It was recently reported that councils and police should be careful with CCTV firms’ human rights records before going through with the technology.
Indeed, the Foreign Affairs Committee asked to ban the Chinese camera tech that was used in Uyghur internment camps but there are still doubts whether the proposed ethical rule will be added to the CCTV code. The committee had already published a report in July declaring that the camera made by Chinese firm Hikvision shouldn’t be permitted to operate within the UK as it doesn’t respect human rights and the rights to privacy.
An updated Surveillance Camera Code of Practice will be out soon, which will be the first update in eight years. The document will draw the rules that police and local authorities in England and Wales should follow when using surveillance cameras. By doing so, public bodies will have to think about the ethics of the technology before implementing it.
The Home Office didn’t say what the new Practice would contain but stated that it would only support appropriate police use of technologies like CCTV.
