Big Brother Watch

Defending civil liberties and protecting privacy.

Fearless campaigning. Real change. Delivered to you.
Subscribe |

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🎄Nobody asked for Orwellian mass surveillance for Christmas @nottspolice

Privacy-invading facial recognition at Winter Wonderland will treat shoppers' faces like barcodes.

Take action to #StopFacialRecognition⤵️
https://t.co/9do8SIF81t

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

@JAGpr Thank you for supporting our vital work, Ann!

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

⚠️The Government wants to force Britons to submit ID checks to use eBay and other online shopping websites.

We warned that the Government's eye-watering internet control plans wouldn't stop with social media restrictions.

Now, any platform where users can talk to each other could be put behind the Great British Firewall.

Britain must not sleepwalk into this authoritarian nightmare. We must say no to passports for the internet - our freedoms hang in the balance.

Read⤵️
https://t.co/33UAr930FV

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🚨Sainsbury's are EXPANDING live facial recognition to 350 stores by spring.

As one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, this is a drastic and disproportionate intrusion of customers’ privacy.

Take action to #StopSainsburysSpying ⤵️
https://t.co/NezdTOAd1m

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

Read our report, 'Britain's free speech problem' which details the failures of the censorial #OnlineSafetyAct ⤵️
https://t.co/xhSB7xZwLq

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🆔"A passport is incredibly sensitive information...

Biometric face scans come with serious risks of data abuse"

@mayathomas98 gives evidence on how the #OnlineSafetyAct is FAILING to protect our privacy & freedoms in Parliament today.

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

Find out how you can say no to passports for the internet ⤵️
https://t.co/s8cgx5TJ4Y

[Silkie Carlo @silkiecarlo]

UK Government internet policy is now “if there is somewhere where people can talk to each other, they need to show their ID” 🫠

It’s not a serious policy to keep children safe - it’s just creating an authoritarian checkpoint internet. We can’t allow it.

https://t.co/72TQ7WDXmA

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

What passports for the internet ACTUALLY mean:

🚫 No real safety for children
🛂 Digital ID by the backdoor
🆔 A honeypot for hackers
👤 The death of anonymity online

Together we can resist these authoritarian plans.⤵️
https://t.co/x6drNlzvMA

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

The price of your @sainsburys shop:

📸 Your face scanned
🔓 Your privacy invaded
⚖️Your freedoms limited

Orwellian live facial recognition cameras in Sainsbury's shops are treating millions of innocent customers like criminals.

#StopSainsburysSpying⤵️
https://t.co/NezdTOAKQU

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🚓 Speech policing is out of control in Britain.

A staggering 62,000 people were arrested in the UK for ‘communications offences’ over five years.

Subscribe to take action on free speech ⤵️
https://t.co/x6drNlyXX2

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

📵 Instagram CENSORED a company selling pillows for using the word ‘pregnancy’

Since the #OnlineSafetyAct came into effect, women’s health posts are being blocked or placed behind ID demands.

This censor's charter is not fit for purpose – it must be scrapped.

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

👁️The Government is massively expanding live facial recognition - a 'framework' is NOT the strong law we need.

We must stop facial recognition surveillance from becoming a part of everyday life.

Sign our petition to #StopFacialRecognition⤵️
https://t.co/9do8SIFFR1

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

Britain is becoming hostile to free speech:
🔸Draconian protest crackdowns
🔸A postcode lottery in the policing of speech
🔸A censorial Online Safety Act and
🔸Proposed ID checks for the internet

Join the fight to save free speech online & offline⤵️
https://t.co/S6SiOaa3Hc

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

⚠️The Government are planning on a five-fold increase of live facial recognition cameras across the country

If we do nothing, every high street will be wired with this Orwellian tech

We need YOUR support to #StopFacialRecognition - join the fight back⤵️
https://t.co/ROXp4CsTrr

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🚨BREAKING: The Government today announced plans for a woefully weak 'framework' for facial recognition.

Today's announcement comes as an inadequate response to a public consultation about regulating this Orwellian tech - 5,000 of you responded to it raising privacy concerns.

"The public have spoken loud and clear in the consultation, raising the alarm that facial recognition erodes our freedoms and privacy and is turning Britain into a surveillance state. It is totally inadequate for the Home Office to respond with promises of codes of practice that offer little legal accountability if breached.

The Home Office claims facial recognition is as powerful as fingerprinting and DNA, yet proposes far weaker legal protections for our facial biometric data which is captured constantly as we move about.

Whilst planning a woefully weak framework for the future, the government is already rolling out a five-fold increase of live facial recognition cameras across the country, expanding this Orwellian mass surveillance in our train stations and allowing police to install permanent facial recognition cameras on our high streets.

We cannot accept the Government’s glacial pace, as more innocent people are falsely accused of crimes they did not commit and our freedom to live without constantly identifying ourselves to the state is already being eroded."

- Jasleen Chaggar, Senior Advocacy Officer

Read our full statement⤵️
https://t.co/ZSxR5i77Hr

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

👁️Live facial recognition is "indiscriminate tool which scans the face of every single person who walks by the camera." - Jasleen Chaggar

Read⤵️
https://t.co/YPep16dXsw

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🆔Online ID checks make your personal information a honeypot for hackers.

“70,000 documents related to people’s identities were leaked” after Discord, a messaging app, suffered a cyber-attack - @mayathomas98 warns

Say no to passports for the internet⤵️
https://t.co/x6drNlyXX2

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

👁️Innocent people are being wrongly accused of being criminals in shops using facial recognition

They shared their stories in Parliament last week

Meanwhile, Sainsbury's is rolling out this tech in 200 stores

Join the fight to #StopFacialRecognition⤵️
https://t.co/S6SiOa9vRE

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

@sam_carling_ @jamesowild 😱The Government ADMITS that the social media ban like the #OnlineSafetyAct will "never deal with...100% of the harms"

Extreme internet control plans will not make all children safer online - but all Britons will be less free.

Join the fight back⤵️
https://t.co/b4CC7ZyRjZ

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

🪪The Government wants all of us show a passport or driving licence to use social media.

Not only is this proposal deeply intrusive, it disadvantages "disproportionately poorer households"

@GideonJAmos MP raises real concerns over equality & access in today's debate. He receives a non-answer in response.

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

@sam_carling_ "Will he rule out now MANDATORY digital ID as a requirement for accessing social media?"

@jamesowild MP spells out the technological reality of a government-enforced social media ban in his question.

We must reject passports for the internet.