[mcantelon]

>I'm not even sure what this thread is about anymore, sorry.

The thread started with someone positing that panopticons aren't a bad thing, hence the mention of East Germany (a low tech attempt at a state panopticon) and segued to discussion of the modern state's surveillance capabilities in comparison with East Germany.

>I believe for example that CCTV is exactly as legal as anyone taking a photos / movies of the police for example (and the other way around)

They both fall under similar laws, yes, but the big difference between ad-hoc amateur surveillance and centralized, automated surveillance is the capability of realtime analysis of location, association, etc.