The eye-opening tale of the mum treated like a shoplifter has received a lot of internet attention since she posted it yesterday. For those who haven’t read it: woman is grabbed by a Tesco security guard who accuses her of stealing shampoo and won’t listen to her protestations of innocence, then released without apology when the accusation turns out to be complete rubbish.
I recently wrote about data protection, arguing that organisations don’t grasp the idea that adults can live together and make shared decisions. The default assumption is that you do not consent to any third party ringing up about your account, and it’s usually impossible to prove your consent without putting in more effort than it would take to make the call yourself in the first place.
Today I was having problems with the home internet connection. Not only am I a member of the over-privileged web generation, I’m also a freelancer who works from home a lot. So this was a big deal. I rang O2 to find out what was going on.
I’m impressed with how quickly I got through to their British-based call centre. Yes, there was the usual automated phone-answering system, but this one wasn’t too bad, and I got through to the correct human within minutes.
I can’t write about heavy-handed police tactics without mentioning recent events in Kent. The Kingsnorth Climate Camp is a perfect example of why the right to photograph in public places is important: because otherwise actions like those shown here would go unrecorded and unreported.
Photographer: "I know the law!"
PCSO: "Yeah, good for you!"
This video [1] raises many of the contradictions in the state attitude towards filming: CCTV is OK but human photographers are a problem; cameraphone footage is helpful evidence but filming in a public place is suspicious behaviour.