EU Eyes Anti-Terror Camera for Every Seat

(NEWSER) - Surveillance cameras are nearly worthless in the fight against crime, a London police report concluded, with fewer than one crime solved annually for every 1,000 cameras.The UK is one of the world's most monitored countries, with one camera for every 14 people and 1 million cameras in London alone. Yet the internal report, obtained by the Telegraph, says that untrained officers used images ineffectively when they bothered to look at all. More»

New surveillance law has country partying like it's 1984

(NEWSER) - Don’t believe the hype: “Sweden is no cuddly liberal democracy,” writes Nathalie Rothschild for Spiked, berating her home country for “introducing the most Draconian surveillance law in Europe.” Known as the FRA law but nicknamed "Lex Orwell" by opponents, the legislation gives intelligence agencies the right to intercept all incoming foreign communication. “Emulate Sweden? No thanks.” More»

'Bush would do what they are doing here in a heartbeat if he could,' expert says

(NEWSER) - Free Tibet protests 3 months ago allowed China to road-test a new security network before the summer Olympics, Naomi Klein writes in Rolling Stone. Under the so-called “Golden Shield,” China is now installing closed-circuit cameras nationwide linked to facial recognition and other biometric software—technology from big-name US firms like IBM, Honeywell, and General Electric. More»

ATM surveillance photos show man who used Eve Carson's bank card

(NEWSER) - Police issued photos today of a "person of interest" in the killing of UNC-Chapel Hill student president Eve Carson, the News and Observer reports. The ATM camera shots show a black man, about 20, who used Carson's bank card and may have been driving her Toyota Highlander. "This is our biggest break so far in this case," said the police chief in Chapel Hill, NC. More»

With 1 surveillance camera for every 15 Britons, unexamined life is nonexistent

(NEWSER) - The nation that embraced the "Big Brother" TV show is becoming eerily like the society George Orwell envisioned, reports the LA Times. Litterers under closed-circuit surveillance respond to commands to pick up trash they drop, and errant cyclists are ordered to dismount in pedestrian-only areas. Britons increasingly are trading privacy for security, even in small villages. More»