Don't do it Dan!-->

Here’s something profound about how we let are letting our freedoms gently erode away with new technologies and laws. How you couldn’t hold a talk, text, mail someone or even travel somewhere without someone/thing knowing. Will we ever reach the point where there’ll be CCTV in the Bath, just to check you’re relaxing and not mucking around?

Last night I was lucky enough to fully enjoy ‘being off the grid’. Whilst driving back home (Bristol to East Anglia) no-one know about me driving there or where I was.

But why is that so important?

Because, I took a lot of country roads last night. The feeling of dark luscious green trees wizzing past me. The moon on my shoulder, rolling clouds obscuring it for an instant before screaming off. And then there was another car every hour or so. There was nothing but me and the radio to keep me company. An absolute pleasure!

Then, in the distance. There were street lights appearing. A few other cars around and wow. Other people. Civilisation! w00t. And… hold up, what were those? Cameras over the road. Not the paparazzi, but one across each lane? What are they doing? Picking up your number-plate? Checking how clean your car is? Did you floss this morning sir?

What were they? Anyone know? If not, why not. They take pictures of you every day…

Also, think how different the journey would have been if one of those cameras was with me all the way.

It’s not a big jump, but what if our government’s legislation said, we should all have cameras on our car all the time in-case we crash. For legal reasons. Crazy right.

But what about a GPS in your car all the time. Less crazy.

Would you still feel that same escapism when you travelled, knowing that someone somewhere knew where you were? Is that healthy? If it was the whole CCTV bath situation, would we be ever be able to chill-ax?

CCTV in the Bath

— side thoughts —
I’d really like to comment on how much do you trust a person with all that info? The shiny police officer, well bred politician, a friendly neighbourhood neighbour type-neighbour-person. Because, don’t forgot. One of those people could be me. Cool, well we all trust me right?

But you may not trust the waiter/ress with all the temptation to spit in some tw*ts coffee or sip a bit of someone else’s pint because their back was turned. [note to Dan's friends, don't leave him at the dinner table on his own].

We do things like that because that’s our area of power in that moment. We can marginally affect someone’s life, because of what’s around of us. So now imagine if infront of you is a shed load of information about anyone/everyone. Where they are now, records of where they have been, complete conversations.

How consequential is it to just delete a few files? Tell someone where someone else is?

This post is tagged bath, camera, cameras, cctv, erosion, legal, privacy