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George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house
Last updated at 23:22pm on 31.03.07The Big Brother nightmare of George Orwell's 1984 has become a reality - in the shadow of the author's former London home.
It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here.
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Foresight: The cameras crowd George Orwell's former London home
According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.
Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London.
On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.
Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.
The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.
In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.
Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.
The message is reminiscent of a 1949 poster to mark the launch of Orwell's 1984: 'Big Brother is Watching You'.
In the Shriji grocery store in Canonbury Place, three cameras focus on every person in the shop. Owner Minesh Amin explained: 'They are for our security and safety. Without them, people would steal from the shop. Although this is a nice area, there are always bad people who cause trouble by stealing.'
Three doors away, in the dry-cleaning shop run by Malik Zafar, are another two CCTV cameras.
'I need to know who is coming into my shop,' explained Mr Zafar, who spent £400 on his security system.
This week, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) produced a report highlighting the astonishing numbers of CCTV cameras in the country and warned how such 'Big Brother tactics' could eventually put lives at risk.
The RAE report warned any security system was 'vulnerable to abuse, including bribery of staff and computer hackers gaining access to it'. One of the report's authors, Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.
One fear is a nationwide standard for CCTV cameras which would make it possible for all information gathered by individual cameras to be shared - and accessed by anyone with the means to do so.
The RAE report follows a warning by the Government's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that excessive use of CCTV and other information-gathering was 'creating a climate of suspicion'.
Reader views (23)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
We are all sleepwalking into an Orwellian nightmare with our eyes wide open. You would have thought Orwell's classic novel would have helped prevent this!
- Martin Charlton, Ramsgate, Kent, UK
one world government is being planned and has even been planned long before we were even born -but it is in successive incremental stages, people are slowly losing their rights , their privacy, big brother is type of antichrist that is coming- a centralized power figure - that is tyrannical and power hungry- a one world demagogue -as you know the police in many countries have a list of enemies of the state -those who oppose the new world order ..... but I am also watching big brother and am a step ahead of him......
- Timothy Gill, ottawa ont canada
The Moffett Field Commissary, where I work, has numerous surveillance cameras, covering the checkstands, sales floor, loading dock, and warehouses. I could understand why the store needs so many cameras because I have seen evidence of shoplifting.
- Thomas Bailey, Sunnyvale, California, USA
I believe that “creating a climate of suspicion” (or paranoia even) is necessary to deter citizens from doing unethical things and getting away with it. However, I also feel that trust is crucial to achieve the best quality of life for all. Spending 400 pds on cameras for a dry cleaning business is a little ridiculous. Orwell would be turning in his grave…
- Jamie Marootian, Wayne, NJ
It is no surprise that that totalitarianism has been a recurring theme in British science fiction of the last 50-odd years, more so, perhaps, than in U.S. science fiction.
I found this article, by the way, after noticing earlier this evening that pages from the first pages of V for Vendetta (drawn in the early 1980s) are filled with cameras watching the street.
- Meh, Richmond VA USA
With new surveillance, the criminals just find new ways around it.
Liberalising the drugs laws would be more effective as it would reduce the monies flowing to criminals.
- David Bailey, Burnley, UK.
I have no problem with private property owners wanting to survey their property, but I am opposed to police agencies and other governmental organizations surveying public areas, using public safety as an excuse to intrude on our lives. It's even more appalling when you realize that "our" tax dollars are funding this intrusion. The government is much too intrusive. Enough already!
- The What, Brooklyn, NY, USA
In my town crime is rife, there are cameras everywhere, yet they don't seem to stop any serious crime. Heroin traffic is rife, everyone knows who sells drugs, its not even covert. The cameras never seem to be able to capture any of this yet the man on the street sees it every day. Roving camera vans can capture more footage, yet it has no value a police commission reckoned that cctv solved only 3% of crime. But why be bothered when you me and everybody is totally powerless against it. Step right this way, showers to the left, labour camp to the right. We are the dead.
- Antonio Sowerby, Middlesbrough
I don't have any issue with any CCTV that I am caught on as I'll probably only be doing my shopping or going to the pub or perhaps even taking a walk and therefore anyone is free to watch me if they are interested.
Now, if I was going to rob or attack someone or damage property; well then I probably wouldn't like the surveillance! But isn't that the point?
