SHOULD we modify our conception of privacy thanks to the seemingly unstoppable spread of CCTV surveillance networks? Jack Brassil thinks so. He's a computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard's laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, who is testing a technology called Cloak that aims to limit the extent of privacy invasions. "Rather than prohibit surveillance, our system seeks to discourage surveillers distributing video without the authorisation of the surveilled," he says.

Sounds science-fictionesque. The requirements for such a system is merely tracking the location of every single person, all the time. What a great idea... not. How about we accept that a right to privacy is a basic human right and not become a big brother state that would put Orwell to shame? Thanks.