Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009 00:04
Public increasingly concerned about 'Big Brother' legislation, poll finds
By Sarah Garrod
The British public are increasingly concerned about the Big Brother measures taken by government, a poll released today suggests.
Big Brother Watch says their survey of the public showed four in five people believe their freedoms are being eroded in Britain, and are particularly concerned about the sharing of their personal information.
Key results from the poll of 1,353 adults included 45 per cent of respondents 'strongly agreeing' with the statement "our freedoms are being eroded by a Big Brother state", while just 16 per cent supported the use of CCTV cameras which can record conversations.
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "We are the victims of ever more intrusive policies, pushing more and more into the details of our lives.
"The government doesn't seem to care that Big Brother Britain has been rejected by the vast majority of people who live here.
"They continue to pursue expensive and invasive surveillance methods that serve only to create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens."
Big Brother Watch is a campaign from the founders of the Tax Payer's Alliance. Their poll found 82 per cent of people disagreed that "placing microchips in refuse bins to monitor the waste thrown away by households was an acceptable measure to encourage recycling" - despite 42 local authorities currently monitoring the habits of over two million households.
Some 86 per cent of people also said they thought "the government can't be trusted to keep our personal information safe" - up from 58 per cent in seven years.