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New website lets citizen spies snoop on thousands of CCTV cameras

04 October 2010

A controversial new website which allows citizen spies to plug into the nation's CCTV cameras and snoop on shoppers from home has sparked major privacy fears.

Internet Eyes will pay keen-eyed viewers up to £1,000 to scour thousands of CCTV cameras across Britain looking for law-breakers.

The private Devon-based company, which launched on Monday, will stream live footage from shops, businesses and town centres to subscribers' home computers across Europe.

The video vigilantes who catch the most criminals each month will be rewarded with cash prizes.

But civil liberties campaigners say the idea is 'distasteful' and encourages private citizens to spy on one another.

Internet Eyes provides a subscription service for businesses and shops. Shop owners pay £20 per week, or £1,000 a year, to have their CCTV wired up to the site.

Cameras show CCTV images in real-time with different scenes being shown on rotation every 20 minutes. Viewers can click a button every time they see something suspicious taking place. Each viewer is allowed a finite number of alerts per month to prevent abuse of the system.

Managing director Tony Morgan said: 'The subscribers will have access to four screens at the same time and if they see anything suspicious, they can press the alert button. This then sends an instant text and picture message to the shop assistant or manager - who then makes the decision about what action to take.'

People have no control over the source of the CCTV footage they recieve. Sources are randomly switched every 20 minutes and the system is set up so that viewers never recieve footage from their local area.

Although the CCTV cameras are based in stores across the UK, the rewards are open to anyone from the European Union who is registered with the site.
Mr Morgan added: 'The cameras are already there - we just link to them so people can watch them. All you see is the tops of people's heads.'

'It is not entertainment but a tool for crime-fighting.'

'Internet Eyes has been set up to reduce shoplifting and street crime in this country.'

'We are just helping small shop keepers who can't be watching their CCTV systems 24/7. We are not doing anything wrong.'

'The whole point of this is that it is a deterrent. People watch Crimewatch and that's not entertainment. We just want it to help people out.'

More than 13,000 people have already indicated their interest in the project but more people are expected to join once it has launched.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has allowed the company to launch its beta site after it agreed to a number of changes including only recruiting subscribers aged 18 and over to access the site.

The company had also planned to offer the service for free but the ICO also requested it make people pay an annual subscription of £12.99 or a monthly fee of £1.99 to join so that their details could be checked and to prevent any voyeurism or misuse of the system.

A spokesman for the watchdog said: 'Our practice makes it clear that CCTV operators should use appropriately trained staff to monitor images.'
'We have provided advice to Internet Eyes on its own data protection compliance. We will be checking to ensure it has followed this and investigate any complaints we receive.'

Costcutter in Newton Abbot, Devon, operated by Stephen Adams, is one of several stores across the UK using the service during the trial period.

Mr Adams said: 'I am very excited by the prospect of this service which I feel meets my requirements to help me reduce shrinkage, further protect my staff and save me money.'

But campaign organisations No CCTV and Privacy International, which joined forces to oppose the scheme, say they still have major concerns about it.

Charles Farrier, from No CCTV, descibes the scheme as a the scheme a 'profit-making gimmick', said: '[The subscribers] are not going to spot crime - these are shops and businesses under surveillance, not crime dens.'

He said he feared that people would take copies of the live stream and upload them to file-sharing networks.

'There are not enough checks and balances in place. We will be looking for instances where they may potentially breach the data protection act.'

He added: 'This is encouraging a growing trend of citizen spies. If people are so concerned about crime they should contact the police.

'They are hiding behind computer screens and willing crime to happen so they get a prize. It is a game.'

Mr Morgan said posters would be in place to warn people the business was taking part in the scheme.

One subscriber, Paul from Hammersmith, said he thought it was his civic duty to sign up.

'We're in a time of austerity and there has been a reduction in the budgets of police and local authorities but by doing this, I feel I can help.'
'It will help people feel safe and secure and it's not like putting a camera in your house, these are in public places. I hate criminality and if I can help stop it, I will.'