Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Public attitudes to CCTV

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Average motorist caught on camera 100 times a year
Daily Telegraph 12th August 2009
Thousands of CCTV cameras across the UK have been converted to read motorists' number plates, and the police can reconstruct individual journeys from this data. Members of Parliament and others have protested about the scale of surveillance caused by the system.

Junior school head defends CCTV in toilet blocks
Norwich Evening News 20th July 2009
Facts given to support the use of CCTV in school included a reduction in vandalism and the recent capture of thieves who stole a school laptop. The school consulted the company that installed the CCTV about compliance with privacy legislation.

Encrypted CCTV protects the innocent
New Scientist 18th July 2009
Manufacturers claim that their CCTV systems can recognise people and selectively blur images of people captured by their cameras. When used in a shopping mall for example, the system will blur images of ordinary shoppers, but leave the faces of known shoplifters visible to security staff monitoring cameras.

CCTV installed in school toilet
Norwich Evening News 9th July 2009
A parent objected strongly to the use of CCTV to deter vandalism in a school toilet block because it was a ‘big brother' intrusion into pupils' lives.

We don't need no CCTV in our classroom
Guardian 3rd June 2009
A group of sixth formers refused to be taught in a classroom in which school authorities had installed CCTV and microphone surveillance.

More cameras to keep eye on city streets
Stuff 25th May 2009
Seven new CCTV cameras are going to be installed in Wellington City centre. Wellington City Council coordinates the street patrols of its Walkwise wardens with the use of CCTV. Marie Shroff, Privacy Commissioner, is impressed with how the warden service works alongside the Council's use of CCTV surveillance.  

Who's watching you?
BBC 20th May 2009
The UK Information Commissioner's survey of public attitudes to privacy has shown that people's concerns about surveillance have increased over the last few years. ‘Who's Watching You?' suggests that the blanket use of CCTV across the UK has added to peoples' fears.

Surveillance in Public Places
IBLS 17th March 2009
The IBLS states that enquiries the Australian Privacy Commissioner receives are generally not about public surveillance. People are more worried, they say, about the use of covert video at work, and the private use of webcams and video recording.

Caught on a classroom spy camera - the primary school pupil who hid this girl's shoes
Daily Mail, 11th January 2009
A UK Daily Mail article reports the attitude of a parent whose primary age child was recorded by a CCTV camera installed in the child's classroom. The newspaper includes an estimate of the take-up by schools of this make of CCTV system.