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ISSUES: Privacy
Chapter 2: Surveillance
opposed to giving intelligence agencies their own general
powers of access.
Doubts certainly exist over the trustworthiness of
institutions who could be granted the new powers
however. While there is a tendency to trust MI5 and MI6 to
behave responsibly (63% trust, 29% do not), there is near
division over the trustworthiness of the police to do so
(50% trust, 42% do not), and clear uncertainty with regards
to politicians and civil servants (45% trust, 46% do not).
And despite the general willingness to offer up personal
data in the fight for security, there does seem to be a red
line: 43% would oppose a ban on encryption software,
while 29% would support it.
The special relationship
David Cameron has been in Washington this week,
meeting with Barack Obama to discuss bolstering the US
and UK economies, on Thursday, and getting technology
companies like Facebook andGoogle to permit government
access to encrypted messages, on Friday.
British media has been positive about the visit, taking it as
a sign of the ‘special relationship’ that exists between the
two countries. British people themselves, however, while
agreeing the relationship is close (61%), say the relationship
is not in fact special – “it’s just like those with other British
allies”, say 52%.
18 January 2015
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© 2000–2017 YouGov plc
Army’s ‘watchkeeper’ drone to fly
above british skies
A
huge unmanned drone is set to fly above UK skies
this week ahead of trials in Afghanistan.
Watchkeeper, a reconnaissance and surveillance
unmanned air system (UAS), has a wingspan of 35 feet and
can fly at an altitude of up to 16,000 feet.
It has been designed to loiter over areas of interest for
“significantly longer” than existing systems, providing
clear surveillance pictures to troops on the ground.
Above: The aircraft boasts two sensors – a day and night
camera which produces 24-hour high-definition images
and a radar sensor, allowing it to see in all conditions.
The images it produces are relayed in real time to a ground
control station that acts as the aircraft’s cockpit – reducing
the need to deploy troops to “potentially dangerous”
situations.
Watchkeeper, which has been tested in West Wales since
2010 and is nearing the end of its trials, is expected to take
a “significant role” in future military campaigns.
This week, highly-skilled pilots will fly Watchkeeper in
restricted airspace over the Ministry of Defence’s Salisbury
Plain Training Area in Wiltshire, overseen by military air
traffic controllers.
The Army is due to begin its own training later this year.
Colonel Mark Thornhill, Commander of 1st Artillery Brigade
said: “Watchkeeper is a state-of-the-art system coming in
to service now. It can fly for longer, it flies off rough strips,
it has better sensors.
“Watchkeeper is designed specifically to support worldwide
operations in many different locations.
“Watchkeeper is a fantastic capability because it will
allow us to provide real-time imagery back to the ground
commander so that he can then take appropriate action
depending on what he sees and what he learns from that
imagery.
“Therefore, he will be able to perform in a much better
fashion and make much better operational decisions based
on the imagery we are providing to him.”
Watchkeeper, which is being developed by Thales UK, is
unarmed and does not carry any weapons. It has already
clocked up 500 hours of flying time in West Wales.
The Army currently operates four types of UAS in
Afghanistan, which play an important role protecting
soldiers on the ground by providing them with intelligence
and reducing the need for deployment. Watchkeeper
will provide additional capability to the fleet - which has
already completed 120,000 flying hours - once in service
this summer.
Lance Corporal Christopher Gazey, a UAS analyst for 1st
Artillery Brigade, said images produced by Watchkeeper
would help give the Army better situational awareness.
“You can tell the difference between a man, a woman and a
child, but obviously you are not going to do the Hollywood
stuff of seeing what people are typing on their phones,”
Lance Corporal Gazey said.
24 February 2014
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The above information is reprinted with kind
permission from
The Huffington Post UK
. Please visit
for further information.
© 2014 AOL (UK) Limited
