I simply find the idea of being constantly watched, quite disturbing. Especially when I’m not even doing anything worth keeping an eye on!
Since I’ve been posting here, I’ve noticed a lot of people here talking about anti-theft devices attached to things you purchase. That’s uncommon here.
Theft is a major problem that drives prices up. There are whole fields of study and industry that address this. Balancing privacy issues against the rising price of goods due to theft is a difficult issue.
I’m not sure if this is common, but I’ve seen TV shows where missing people were found with evidence from surveillance cameras. I saw one show where a murder was solved (not fiction). From your article, surveillance cameras are way more common here, so maybe the cameras do document some crimes that would otherwise be unsolved.
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Oh yes, I’d forgotten about them. Its very common on clothes, but recently some high value food items have been getting the security tagging treatment
(Off topic - albeit security related)
It’s on the nose here after a couple of major retails owned up to having facial recognition cameras.
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You never know Pixie, maybe some handsome man has fallen in love with you & just wants to meet you, so checks which shops you use.
I have been chatted up a few times in a supermarket, and some of them were rather nice! 
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See Bruce! This is my point as well…"major retails owned up to having facial recognition. And the video is titled “Unsuspecting shoppers”
It’s the sneakiness of it all that gives me the heebie jeebies! Comes off as really creepy!
Gosh Twink, the very thought of that gives me the creeps! It did happen a few times when I was in retail and it didn’t feel very flattering at all! 
By gum butterscotch, I could have some fun with those…
The cameras are only doing what security guards have been doing for decades - only using technology is probably cheaper than paying the wages of staff to scrutinise customers as they come into your store and walk around it.
In the hospital where I volunteer, the office of the security guards is in a building near the entrance to the hospital grounds.
When they are not patrolling the grounds and inside the hospital buildings, they are sitting in their office watching people come and go, and keeping an eye on the CCTV camera screens.
You wont know they are watching you as you walk past their building because you can see out of their office windows but you can’t see in.
I’ve been working there for over 40 years and I know they’ve been doing the equivalent of what the new face recognition cameras is doing now - those guys never forget a troublemaker and when they see someone walk past their office who has been caught stealing or vandalising or causing trouble in the hospital in the past, they are onto them straightaway, tracking them on the cameras and going out to follow them and see what they are up to.
I expect security guards in retail shops do the same - scrutinise the incoming customers to look for known shoplifters - we are being screened by cameras and people all the time.
I find using the facial recognition camera techniques less creepy than the the thought of another human being checking up on me, to be honest - at least the computer can’t make human judgements about me!
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Unless the software identifies certain facial features as typical of people who are a bit dodgy! 
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It’s just a shame that society has come to this…Where we all need to be monitored… 
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Hi
OGF has a point.
When I was a Trainee we had some lethal knives in the boot of the car, travelling to and from work in the slaughterhouses, along with white coats, wellies, hats etc.
No great shakes when you where stopped in the early hours , speeding, trying not to be late.
A completely different thing to being stopped with some lethal knives in the car when you were togged up for the Disco.
Times have changed, life is much more difficult now.
Knives where for work, not stabbing random people.
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Yes, its the constant monitoring of everyone, whether or not its justified. It bothers me lots…I think as well because of the amount of filming which goes on for Youtube, Instagram, TikTok. Is privacy a thing of the past or what? 
Hi
Pixie, please do not get stressed about it, that is not the object of the exercise.
TikTok etc is a joke, a simple annoyance for others who want to be noticed.
So is Instragram etc.
Others are monitored 24/7, including Private Messages and so called secure messages.
Governments are not complete Idiots, they record everything and look at it if it has key words etc.
This is done by Bots, only looked at by a human if essential.
99.96 % does not trigger anything at all., the 0.04 % is still a vast number, but manageable.
The powers that be are after a very small number of very specific warning tags.
The 0.04 % is looked at intensely.,sin problem not a cool great treat out.
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its funny how so many feel that deprivation of liberty is acceptable if it is presented in a certain way. Just goes to show how easy it is to bulldoze ideals. How many died in WWII to protect our liberties?
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I’m all for this type of surveillance if it leads to convictions down the line because shop “shrinkage” (aka shoplifting) costs the UK economy about £5.5Bn/yr (2019 figures) or £73/yr/head of population (2019). This is where I got these numbers from:
https://www.retailresearch.org/crime-costs-uk.html
It’s damned scary just how much is nicked from shops every day.
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I totally agree. If someone wants to see me pick up a loaf of bread or some bog rolls who cares?
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I worked in retail and witnessed much shoplifting, very clever , smart dressed women and men , one bloke went into cubicle and tried putting 3 expensive jumpers on and his old coat , until I shouted and opened cubicle , he just laughed , took them off , handed them to me and ran out
Not all shop lifters wear hoodies
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This is true! (about the well dressed-ness of the shop lifters)
When i worked in retail, we were told that if it was less than £45 worth, not to pursue it with police and prosecution because it wasn’t worth it. So of course word got around about that and we had every TD&H coming in to swipe stuff 
It is is not the watching you that is the problem it is the fact that they are building a database about you as an individual every time you go shopping.
CCTV and the use of face recognition software are different things.
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