Surveillance of Public Space : CCTV, Privacy and Sense of Safety

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance can be used to effectively combat and prevent crime and enable people to feel safe. Because most countries tend to emphasize safety over privacy when installing CCTV, this study proposed an analysis framework in an attempt to reverse the phenomenon of safety outweighing privacy. By using this analysis framework, this study compared and contrasted CCTV legislation and privacy protection among the three countries. The comparison results indicated that the largest disparities in CCTV policy among Taiwan, Japan, and the UK were related to dissimilar regulations and cultures.