A security camera over the streets keeps a watchful eye on the public in Lowu, Shenzhen, China. At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed in Shenzhen operated with sophisticated computer software with face recognition technology (Image: Timothy O'Rourke / Rex)

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 …