Carry on Spying

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If your email inbox is clogged up with junk mail, it won't surprise you in the slightest to learn that it's now easy for companies to get hold of your email address and bombard you with direct marketing guff.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Even if you never surf the internet or have your own website, modern technology is making it easier for organisations to collect and store personal information about you and what you do.

The days of anonymity are over: Big Brother is definitely watching you. Whether you're doing the weekly shopping trip, riding on the Underground, making a mobile phone call or just sitting at home watching TV, there's a possibility that your actions are being recorded.

Should you worry about this? It all depends on your views on privacy but you should at least know the facts.

Here, we look at some of the ways in which personal information is being recorded, in many cases without your knowledge, as you go about your everyday activities.

If you really are concerned about this invasion of your privacy, this information will also - in most cases - allow you to take some action to prevent it.

Out and about

The introduction of the Congestion Charge for driving in central London has received no shortage of publicity.

What few people realise though, is that the cameras and software for reading number plates - used primarily for tracing non-payers - have the potential for recording the movements of all cars driving through the capital.

In fact, similar cameras pre-dated congestion charging and were part of the government's measures to combat terrorism. There has even been speculation that the associated software, in addition to reading number plates, can also recognise the faces of drivers.

Transport for London's Ruth Excell, however, maintains that the organisation takes its obligations under the Data Protection Act seriously.

"We have worked with the Information Commissioner's Office on various issues with regard to data protection," she said.

"The information we obtain is stored only as long as is required. We have a detailed policy dealing with the disclosure of information to the police and others to ensure that information is only released when it is lawful and correct to do so."

It's not just driving through London that is a threat to your privacy either. If you travel by bus or tube, someone might be keeping an eye on you there too.

The new Oyster card, which makes it easier and faster for you to pay for your journey and pass through the tube barriers, can also record where and when each card is used. In 2004, it will be cheaper to use than cash tickets.

Metin Enver, of Transport for London, told us that data for the past eight weeks can easily be accessed. But for audit purposes, the data is stored indefinitely.

It is possible for you to buy a card without registering your personal details, though, and in this case, your anonymity is guaranteed.

The downside is that, if you choose this option and your card is lost or stolen, there's no way you can get a refund on the unspent value on your card.

Smart tags

According to some retailers, barcodes are yesterday's technology. The latest and greatest method of product identification is the Radio Frequency Identification - or RFID - tag.

Unlike barcodes, RFID tags don't have to be scanned manually. The small tags contain electronics that can be detected using radio waves, so all the items in a supermarket trolley, for example, could be scanned in an instant. Queues at checkouts could be a thing of the past.

Stores can also scan items on the shelves and identify those which have exceeded their sell-by dates.

In the main, you can expect to see RFID tags appearing in the packaging of goods but Benetton in the US has started putting the tags into clothes.

In theory, this means that you could be identified from your clothes when you walk back into the store where you bought them. See our feature on RFID tags for more information.

They've got your number Tracing telephone calls is well known in TV detective dramas but similar technology is now being applied to mobile phones.

By measuring the characteristics of the radio signal received at the base stations, network operators can tell where any phone is located and the accuracy is getting better all the time.

So-called location-based services are already being introduced and these can be used to find your nearest pizza delivery service, find your friends (only if they've opted into the service), hail a taxi or engage in a game of virtual paint-balling.

However, the information can also be made available to third parties under certain circumstances.

To adhere to European legislation, whenever you make a 999 call, the emergency services will be given details of your location.

What's more, if they obtain a court order, the police can require network operators to say where a phone was located at a given time.

Of course, the technology only knows about phones; it doesn't necessarily know where you were at the time or what kind of account you have and there's usually no way they can even tell who owns the phone.

Homing beacons

Even if your life becomes an open book when you're out and about, you might hope and expect that you'll be safe from prying eyes within the confines of your own home. You'd be wrong.

If you have a Sky Digital set-top box, you'll know that you're required to have the box permanently attached to a telephone line. This has led some people to believe that their viewing habits are being monitored.

So just what is being recorded as you watch TV? We put the question to BSkyB's Robert Fraser, who assured us that no personal details are recorded.

That telephone connection is there for two purposes only: to enable interactive services; and to allow Sky Digital, once a month, to interrogate the box to find out what pay-per-view programmes you've watched. This, of course, is necessary for billing purposes.

Of slightly more concern is the situation with the TiVo personal video recorder. Unlike most video recorders, which use tape cassettes, TiVo records TV programmes to a hard disk.

This way you can view a programme that is being recorded without having to wait for it to finish, pause live programmes or watch a replay of something you've missed, plus lots of other goodies.

You still have to connect your TiVo to a phone line and this opens up the possibility to monitor what you watch.

Although there's no indication that information on individuals (which could be used to target junk mail) is being divulged, it has been reported that in the US, TiVo has made detailed viewing information available to TV companies and advertisers.

Are TiVo owners in the UK also having their viewing habits scrutinised? We asked TiVo for a comment but didn't get a reply. Is this an administrative oversight or do they have something to hide? The jury's still out on that one.