- Ann, Suffolk UK
I am really proud to be English but I have to say that it really scares me that we are on camera all of the time! But to be quite honest its not as if we didn't have it coming. So many people spend there time robbing people and generally committing crimes that we need these cameras for our own safety! I'm in 2 minds about the whole thing because as much as we do need it for our safety I don't think we really need as many security cameras as we have.
- Sarah, Munich, Germany
I think that big brother is always watching, with surveillance cameras around, it's like you never have any privacy in your own home. I almost don't feel safe behind my locked doors because the cameras can see in anyway. Someone is always wathcing, not matter how alone you feel, someone is always watching.
- Bella Crone, San Fransisco, USA
Big Brother watches you.
'Socialist Big Brother' watches your pocket then robs you.
- Ash, Washington, DC
Patrick in Norfolk:
Our fine Republican-run guvmint has already put thousands of security cameras within a few miles of your home. With Marines and the FBI in Quantico, and CIA in Langley, and the Pentagon, and Navy Bases in the Chesapeake, if you drive to DC from Norfolk, I'll bet you're on camera 100% percent of the time. It's been that way since Reagan was prez.
- D. L. Hall, Spokane, WA
I'm glad I don't live in London but I am close to Minneapolis and they are getting to be like London. They just approved a measure to add more cameras on the north side to cut crime. The crime will just move elsewhere and I'm sure the cameras will follow. I wonder what would happen if people in London started to where a mask, perhaps a V mask. Would they pass a anti-mask law then?
- Vince, USA
In the context from Ed from London's response, this is EXACTLY the reason why these things don't work. If law enforcement is unwilling to follow up on property crime (which I think would be the main benefit of such a system). It seems as if USING the camera's were an afterthought, seeing as how the perception of "Big Brother" weren't enough it would be a tough pill to swallow for a sciety accept the use when they hear stories of blatent neglect of follow-up crime prevention. Why don't we just call this what it is, another way for authority to datamine activites of their citizens under the great guise of protecting them. What's next?, calling them TerroristCams or perhaps if it is widespread in US; FreedomCams? Here's a thought, what if they used the camera's to catch "suspicious" movements and respond to ambient biometrics then alert police to the scene, the technology for this is not science fiction.
- Jose, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
A greeting from Sweden, number 2 in the world when it comes to CCTV camera surveillance of the populace. Just wanted to say we envy you Britons. But as things are going over here, we´ll catch up with you soon enough! After all, there are muslims living here too. And thugs and criminals. And ordinary people. We are all potential criminals, come to think about it. Thank god someone is taking it upon them to keep things under control. You never know what might happen. Probably nothing...
- Johan, Sweden
Wait until those cameras are under the control of the Brussels bureaucracy. These will seem like the good old days.
- Banjo, Hot Springs Village, USA
It is just a natural extension of the socialist nanny state. Please keep it out of the USA, as unlikely as that may be.
- Patrick, Norfolk, VA, USA
My girlfriend's expensive bike was recently stolen from in front of her school library in the heart of London. We have the exact time and a very good image of the thief from the private school CCTV system, yet the police are unable (or unwilling) to track where he went on the police CCTV network. What purpose does this system serve again? It certainly doesn't protect citizens or their property.
- Ed, London, England
I always thought that a 1984 situation couldn't happen in real life, not for any theological reasons (always assume the worst of society/governments) but because I thought it would simply cost too much. Now though, I am not so sure, computers have come down so far in price, and techniques for using computers to control and more importantly process CCTV images is far more worrying.
- Tom, Deal, Kent
It's not so much the proliferation of individual cameras that concern me. The article astutely points out the next step -- a network of cameras sharing and aggregating information. The inferences that such a system might make about where I go and who I meet with would not be subject to review and would surely come to the odd 'wrong' conclusion in the sake of national security.
- Eric Brown, Watertown, MA
You've totally forgotten the 88 zillion camera phones that are infesting the planet. Not to worry though. I'd have thought that Orwell would be no more than a quaint old fashioned memory by now. He was reporting on HIS era. This is all new and different now and cameras are the very least of out worries. When Blair and Bush are gone (not soon enough) and a little sanity returns, we can all smile at the ubiquitous cameras or at least give a "salute".
- William Fudger, sechelt British Columbia Canada
Since all governments have an insatiable appetite for information, force-feed the beasts until their greed produces an informational overload resulting in an bureaucratically emetic reaction that reverberates through the halls of power for generations.
- Bell, United States
