Internet Eyes

[Kevin Milkins]

New website Internet Eyes lets citizen spies snoop on CCTVcameras ... (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1317559/New-website-Internet-Eyes-lets-citizen-spies-snoop-CCTV-cameras.html)


I was listening to Steve Wright in the afternoon, (or was it Jeremy Vine?):confused, anyway, they were talking about this new company that has just launched itself, in Devon, called "Internet Eyes" What a good idea.

I know it will cause outrage with the civil liberty crew, but if you ain't up to thieving then it could be a very real answer to help shopkeepers and small businesses combat crime.

[Julia]

I heard that show too, free month's trial for people watching!

[onecalledk]

Find this a little bit worrying, the reasons or doing it sound so simple and plausable but a bit of digging and is it a good thing? whats to stop people who are not being paid to look for thieves from using it and tracking people?

Whats to stop it being used by criminals to stake out shops before then going on to rob them? What do we pay the police for ?

Years ago the humble citizen of this country could go and shop for groceries and walk about the streets minding their own business. Nowadays the supermarkets know what you buy and when, the average shopper can be tracked walking all over town. The "big brother" scenario is much closer if not already here, this is just another step down the road. Its branded as a method to catch criminals, so why does the rest of the population have to be "Monitored" to catch the few ?

Are the police force not needed to deter and catch criminals ? Soon we wont need to actually leave our homes at all, we can sit behind a pc and get anything we want delivered without having to go outside and mingle with the rest of society ......

K

[Mr P Cannop]

but you have to pay to use this

[Tubthumper]

Years ago the humble citizen of this country could go and shop for groceries and walk about the streets minding their own business...

I'm sorry that such things as CCTV should be needed, they cost money that could be better spent elsewhere. But I have to point out that 'years ago' there was crime, and a lot of it.

One of the reasons for the growth in CCTV coverage is the unfortunate tendency of many members of our communities to stealing, vandalising, beating up (and sometimes killing), kidnapping and damaging.

Perhaps properly-used CCTV helps to deter crime. And if we have nothing to fear, why would we fear CCTV coverage?

[onecalledk]

crime as such has not lessened with the invention of CCTV, in fact a lot of cases where CCTV could well have had "evidence" that would help the poor victim of crime the cameras either have been just out of range or no recording was made.

My point in the post was to view with suspicion the tracking of ordinary everyday people. CCTV is not going to stop people being burgled for example, policing may do this.

Crime as it were is getting more and more devious, with criminals getting away with millions of pounds without raiding shops, cyber crime is on the increase, cyber bullying is on the increase etc etc. So putting CCTV available to people over the internet will no doubt create more problems than it solves in the end.

It has already been proven time and time again how difficult it is to police the internet and there is no real way to make is safe. Giving people access to footage of inside of shops seems to be a very weird way of protecting said shops. There is NO WAY really to make sure that only the people who should be viewing the CCTV are the ones viewing.

Banks are continously updating their software to try to stop crime and are a half step away from the criminals at the best of times. To put more into the cyber world seems to give away more of our power as it were. What next putting up CCTV in your home? then you could view your home when for example you are on holiday from your pc on the beach, except if you are able to do this you can be sure others will be able to do it in the blink of an eye.

Years and years ago there were policemen on the streets, when I was a child you knew the local bobby and he knew you. It was called policing. THat has disappeared, the police are rarely seen and yet crime is still high.... hmmm could it be that if the police interacted with the society they are trying to protect everyone would benefit?

We love as a society to label people, the "thugs", the "thieves" that takes them out of being people, they are seen as some mass threat. SOciety in general has a lot of reasons to be worried about what it has created. Putting up cameras in shops and putting it on the internet is not IMHO a way forward. Criminals will move on to other "crime" that doesnt involve cameras watching them , unless the next move is to have cameras EVERYWHERE, now that would solve crime wouldnt it ?

K

[billmoseley]

i used to be very wary of cctv cameras. spies everyone called them but being a bus driver i wouldn't be without them. not up here so much but down in manchester , leeds, bradford and burnley you never knew who was getting on your bus late at night. it did deter people on the bus from causing problems and protected the driver. also my last job entailed a lot of work transporting school children around and to be honest neither i or any of my fellow drivers would take a bus out without cameras. i for one are for their use in the right hands

[Kevin Milkins]

Every new idea has it's pros and cons this system is not designed to track anyone, most of the end users will have already have CCTV fitted in there premises, but it's no use if a shop keeper has to go home and fast forward through 8 hours of footage to see if anyone has pinched a tin of corned beef today.

The concept is that a vetted person from many miles away will have an Internet link to the already installed equipment, if he spots someone up to no good, he can alert the shop owner by text so they can take action at the time of crime.

[ducati]

Well. Living in Caithness and rarely venturing into Thurso or Wick, I think I might be the invisible man. Now, how to use this to my advantage? Mwrrrhha

[onecalledk]

Every new idea has it's pros and cons this system is not designed to track anyone, most of the end users will have already have CCTV fitted in there premises, but it's no use if a shop keeper has to go home and fast forward through 8 hours of footage to see if anyone has pinched a tin of corned beef today.

The concept is that a vetted person from many miles away will have an Internet link to the already installed equipment, if he spots someone up to no good, he can alert the shop owner by text so they can take action at the time of crime.

what its designed for and used for can be two separate things though, thats my point. Properly vetted person fine and dandy, no probs. How secure is the system they log on to view the cameras ? thats the point.

In theory this sounds all very well and dandy, spot some crims and get some dosh .... lovely ....

technology is not always used for what it says it is used for is it ? The vetting process is only as good as the information vetted. Lots of people have got through vetting procedures they shouldnt have ......

K :)

[orkneycadian]

Some folk must have some pretty dull lives if their idea of entertainment is to pay to sit and watch CCTV cameras of folk in shops!

Mind you, cant be any worse than watching Big Brother....

[Phill]

I find this very interesting and a little disturbing. A few years back I worked for a company that tried to introduce a similar system but within a private residential complex. The residents could have access to view the CCTV cameras covering the communal areas within the property, allowing the residents to keep an eye on their living space, if they thought anything was going on they could easily check what was happening from with their home and if required call the polis etc.

This apparently was an invasion of privacy and illegal, even though they could view the same areas if they looked out of the windows and walked around the property.

[Geo]

Some folk must have some pretty dull lives if their idea of entertainment is to pay to sit and watch CCTV cameras of folk in shops!

Security guards get paid to do it. I doubt they view it as "entertainment" though.

Internet Eyes idea of payment:

More than 30 hours per month - £0.50
More than 45 hours per month - £1.00
More than 60 hours per month - £1.50

If you are the highest point scorer in a month you get £1000 which is split if two people have the same score. Apparently you have to pay for text messages to you, then there's the bandwidth being used up on your broadband. I can't see a stampede of people signing up.

Less than positive article:
http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2009/10/10/is-the-internet-eyes-cctv-game-merely-incompetent-or-an-actual-scam.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/27/internet_eyes_ico/

[Phill]

I can't see a stampede of people signing up.
Unfortunately there are many people who will not read the small print and be suckered up into this believing they'll get £1k a month or whatever carrot there dangling.