Intelligent household appliances are just starting to emerge from the research labs. You can buy robot vacuum cleaners, intelligent washing machines, microwave ovens that will suggest a menu and, believe it or not, a fridge that connects to the internet. The possibilities are endless.

By scanning barcodes as you put food into the fridge, you can be given advanced warning of items that are about to exceed their 'best before' date.

You could browse the contents without opening the door, and let the appliance order items from the supermarket for home delivery when stocks are low.

The possibilities for letting all and sundry know your eating habits are also endless. Data privacy experts have suggested that buying an internet fridge is a sure way of increasing the amount of junk email you receive.

Watch out

If you like keeping your cards close to your chest, the start of the 21st century is not a good time for you. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you're under constant observation.

Fortunately, if you take exception to this level of scrutiny, in many cases you can do something to prevent it.

You don't have to take out a supermarket loyalty card, by choosing a pay-as-you-go scheme your mobile phone won't give away your whereabouts, and you don't even have to provide personal details when you buy a Transport for London Oyster card.

There are exceptions though. Like it or not, if you drive, cameras will read your car's number plate, especially in central London where they make a record of your journey.

Many people will take exception to this as a matter of principle but, as the collectors of information tell us, it can be to our benefit.

One of the main reasons people don't like to provide personal information is that they fear it will result in junk mail, delivered either electronically or through their letterbox.

As more personal information is recorded, though, we may just see a welcome decrease. After all, why would any company spend money sending you details of their stair lifts if they knew you were 25 and in good health? As with most technologies, there are two sides to this particular coin.

ID cards

The ultimate erosion of our privacy, according to data privacy campaigners, would be the introduction of ID cards.

As you may be aware, this is something which the government has been considering but, because of the sinister overtones of the phrase 'ID card', it has chosen instead to call them 'entitlement cards'.

It looks likely that any card would include biometric information, measurable physical characteristics such as an iris scan or a fingerprint, which could give absolute proof that the person holding the card is who they claim to be.

The government has suggested various reasons for wanting to introduce these cards, the prevention of benefit fraud, anti-terrorism and the control of asylum seekers being some of the most newsworthy.

Civil liberties group Liberty, however, has suggested that the reasons put forward by the government are just attempts to gain support by pandering to public concern over topical issues.

According to Liberty: "ID cards make us suspects not citizens and that's why all innocent citizens should oppose them."

If you don't like the idea of carrying an ID card around, you'll be relieved to hear that their introduction doesn't seem to be imminent.

The government has just completed its public consultation and is only just starting to analyse the feedback.

Store loyalty cards

Alongside your credit and debit cards, there's a fair chance that you have a sprinkling of store loyalty cards sitting in your wallet or purse.

The idea is a simple one: every time you go through the checkout, you present your store card and eventually you build up enough points for some cash back or perhaps an air ticket.

Needless to say, the stores don't give you a discount for nothing, so what's in it for them? Why don't they just cut prices? The answer is that it allows them to monitor card holders' spending habits and use the information to target mailshots, for example.

We spoke to Sainsbury's, one of the sponsors of the Nectar card, which assured us that it takes data protection seriously and offers two levels of protection beyond that required by the Data Protection Act.

This might sound innocent enough, so long as you don't mind your supermarket knowing that you work your way through five bottles of vodka per week, that is. But some activists have declared war on loyalty cards.

Look in the right place on the web and you'll find people who swap their cards with others. The result, of course, is utter confusion for the supermarkets as people appear to alter their buying habits, sometimes in dramatic ways, with no obvious explanation.

British Airways

If you do a hard day's work, you might not have had a lot of sympathy for British Airways staff who went on strike in response to the company's introduction of swipe cards to record working hours.

If the Amicus union is to be believed, however, there's more to this than meets the eye. According to an unnamed union official, the real concern wasn't the electronic registering of hours but what the data recorded might be used for.

In particular, airport staff feared that this might be a first step towards the introduction of annualised hours and split shifts.

Under this scheme, staff would be contracted to work a given number of hours per year but might be required to go into work, or go home, at short notice.

British Airways has given the Amicus union an undertaking that swipe cards would not be used as a step towards annualised hours.

Data Protection Act

No doubt you've heard of the Data Protection Act but what does it actually say and does it really protect you from all these assaults on your privacy?

Although the details are complicated, the Data Protection Act of 1998 contains eight principles. These state that all data must be:

Processed fairly and lawfully
Obtained and used only for specified and lawful purposes
Adequate, relevant and not excessive
Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
Kept for no longer than necessary
Processed in accordance with the individual's rights (as defined) Kept secure
Transferred only to countries that offer adequate data protection

You'll see that one requirement is that data can be used only for specified purposes. So if you want to know the stated purpose of information in any database, you can search the Data Protection Register at www.dpr.gov.uk.

What's more, the Act says that you can demand to see the personal information about you which is held on any database.

To do this you would have to contact the company directly with an access data request. You can find an address for the controller of any database in the Data Protection Register.