Throughout the history as civilization and technology developed the governments became stronger at knowing and finding people, which they saw as a threat, to punish. This led to a decrease in freedom and it came to a point where people in some parts of the world don’t even have freedom of speech because their governments are able to survey them everywhere and every time. And the number of these countries increases as the technology develops. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one such country that started to use these surveying technologies. In October 2022 the Saudi Arabian government announced a new law which states that surveillance camera systems will be mandatory just like the People’s Republic of China’s surveillance policies. China’s surveillance policies are one of the oldest and most oppressive surveillance policies in the World.
In 1998, China’s Ministry of Public Security started the Golden Shield Project. The project’s aim was to collect data of people by surveying both the digital and real world, and archiving the information gathered. These data then can be used to catch the people who are a threat to the communist regime and punish them. Since 1998, the government of China achieved more than 1.3 billion people and constantly surveys these people. People in China can’t use the internet freely or can’t do anything that the government doesn’t approve in public. As soon as a person is considered to be possible a threat to the security of the society or the government, he is immediately located and punished. Therefore Chinese people are doubtful and reluctant in expressing their own thoughts freely.
Although these surveillance systems seem like evil policies of the government, they can be used as a great way to find criminals and maintain justice. For example when a person commits homicide these surveillance cameras can help police to find the criminal or help the countries to fight terrorist organisations in order to keep peace in country. On the other hand the surveillance system plays a preventive role in decreasing crime rates. When people know that they will certainly get caught and punished they will think twice and be more terrified whenever they intend to commit a crime. This will result in a decrease in crime rates.
However, utilization of these systems restricts human freedom. When the government always watches citizens the citizens will feel uncomfortable even if they are not criminals.
In conclusion, even though I agree that these systems are very effective in terms of preventing crime and maintaining public security; I believe that the government surveying their people all the time is oppressive and thus a wrong policy considering the fundamental human rights and freedoms and should not be enforced on citizens.