Good news: Groningen stops 'listening cameras'

This week, Big Brother suffered a justified defeat in Groningen: a trial of 'listening cameras' in Groningen's city centre has totally failed. The aim of the trial was to detect 'deviant behaviour'. However, this proved technically unfeasible: the microphones cannot even distinguish a brawl from a passing moped. Mayor Peter Rehwinkel has therefore decided to do away with the microphones.

The mayor's decision is in line with a current European trend: recently, at the insistence of the European Parliament, the money tap for the European Big Brother project INDECT shut down. This project too was intended to detect 'deviant behaviour'. The police expected this to predict and prevent crimes, much like in the Hollywood film 'Minority Report'.

The wait is now for the development of new software to detect deviant Big Brother behaviour among policymakers. Privacy First will keep you posted...! 😉

Sources: Volkskrant 20 July & Webworld 8 June 2011.