Hi to my allocated government agent reading this, hope you're well.

The Guardian’s report on the Department of Work and Pensions using excessive surveillance on potential benefits fraudsters shows that although only people who are suspected are watched, the extent to which they are and can be watched, and that we could be too, is alarming.

We are living in a society where everything is monitored, and the authorities can find out a lot about individuals in a few simple clicks. With Facebook being known to hand over data to authorities with complete ease, I think it’s fair to say that individuals may start being monitored as a societal norm. 

I think most people are conscious now that every search you do into Google is recorded, every place you go to is recorded and watched, and information can be used against you in the future, even if you are not doing anything wrong. There are more and more cases of individuals not getting jobs and positions due to opinions they have voiced online.

A different Guardian article discusses the uses of drones in the streets, and in particular at completely peaceful protests. Drones are a problematic subject, with heavy criticism as to the lack of consent from the public to being filmed, and where all of this information is stored. Individuals have a right to protest, and it is completely legal to protest peacefully, but can the surveillance be stored and used against you in the future? We simply do not know. 

Surveillance is something that is used to intimidate and deter, and whilst that means that there is the potential for you to not worry ‘unless you’ve done something wrong’, I do think that with the way surveillance is increasing at such a rapid rate, it is something that should be in the back of our minds.