SOCIETY UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 4

SOCIETY UNDER SURVEILLANCE

The Naked Society. By Vance Packard. Longmans. 369 pp. This is Mr Packard’s fifth book since “The Hidden Persuaders” was published seven years ago. Like the others, it will almost certainly be a best-seller and it is the best of his books so far. Once again he draws attention to developments in society which merit serious consideration, in this case to the way in which the citizen’s right to privacy is being invaded. As always, Mr Packard is highly entertaining and thought provoking. As always, Mr Packard’s treatment of factual material is casual, his analysis is superficial and his recommendations unconvincing. Every year in the United States, Mr Packard asserts, privacy becomes harder to obtain and surveillance becomes more and more pervasive. A few years ago a check on the security system indicated that thirteen-and-a-half million Americans were being scrutinised under some sort of security or loyalty programme. The 25,000 professional investigators employed by the Federal Government are only a fraction of the total number of people in the nation who earn their living by investigating other people. There are, the author declares, hundreds of thousands of private, corporate, municipal, county and state investigators. One of these private investigating companies, the

Retail Credit Company, claims that it keeps a file on 42,000,000 individuals, employs 6000 full-time salaried inspectors and conducts about 90,000 investigations every working day. The activities of these investigators are aided by the record-keeping which is a necessary part of a bureaucratic system. Most American adults who own cars and houses, who have jobs, charge accounts, insurance policies and military or government records can assume that there is at least one dossier upon them, many of these containing fat reports full of intimate details, some of which are probably correct.

Investigators are also aided by a vast array of electronic devices which are constantly being improved and which extend the art of surveillance to extraordinary lengths. There is a fine range of listening and recording devices, minute in size and easily concealed as well as cameras which can be easily concealed, triggered by a photoelectric cell and operating silently to take thousands of pictures in a single loading. There are also the more elaborate concealed closed-circuit television cameras. Mr Packard refers to the report of a United States military attache in Moscow who picked up the wrong olive contained a transmitter and the toothpick stuck in it was an antennae.

Enterprising firms have manufactured simpler devices of this nature for use in the home. “The Snooper” enables one to have fun, picking up conversations at a distance of up to 500 feet. “The Big Ear” is a similar inexpensive device which has had great

sales appeal amongst the eight to fourteen-year-old age group. A very popular toy in 1962 was a doll, “Little Miss Echo,” with a battery-operat-ed tape recorder hidden in her tummy. When left lying around the house, this is a useful device for any child anxious to probe the family secrets. “The Telephone Snooper” enables you to enjoy two-way telephone conversations without lifting the receiver. These interesting gadgets are all priced, to suit everyone's pocket. Mr Packard records some interesting examples of concealed surveillance. Microphones are frequently concealed in employees’ toilets to check on loafing, stealing and conversation derogatory to the employers. Banks are using concealed motion picture cameras and closedcircuit television to check all records, suspicious customers and to record attempts at robbery. The use of one-way mirrors in dressing-rooms in department and clothing stores is in some eases being replaced by a hidden television camera, the assumption being that customers will use the supposed privacy of the dressing-room to hide items in bags and under clothing. The use of a lie-detector for regular check-ups on the honesty of employees is common practice. Mr Packard Is concerned with the way people have passively accepted practices which pose a serious threat to civil liberties. He believes that many of the current abuses would be eliminated if Congress committees such as the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activities were required to observe elementary procedural rules in conducting their quasi-trials; if all civilians had the right to confront and cross-examine accusers whose testimony threatens them with dismissal; and if states prohibited the use of liedetector tests as a condition of private employment.

Mr Packard’s illustrations are all American, but the issues are important in this country also. Freedom and privacy can be preserved, it is suggested, if we all in our various walks of life zealously uphold the individual’s right to privacy. Unfortunately the effect of this exhortation is spoilt by the convincing demonstration that there Is an enormous demand for services which will pierce the defences set up to protect individual privacy and that this demand is met and stimulated by vast enterprises whose continued existence depends upon their success in achieving this object. Mr Packard is content, as always, to pin his faith in changing hearts. He is not interested in the way in which the destruction of liberty may be the logical expression of certain aspects of the social system. “The Naked Society” is an appeal to moral revival, not to radical social thinking. FOR YOUNG READERS Young railway enthusiasts' of 12-14 years will find interesting background information in RAILWAYS, by John Stewart Murphy (Oxford University Press 32 pp.)_ One of the “How They Were Built” series, this book gives an account of permanent ways from Assyrian roads to European waggon-ways, and so to the first iron railways built in the early nineteenth century and the first steam locomotives. Mr Murphy then describes some of the particular difficulties that railway engineers have overcome in projects such as the Simplon Tunnel. Finally there is a quick glance at electric railways and diesel engines. The illustrations are more decorative than helpful.