CCTV

[Ed]

What are everyone’s views on CCTV? It’s hard to go far outside your house before you are visible to any of a myriad of CCTV cameras. Being naked isn’t a crime here in the UK, but how do you feel about being caught naked on camera when that camera isn’t yours?

[Anonymous]

When nothing is happening, I find CCTV intrusive. When anything bad happens, I always want everything to be on camera. Face recognition bothers me – it’s too easy to build up a detailed picture of everything we do. On the other hand, if we have to be monitored, I prefer a camera to having lots of shady secret service agents hanging around in public buildings and on street corners. I don’t mind if someone sees me outside naked but I don’t want to offend anyone. I don’t want to be on a CCTV system naked though. Maybe I wonder what would happen to the photos, but in reality only a very tiny proportion of CCTV footage ever gets seen (as @barefootnudist says) and even less is ever stored for any length of time.

Ed likes this

[Ed]

There must be places where the CCTV coverage isn’t obvious (eg parks) and people try out naked activities like skinny dipping.

Do you reckon there are places where CCTV operators are collecting huge archives of naked people on video?

[Gary]

As @Barefootnudist and @ProfGreen say the CCTV is only a potential problem if police need to review them if a crime happens.

I’m not at all bothered by CCTV in my normal daily life, mainly because there’s so much of it that there’s far too much for it all to be monitored.  Their main use is to capture a clear image when entering a shop at more of a distance to track movements (but the latter is usually poor quality and can’t identify you from scratch, it’s just used to follow you from one camera to the next).  The only real exception is high security locations that will be actively monitored, but if you want to go into somewhere like that when you shouldn’t then it’s your own fault.

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[Ed]

Most of it being unmonitored is an excellent point. Most is overwritten in a few days and only reviewed if something happens or the police request the footage (which is very rare for most properties). Unless you are outside a high-security location or inside a shop, there most probably isn’t anyone watching.

[Scott]

These days, it seems there are security cameras everywhere and most everybody has a cell phone camera with them all the time.  I am generally more concerned about my neighbors home security cameras, doorbell cameras, etc., that are also now everywhere and the fact that most provide immediate alerts to owners/users via internet.  These cameras tend to focus on front porches and other home property, but can be (and often are) pointed everywhere.  And, though people may not monitor them constantly, some (if not many or most) almost compulsively go to their phone app to check when they get an activity alert.  Way to many people, nowadays, are offended and will complain about everything.  All it takes is just one of those people with video or still frame to cause a lot of grief for someone else doing something they perceive as being even the slightest bit out of line.

[Ed]

Here in the UK, it’s an offence to have a security camera looking onto a neighbour’s property (infringement of privacy), so if you stay on your own land, you should be okay.

Also, for reasons I don’t know, Council housing seems to often have a rule banning the use of security cameras. I don’t know if that’s just a local thing or standard across the UK?

[Scott]

Here, we had a spat with one of the neighbors awhile back.  He now has cameras pointed toward our house and we have retaliated with some of ours pointed toward his.  Either of us could easily say that our cameras are intended to cover our own property, or the property line, but the cameras do see much wider than just that.  I don’t really know about the legality in the US, but it is not uncommon.

[Author]

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