"An estimated 4.2 million closed-circuit TV cameras observe people going about their everyday business, from getting on a bus to lining up at the bank to driving around London. It's widely estimated that the average Briton is scrutinized by 300 cameras a day," reports AP.
"The phenomenon is enabled by the arrival of digital video, cheap memory and sophisticated software. And Britain is acknowledged as the world leader of Orwellian surveillance -- perhaps because it has the experience of Irish terrorism, and is on guard for even worse today."
Comment: The article, which reworks this earlier piece, refers to "The Naked Lunch, Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age" by American author Jeffrey Rosen. Unfortunately, poor old AP has got the title of the book wrong. It should be The Naked Crowd : Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age. No relation to the Burroughs' fiction.
Rosen has also published a long essay called The Naked Crowd here.
