Information Commissioner says Britons are "Waking up to the snooping society"

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has warned that the people of Britain are "Waking up to the snooping society" which permeates Britain today.

Mr Thomas has pointed towards CCTV, analysis of buying and spending habits, covert monitoring and surveillance of travel routes, footprints left by the use of mobile phones, the internet, electronic financial transactions, unmanned aircraft monitoring movements all the time, microphone bugs hidden in lampposts, and technology which monitors every mile you drive as being among the reasons why the people of Britain are increasingly feeling persecuted by their government.

Mr Thomas has also raised his concerns with regards to the security of the data which the government, and private industry, hold. Identity blunders, data leakage, and being wrongly accused of crime when a "suspicion is taken as a fact".

Mr Thomas has called for a full public debate on the future of surveillance.