Academic warns CCTV creates legal inequality

Story link: Academic warns CCTV creates legal inequality by Jan Harris

Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, warned Members of Parliament that the increasing volume of electronic data such as CCTV footage, is creating inequalities in legal cases.

The warning came as Professor Anderson gave evidence to the Commons home affairs committee’s inquiry into the surveillance society.

According to the Professor, surveillance creates inequality in both civil and criminal cases because while CCTV footage and automatic number plate recognition is readily available to police, it is very difficult to use this data to establish an alibi.

Similarly, while a bank can use CCTV data to prove a customer made a disputed ATM transaction, a customer cannot use such data to prove that the transaction didn’t take place.