[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by ryan_mcgreal

Nope, you've got it exactly backwards. As Bruce Schneier points out, "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me."

Everyone has something to hide, and most people, most of the time, have legitimate reasons to want to hide aspects of their lives. Do you write all your correspondence on postcards? Do you walk around naked? Of course not.

I have a public life and a private life. Even when I go out in public, I take my private life with me. When I walk in public, where I go, who I meet, and so on are simply none of the government's business, but CCTV makes that information available to the government if they decide they want it.

I don't care how quickly they claim to destroy the tapes. I don't care even if they're telling the truth. I don't care if they're so understaffed or incompetent that they never actually look at the tapes. They have no cause and no right to collect that information in the first place.

Even if CCTV deterred crime - which it incontravertibly doesn't - I still don't agree to trade a little privacy for a little security. If the streets are dangerous, identify the source of the danger and address it. That's how the government should work. Installing security cameras is nothing more than an admission that they don't have any ideas.

absolutely! Well said.