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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 26 September 2008

What is the point of this intrusion into our lives?

• REGARDING the fingerprint scanners proposal by Westminster council, (Fingerprint scanners make for a safer, more efficient workplace, September 5), is this not typical of the attitude of large organisations such as the council to the privacy and intrusion concerns of its staff?
The so-called “safety of staff concern” of the council is merely a smokescreen and an excuse to introduce further surveillance of its workforce which is unnecessary, as is the government’s desire to press ahead with their ill-thought out ID card scheme, which will not curb terrorism but will rather subject citizens to an ever-increasing amount of monitoring.
It is almost impossible these days to do anything without revealing some detail of your private life; for example, when booking a ticket for the theatre show, you are frequently asked, “What is your name and postcode”?
I wish I could turn back the clock some 20 or 30 years when life seemed so much more simple!
What good does all this surveillance and intrusion do?
Does inconveniencing honest people going about their day-to-day lives help to catch wrongdoers and terrorists?
Perhaps, in our complicity with surveillance, we are actually perpetuating acts of vandalism against ourselves.
The imposition of CCTV on my estate has certainly not eradicated acts of sabotage or anti-social behaviour – several tenants suffered vandalism to our telephone and TV services some weeks ago. Has CCTV helped in solving this crime? No.
I Walker
Dalgarno Estate, W10

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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