We are all film stars now, according to a 1999 study that estimated London citizens or workers could expect, in a single day, to be filmed by more than 300 CCTV cameras on around 30 separate CCTV systems.And yet, despite this gross invasion of our privacy, 80% of London’s crimes remain unsolved. It is time, the Law Society and others are now saying, that Britain stopped being the world’s ‘surveillance society’.

Let’s stick with the 1999 report for a moment longer. Even if our London citizens or workers only venture on to the capital’s streets five days a week, they will make 300 multiplied by five – which is 1,500 – separate appearances on film during the week.

Allowing for holidays and sickness, let’s assume they go about their business 46 weeks a year. Multiply 1,500 by 46 and you get 69,000 – which is the number of times they are each likely to appear on camera in the course of a year.

The results of this form of surveillance may be scandalous and breathtaking, but at least the process is random. If you are walking down a certain road, you will be filmed. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need to be breaking the law or acting suspiciously. Your 86-year-old granny will be filmed, as will a hoody, the archbishop of Canterbury or anyone else.

Some local authorities, however, have taken the process a giant step forward and, according to personal privacy campaigning group Big Brother Watch, are deliberately targeting individuals – such as mothers and dog walkers – who they suspect might be doing something wrong.

Big Brother Watch earlier this month published a report called The Grim RIPA. This is a punning reference to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which is a piece of legislation introduced by Labour in 2000 to help in the war against terrorism and organised crime.

RIPA made provision for the interception of communications, the carrying out of surveillance, the use of covert human intelligence sources and all the other nefarious activities familiar to us from spy and crime fiction.

Big Brother Watch, however, says that 372 local authorities have chosen to interpret the law as carte blanche to spy on members of the public in relation to trifling allegations and have conducted 8,575 RIPA surveillance operations in the past two years alone.

Authorities have used covert surveillance to spy on their own staff because they might be lying about car parking, working hours or sick pay. Over a dozen authorities have used RIPA to snoop on dog owners to see whose animals were fouling the footpaths. Five authorities have used their powers to monitor people suspected of flouting the smoking ban. Others have used RIPA powers to make a test purchase (of a puppy), spy on a charity shop to see who was fly tipping donations on to the shop’s doorstep and identify the renegade gardener who had, presumably without the council’s permission, had the temerity to trim a hedge.

Most serious of all was the local authority that suspected a mother of lying about where she lived so as to get one of her children into her first choice of school. The authority obtained her telephone billing records and secretly followed her, logging her, her three children’s and her car’s movements.

Last week the Law Society said that enough was enough, and announced it was joining forces with surveillance watchdog Privacy International to found a privacy rights centre that would provide pro bono legal help to victims of oppressive surveillance technologies.

Law Society president Robert Heslett said the centre would help reverse the erosion of civil liberties brought about by the disproportionate use of surveillance technology. The Law Society would be ‘a key player in a coalition of individuals and organisations concerned with the legal and human implications of surveillance in the UK and internationally,’ he said. And he has called upon lawyers and activists to become involved in the centre’s work. For anyone who is interested, see the Privacy Rights Centre website.