UK to host world's first surveillance camera day

The UK, which spends more than £2bn on video surveillance each year, is to mark National Surveillance Camera Day on 20 June as part of the National Surveillance Camera Strategy. The aim of the national event is to raise awareness about surveillance cameras and to encourage debate about the use of surveillance cameras in modern society by highlighting how they are used in practice, why they are used and who is using them. The initiative by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) and the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (Crisp) is also aimed at starting a nationwide conversation about how camera technology is evolving, especially around automatic face recognition and artificial intelligence (AI). The organisers hope that the resultant public debate will help inform policy-makers and service providers regarding societally acceptable surveillance practices and legitimacy for surveillance camera systems that are delivered in line with society's needs. As part of the initiative, the SCC is encouraging surveillance camera control centres to throw their "doors open" so that the public can see how they operate.