Over the past 30 years, successive British governments have rolled out an extraordinary but little-noticed surveillance system. Dotted alongside the country's roads, thousands of cameras quietly record the journeys made by millions of motorists. It is the largest system of its kind, and it is spawning similar networks in Europe and the United States.
The police describe the system as an invaluable crime-fighting tool, but the truth is both more complex and more disturbing. Key promises about privacy have been revoked and some of its high-profile successes turn out, on closer inspection, to be nothing of the sort.
In issue 10 of MATTER, James Bridle investigates the system and the attempts to keep it secret, and paints a stunning picture of the complexities of networked surveillance. In the process, he confronts a question that troubles all efforts to monitor the by agreeing to be watched, have we inadvertently sacrificed a key pillar of democracy?
