Who’s listening?

At Big Brother Watch, we are well used to hearing of new forms of surveillance and their ability to intude into the lives of British citizens.  To date, however, we had not identified any examples of the private conversations of individuals walking along a street being monitored and analysed. 

That all changed this week with the announcement by Cambridge firm Audio Analytic that they have developed a new form of audio scanner attached to CCTV cameras which is able to "analyse the pitch, tone and intonation of noises and work out if they pose a threat". 

While Audio Analytic claim the hardware will only flag-up audible examples of aggression, it must surely follow that for such technology to be effective it must monitor all conversations in its vicinity?

In future, watch what you say – you never know who might be listening…

By Daniel Hamilton