[OMA via Dezeen]

[BBC]

Luckily the UK has the Data Protection Act (1998) and Freedom of Information Act (2000), which are a little like the US Freedom of Information Act, allowing anyone the right to view the data that an organization holds about them. Usually that's things like personal information, but in this case it was video footage of their performances on surveillance CCTV systems, both privately and publicly owned. Not all of the organizations the band approached using these laws came up with the goods, but many of them did: enough to make the video.

Now, you may be thinking "no, I don't believe it... all that CCTV stuff is just Hollywood, Bourne Identity nonsense," but sadly, you'd be wrong. Sure, there's no central collection office where The Man can choose among millions of camera streams at will, but the cams really are everywhere. Some cameras are black and white, some infrared, some color, some are fixed, some can even be panned and zoomed in real-time by local police, and some are in taxis.

In their final compiled video, The Get Out Clause can be seen performing in shopping malls, on the street, on a type of pedestrian crossing where cars have to wait for you, on a bus and tram and in the back of a Hackney Carriage taxi. Sure, there's a bit of personal camcorder action in there, but mostly the video is CCTV, and for that bit of lateral thinking I applaud you, chaps. Clever. [The Telegraph via Boing Boing]

Plans are also afoot to include biometric testing on the spectators when the games start, in the Summer of 2012—an estimated nine million people. The Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Armitt, claims that the system will be as easy as travelling on public transport (London-based readers will know, to quote esteemed philosophers Duran Duran, it's about as easy as a nuclear war.) "The gates will be like the Jubilee Line," he has been quoted as saying. "Put your hand down and it will open."

The biometric system is not the only hi-tech addition to the games' security. The policeman in charge of the games has gone on record as saying that London will need an additional half a million CCTV cameras to be put in place before the site opens for business. Yet again, the small matter of civil liberties is being brought into question.

While the head of Britain's main construction union, Ucatt, claims that he is fan-goo with the security system, "providing the ODA guarantee that the biometric data will not be passed on to any third parties and will be wiped once the project is complete," the ODA has not guaranteed that it will not pass on any information to government agencies.

How much of a logistical and planning nightmare this will be remains to be seen but, given the UK's success when it comes to building big things—the Millennium Dome, and Wembley for example—there is a strong possibility that we will be seeing the Olympic flame being lit at an opening ceremony some time in 2019. [Times Online]

OK. I guess zombies don't do the pool thing (see what I did there? see? OK. Never mind. I'll get me coat.) [Daily Mail]

In an attempt to make its people behave better on the streets, the British Government is to roll out a talking CCTV camera scheme. The (not-so-)good citizens of the northern town of Middlesbrough have already been subjected to the idea, which is to stick a loudhailer on top of various CCTV cameras and get control center staff to tick off unsavory members of society who are caught indulging in anti-social behavior. This can be anything from littering the streets, drunk and disorderly behavior, fighting and (probably) doing The Sex with that girl you picked up in your local "niterie" half an hour ago.

With 4.2 million CCTV cameras on its streets, Britain is the surveillance capital of the world. But does the government really think that the scheme will work? Home Secretary John Reid thinks so, and revealed that competitions were being held at local schools for children to become the voice of Big Brother. "By funding and supporting these local schemes, the government is encouraging children to send this clear message to grown-ups: act anti-socially and you will face the shame of being publicly embarrassed."

Not everyone is so fond of the idea, however. "Apart from being absurd, I think it's rather sad that we should have faceless cameras barking at us on orders from high," said Steve Hills, an anti-surveillance campaigner. "Who sets these cameras up?" The man, Steve, the man. – Ad Dugdale

'Talking' CCTV camera scheme expanding [BBC News]