The bastions have eyes

Security is the selling point of any video surveillance system. And yet, video surveillance is itself an abuse of public safety. Nowadays, cameras are being installed everywhere, be it for security reasons, or for parking taxes such as the CVA system introduced in the Park & Ride (or rather Park & Walk) system in Valletta. I just cannot understand how no one in this country has questioned whether the CVA system in Valletta is an infringement to the right to privacy. We talk about data protection, and yet we also allow cameras to video us every time we enter and leave Valletta. Can there be any doubt that this system is spying on our every movement while we are in the capital city? It is more reminiscent of KGB Russia than of a EU member state, because now we have the government authority spying on us on the pretext that it is monitoring the time we enter and leave Valletta in order to calculate the cost of parking. With the CVA system in place, the authorities will know our movements and our whereabouts. We are no longer free to roam around our capital city: if you were planning on holding a “low profile” meeting, do not hold it in Valletta. Likewise, if you had a date which you wanted to keep secret, do not make the appointment in Valletta because even if you use the Park & Ride system (assuming that you find a parking space) or you take a bus to Valletta, you will have cameras spying every movement you make in Valletta.Of course, the operators of this system will assure us that they will only use the video for taxation purposes. But a video is a video and you cannot pick and choose what you see or what you want others to see. So when you receive a photo of the number of your car and the date and times that you were in Valletta, that will be just part of the whole story they have in their hands.Everybody can install a security camera. Small and big businesses like cameras: it is a powerful tool, not just against customer theft but also for controlling employees. In this case it is understandable: they are using the cameras on their own premises and to control their staff and their business. But in the case of the CVA system monitoring Valletta, this was uncalled for because it implies an infringement of our privacy, and also because parking meters would have had the same effect, only without spying.So far, as I said, nobody has deemed these cameras to be an infringement of one’s fundamental right to privacy. In the meantime we have to ensure that cameras are not being abused. The devices are affordable and relatively easy to install. I was reading the other day that one system, for example, includes lightweight cameras that connect to a PC via home power lines. Whenever the cameras detect motion, the PC sends out an e-mail or text message, complete with embedded video. In 2006, two million units were shipped and it is estimated that the number will quadruple by 2011.In Malta there is still no regulation about the use of security cameras and to date we do not know how the CVA will dispose of the videos showing us entering or leaving Valletta. I am assuming that these videos will not be made available to third parties, even the police, because there is no law allowing them to do so. It is high time that some form of regulation is introduced in order to draw the fine line between security for security’s sake, and using security as an excuse for spying on people.We cannot allow the situation to get out of hand, and use the pretext of security to turn Malta into a police, or rather, a “security camera” state, in which everybody spies on everybody. The sooner some sort of regulation is introduced the better. I, for one, long to see the day when CVA cameras in Valletta are abolished and replaced by parking meters, thus giving the public the assurance that they are not being spied upon.Consumer organisations are still in abeyance as to what is actually going on in the world of security and it is a high time that they speak up in order to set consumers’ minds at rest that any video taken by the CVA or other security system in this country will not be used for extortion. I hope that we will not have a Vallettopoli in this country. Of course, you may tell me that extortion is illegal, but so far we have not had guarantees from the government and from the security organisations that they are bound by the confidentiality clause and will not utter a word of what they see on these videos.So, for the time being, it is free for all and everybody can install video cameras everywhere. A neighbour has every right to install a security camera to protect his property, but he has no right to use this camera to spy on his neighbours. I am already witnessing cases of people complaining that the security camera installed by their neighbour is focused in such a way as to spy on their movements and infringe their right to privacy. These cases are on the increase, and the sooner we do something about it the better because we cannot continue to live with cameras spying over us everywhere and without any form of control.
Constitutional crisisA couple of weeks of ago I wrote that the government was defying the Constitutional Court in the case of the Manoel Theatre restaurant and the two floors above.If this was not shocking enough, now we have both government and the opposition defying the Constitutional Court. In the case Galea Testaferrata Mario et noe vs Onor. Prim Ministru, the Constitutional Court held that it was unfair to deprive the direct owner of his right to receive the property back at the end of a temporary emphyteusis and declared some provisions in the law to be unconstitutional.But recent amendments to the law introduced by the government, and apparently approved by the opposition, completely ignore the ruling of the Constitutional Court, and instead propose that when the emphyteusis (cens) expires, the tenant will be given a real right over the dwelling house, thereby again effectively depriving the direct owner of his rights.There is definitely a Constitutional crisis in this country which everybody seems to be ignoring. I wonder if the Minister of Justice still lectures Constitutional Law at University…