) areas where nobody has an expectation of privacy. If they made the situation worse, you'd have to define what 'negative privacy' could mean...

[dalore]

In 2007, the UK watchdog CameraWatch claimed that the majority of CCTV cameras in the UK are operated illegally or are in breach of privacy guidelines.

[seabee]

The 'privacy guidelines' in question being the Data Protection Act, which is fundamentally a set of laws related to data processing. In this case, CCTV tapes could be stolen and the cameras themselves are not always signposted.

As the linked post demonstrates, privacy issues are covered by the Act - but as far as I'm concerned, you have no privacy whether half a dozen strangers are watching you in the street or whether you're being broadcast to the whole world.