“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”
1787, Thomas Jefferson
“I’m still seeking serious deterrent to those who engage in this illegal market”
Richard Thomas, Information Commissioner comment abou the personal data theft
“We live in a surveillance society. It is pointless to talk about surveillance society in the future tense. In all the rich countries of the world everyday life is suffused with surveillance encounters, not merely from dawn to dusk but 24/7. Some encounters obtrude into the routine, like when we get a ticket for running a red light
when no one was around but the camera. But the majority are now just part of the fabric of daily life.”
Report on the Surveillance Society For the Information Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network – Surveillance Society Full Report 2006
“People clamour for the feeling of safety cameras bring”
Merseyside assistant chief constable Simon Byrne
“I would say that a majority of these applications are potentially illegal…Most[ Uses of RIPA] don’t seem proportionate — there are probably less intrusive ways of investigating dog fouling, for instance.
Quincy Whitaker, a human rights barrister.
“I am personally shocked by the numbers involved in surveillance by the local authorities. It is important we make sure there is proper accountability and transparency in the way this operates”
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs select committee
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety
Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter, – but the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement
William Pitt, 18th C, on Privacy