Big Brother is listening in the UK

By Hum
in It's a Conspiracy!

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Grand Master

Hum

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The government has announced that all street conversations in the UK will now be monitored with listening devices inserted into lamp posts. :huh:

Think I?m joking? Councils across several major cities in England have announced the insertion of new ?intelligent? listening devices  which will allegedly be used to counteract terrorism and crime.

The Sigard system has been tested in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Coventry. The microphones, connected to CCTV cameras and lampposts, can recognise aggressive ?trigger? words and sounds, then automatically direct cameras to zoom in on the speakers.

The manufacturers of these spy devices have however, denied the system is used to record conversations.

It analyses sound patterns to pick out angry or distressed voices. The announcement of these devices comes just days after approximately 200 cameras with number plate recognition software in Birmingham was scrapped after  it emerged that they were being targeted at the city?s Asian districts.

But this new system, Sigard, has come under fire from privacy campaigners. Corinna Ferguson, a lawyer for human rights group Liberty, said: ?Britain has been far too complacent about the growth of CCTV without any proper public debate or legal safeguards. With cameras linked to microphones and number-plate databases, everyone can be treated as a suspect.

?The Birmingham fiasco demonstrates the destructive power of snooping on whole communities who could otherwise be pulling together to fight crime and terrorism.?

The creators of the system revealed that it has not only been used on the streets, but also on public transport included buses and trains, retail stores, event halls, nightclubs, bus stations, tunnels and prisons.

Once certain keywords are picked up, or if the tone of voice is deemed to be ?aggressive?, ?distressed?, or ?angry?, alerts will then be sent to the police to monitor or attend the situation.

The microphones can listen in on conversations up to 100 yards away. The cameras then record both sound and images. The system filters out background noise and focuses on suspect sounds.

The system is already widely used in Holland, where 12 cities have already adopted it. In Coventry, the CV One partnership, funded by the city council, tested Sigard for six months by installing seven in the city?s nightclub district.

No-one from the organisation would comment on the trial?s success. :ninja:

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Grand Master

djdanster

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I'd just shout out some key words and then give the camera my beautiful middle finger!

 

But seriously... I'm never going outside again.

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Grand Master

FlintyV

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Never heard of Akashic Times and seems odd for them to rehash news from 2010

 

Systems like this are fairly common. 

 

Also a FOI request showed it was never used beyond the 6 month testing phase in Coventry. 

 

There's very little on the Internet about it so I'm doubtful it's still in use. 

 

Seems like a crappy source for news. 

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Grand Master

McKay

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Never heard of Akashic Times and seems odd for them to rehash news from 2010

 

Systems like this are fairly common. 

 

I thought this sounded familiar.

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Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

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Why do people get so defensive over stuff like this? I don't get it.

I get that one's privacy means a lot, but honestly, they don't care about general conversations, they're just looking out for key words and such, if anything, it can help set up a profile of a said area or person, which in one way would stop accidental raids on innocent homes (which do happen from time to time)

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Grand Master

ramesees

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Dushmany, on 30 Oct 2013 - 09:22, said:

Why do people get so defensive over stuff like this? I don't get it.

I get that one's privacy means a lot, but honestly, they don't care about general conversations, they're just looking out for key words and such, if anything, it can help set up a profile of a said area or person, which in one way would stop accidental raids on innocent homes (which do happen from time to time)

 

Or if you happen to come up with the most recent buzzwords of choice, something anti-government etc.. you'll be targeted for a raid by that afternoon

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Veteran

Soldiers33

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why do you believe the government when they say its to fight crime and terrorism? This is the biggest lie ever. They blow up a few bombs, people get scared, then they say we will protect you. Each time the public allows the government to take more and more control just for their safety, when in fact its becoming less safe now than it ever was.

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Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

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why do you believe the government when they say its to fight crime and terrorism? This is the biggest lie ever. They blow up a few bombs, people get scared, then they say we will protect you. Each time the public allows the government to take more and more control just for their safety, when in fact its becoming less safe now than it ever was.

I don't I just don't think I have anything to worry about, as I have nothing to hide, like everyone else, I just live my life within the accepted norm,

(Or I'm just na?ve and still have faith in my community)

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Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

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Or if you happen to come up with the most recent buzzwords of choice, something anti-government etc.. you'll be targeted for a raid by that afternoon

I would think that 'they' would know the difference between a known criminal/terrorist/*insert watched profile here* and someone simply taking the p**s

it's not like they have monkeys monitoring this stuff, they must be trained to filter out/know the difference between general chatter and potential plots

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Grand Master

ramesees

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Dushmany, on 30 Oct 2013 - 09:46, said:Dushmany, on 30 Oct 2013 - 09:46, said:

I would think that 'they' would know the difference between a known criminal/terrorist/*insert watched profile here* and someone simply taking the p**s

it's not like they have monkeys monitoring this stuff, they must be trained to filter out/know the difference between general chatter and potential plots

 

Since we're throwing around hypotheticals here - more than likely they will be instructed to keep a watch on anyone who says anything remotely "interesting". Governments know the amount of potential civil unrest that is coming, they've been pushing it for years just waiting for things to boil over and then they can implement as many draconian crackdowns as they like in the name of "protecting the country" or "combating domestic terrorism" or some other nonsense reason.

 

If anything, plans like that would have been put in place for 40 years just waiting for the time to be wheeled out. As an example look up REX 84 from the United States and look at the language used, then compare to todays language for describing the same thing. Nothing has changed, and no doubt the UK and other countries have something similar.

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