Audit for hidden CCTV cameras after backpacker's pole dance goes viral
News.com.au
QUEENSLAND'S Privacy Commission plans to audit the booming numbers of CCTV camera networks to thwart concerns about "significant" abuses of vision obtained by hidden surveillance.
The move comes after this week revealed police were investigating fresh leads after security footage stolen from Cairns' Reef casino of public sex and bar fights had been posted to YouTube.
Officials admit they do not know how many hidden cameras and security networks are tracking our everyday movements.
Civil libertarians have welcomed the review, saying Queensland is at risk of turning into the Big Brother state with increased surveillance leading to a loss of privacy and public freedom.
Acting Privacy Commissioner Rachael Rangihaeata said councils in particular were increasingly using hidden cameras to monitor malls, streets, public transport and parks.
"We have significant concerns with reports in the rise in the use of CCTV," she said.
"And we are very keen to make sure security footage is used properly.
"We need to be on the front foot to avoid problems and get ahead of the game before we get a rash of complaints."
Councils often used closed-circuit television as a law enforcement tool for street-safe initiatives or to counter vandalism in public places.
Ms Rangihaeata said only authorised people should be able to access the images.
"There needs to be a higher responsibility," Ms Rangihaeata said. "We need to make sure there is only authorised access to images and they are not released inappropriately.
"We want people to be aware CCTVs exist so they are conscious of their privacy and aware personal information is being collected and used in this way."
The security camera count and logging of what they are used for is due to start within weeks and is likely to be finalised by the middle of next year. It will involve about 200 State Government departments, councils and statutory bodies.
But the audit is limited as the Privacy Commission does not have jurisdiction over individuals or companies, such as casinos or shopping centres.
Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said there were grave concerns about the huge roll-out of CCTV surveillance by councils in particular.
"Some people object to the idea they are being filmed as they walk down the street," he said. "Others are more worried about data being collected and video clips of embarrassing moments, like couples having sex on a park bench or drunken antics, getting posted on the internet."
The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, in a statement, said the right to privacy must be balanced against other rights and considerations, including national security and law enforcement.
Pole dancer left feeling exposed
IT took British teen Catherine Howard less than a minute to do a naked pole dance in a late-night dare.
Little did she know, she was being filmed.
That moment of nudity has turned into a night of infamy for the English backpacker after the vision was broadcast on Australian and international television.
Her image has since been posted on the internet and viewed by thousands worldwide, including her "disgusted" and "ashamed" parents in Kendal, in the UK's Lakes District.
"It's gone viral," an embarrassed Ms Howard, 19, said yesterday. "I felt very humiliated about it the next day, let alone to discover it had been captured on film and shown to the world.
"My family back home in the UK are refusing to talk to me and friends in the United States (said) they've seen it too."
She was playing a "truth or dare" card game with a group of friends on August 5 when she took up a challenge to strip off outside the Asylum hostel in inner-city Cairns about 2.30am.
The art student admits it was in public. "But I feel there has been a really big invasion of my privacy," she said.
She was captured on film as part of an 18-month feud over noise complaints between neighbours and the hostel, with the video handed to Channel 9's A Current Affair by one annoyed resident, Bruce Passfield.
"She negated all rights to privacy when she took her clothes off and put on a show in the middle of the street," the former federal police officer said.
"I'm not snooping into their backyard. I just wanted to collect evidence to stop all the nudity, dope smoking and late-night Pommie soccer chants."
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