The UK’s House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has published its report on ‘A Surveillance Society? Fifth Report of Session 2007-08, Vol. I.’. It has generated a wide range of press reports, which have been aggregated at: news.google.com

The full report by the committee is online and available at: publications.parliament.uk (pdf)

May I also call your attention to an earlier report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, entitled ‘Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance: Challenges of Technological Change’, which is also online at: raeng.org.uk (pdf)

The chair of the Royal Academy’s committee that oversaw ‘Dilemmas’, Professor Nigel Gilbert, was a ‘Specialist Advisor’ to the Home Affairs Select Committee for this more recent report.

Despite real concerns over whether policies and practices in Britain, and other nations, are undermining aspects of privacy that are critical to liberal democratic societies, it must be said that the debate in Britain is open and thoughtful.