The Independent Top News｜大规模监控是监管社会的未来方向吗？

随着政府宣布将在全国范围内部署实时人脸识别技术，肖恩·奥格雷迪（Sean O'Grady）质疑这一举措是明智之举，还是迈向"老大哥"式社会的危险一步。

多数消息来源指出，就城市人均监控摄像头数量及覆盖率而言，英国是全球受监控最严密的国家之一，尽管其水平仍明显落后于中国——在中国，此类监控似乎已成为更普遍的日常现象。

英国对民众的“监控”趋势似乎正在加速。作为大规模监控试验的一部分，英格兰七个警察部队将部署更多实时面部识别监控车，旨在识别并定位公众最担忧的性犯罪、暴力袭击和谋杀等案件的嫌疑人。倒卖门票的黄牛党同样被列为监控目标。

犯罪问题是选民关注的重点，但他们的公民自由同样不容忽视……

这种被动监控的状态已持续多年。如同电影场景一般，警方可将监控车停放在商业街等拥挤场所，自动扫描过往行人的面部信息，并与通缉犯图像数据库进行比对。但若仅靠忙碌的警员手动筛查数小时的监控录像，这种做法往往得不偿失——目前他们连抓捕商店扒手都已焦头烂额。

确实如此。多年来这项技术已取得诸多成功，尽管其效果在大城市最为显著——运作方式如同拖网渔船捕鱼般高效。据部长级官员透露，过去一年伦敦通过人脸识别技术已促成580起逮捕案例，其中包括52名违反监管规定的在册性犯罪者被拘留。

在警察预算缩减、警力不足以及人们对“无法无天的英国”（顺便说一句，事实并非如此）感到担忧之际，结合人工智能的人脸识别技术有望提升警务效率并减少犯罪。可以合理推测，这项技术将降低恐怖主义引发的大规模谋杀风险——此类事件往往发生在城市中心区域。

事实并非如此简单。这一技术存在现实问题：软件可能出错，导致无辜者陷入尴尬境地；双胞胎对此的反感不言而喻；当人们改变外貌、佩戴遮挡物或犯罪分子避开大城市时，系统便会失效。此外，因宗教或健康原因佩戴面罩者可能被污名化为“逃避监控者”。

确实如此。一个突出的问题是，目前尚无法律规范这一警务工作领域，且针对线上线下各类监控手段日益普及的现象，全国范围内也未展开过讨论。议会确实需要建立某种框架，这一框架既要符合现行法律，也要与国际人权承诺保持一致。

英国拥有500万监控摄像头，加上数量不明的办公场所摄像头、车载记录仪和门铃摄像头，民众几乎连咳嗽都会被高清捕捉。公民自由组织声称，英国正逐渐变成一个‘老大哥社会’，一个隐私岌岌可危的‘监控国家’。

确实可能出现酷玩乐队式时刻——当某人出轨被镜头捕捉，证据随之流入公众视野。前卫生大臣马特·汉考克便是典型案例。类似风险不胜枚举……

相关负责人戴安娜·约翰逊女爵士辩称，这是“警务工作的有力工具”，且仅会以“非常审慎、适度的方式”用于追查涉嫌严重犯罪的个人。

但反对之声依然存在。曾担任杰里米·科尔宾影子内阁检察总长的莎米·查克拉巴蒂指出，这项技术“极具侵入性”，并评论道：“有人会说，这是迈向全面监控社会的又一步。”确实有人会这么认为。

现任影子内政大臣克里斯·菲尔普曾在几年前担任内政部大臣期间，推动了闭路电视监控系统的大规模应用。例如，2023年10月，他建议英格兰和威尔士的警方负责人应力争对警方国家数据库的静态图像搜索量超过20万次。

不出所料，奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）尽管开展了夏季打击犯罪行动（需说明，这是一项针对犯罪的行动），却简单地宣称他“不想生活在中国”。

是的。我们既没有足够的警力，也没有充足的资金来避免这种情况，同时还要减少犯罪。

As the government announces its plan to deploy live facial recognition technology across the country, Sean OGrady asks if its a sensible move or a step towards a big brother society

M ost sources suggest that Britain, in terms of CCTV cameras and coverage per head in cities, is one of the most surveilled nations in the world , albeit coming some way behind China, where it seems to be even more routine.

The trend towards snooping on British folk seems to be accelerating. More live facial recognition vans are to be deployed across seven police forces in England in a mass-surveillance trial . The aim is to identify and locate suspects in some of the crimes that most worry the public, such as sexual offences, violent assaults and murder. Ticket touts are also targets.

Crime is a major concern among voters, but so are their civil liberties ...

Quite passively, as has been the case for some years. Just like in films, the police can place vans in crowded places such as high streets and automatically scan the faces of people walking past, checking them against a databank of images of wanted people. If it relies on busy officers spooling through hours of footage, it might not always be worth the effort; they have enough trouble at present trying to find shoplifters.

Yes. There have been many successes over the years, though it obviously works best in the big cities, where it operates like a fishing boat trawling for a catch. Ministers say that in London over the past year, facial recognition technology has helped to secure 580 arrests, including the detention of 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions.

At a time of shrivelled police budgets, a shortage of officers and concerns about lawless Britain (it isnt, by the way), facial recognition harnessed to AI could transform police productivity C and cut crime. It could quite conceivably lower the risk of mass murder through terrorism, for example, which tends to take place in urban centres.

Not quite. There are practical problems. The software can make mistakes, leading to embarrassment for innocent parties. Twins dont like it, for obvious reasons. The system cant work if people change their appearance or wear a face-covering, and if villains steer clear of the big cities. People wearing face-coverings for religious or health reasons could be stigmatised as camera dodgers.

Quite. One glaring issue is that there is no legislation covering this area of police work, and no national debate has taken place about the creeping ubiquity of various types of surveillance C online as well as on the streets. Parliament does need to create some kind of framework, and one that is consistent with existing laws and international commitments on human rights.

With 5 million CCTV cameras, plus an unknown number in offices, plus dashcams in cars and doorbell cameras, the British can hardly cough without it being captured in high definition. Civil liberties groups claim that the UK is becoming a big brother society, a surveillance state where privacy is at risk.

Theres certainly the possibility of a Coldplay moment, where someone having an affair is caught on camera and the evidence finds its way into the public domain. Former health secretary Matt Hancock springs to mind. Plenty more risks like that...

Dame Diana Johnson, the minister responsible, pleads that it is a powerful tool for policing and will only be used in a very measured, proportionate way to find individuals suspected of serious offences.

But theres dissent. Shami Chakrabarti, who served as shadow attorney general under Jeremy Corbyn, says the technology is incredibly intrusive, remarking: Some would say this is yet another move towards a total surveillance society. Some would indeed.

Well, the present shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, in his role as a Home Office minister a few years ago, oversaw a substantial increase in CCTV use. In October 2023, for example, he suggested that police force leaders in England and Wales should aim to exceed 200,000 searches of still images against the police national database.

Predictably, Nigel Farage, despite his summer crime campaign (to clarify, a campaign against crime), simply declared that he doesnt want to live in China.

Yes. We havent got enough coppers, or money, to avoid it and also cut crime.