GDPR for the Watched: Why Ordinary People Must Defend Their Privacy Now

We live in an age where being “watched” is no longer the exception - it’s the default. Councils roll out citywide CCTV and facial recognition schemes. Police forces experiment with mass data capture. Private companies install cameras in shops, streets, and even the front doors of our neighbours through devices like Ring doorbells.

Everywhere you go, someone, or something, is watching.

The narrative presented to the public is one of safety and convenience. Councils argue it prevents crime. Police claim it helps them track down suspects faster. Businesses say it improves customer security. But scratch the surface, and a different picture emerges: an environment where personal data is harvested, stored, and cross-referenced in ways that most people neither agreed to nor fully understand.

This is why my latest book, GDPR for the Watched, matters right now.

The Expansion of Surveillance

Surveillance technology has become cheaper, smaller, and more connected. This has allowed councils and police to scale up operations that once required massive infrastructure. Facial recognition cameras, for example, are now quietly being tested on UK streets. Critics warn that these systems frequently misidentify individuals, particularly women and minorities, but rollouts continue.

Meanwhile, private companies have seized on the surveillance boom. From retail stores tracking foot traffic to homeowners uploading Ring doorbell footage to corporate servers, more data about ordinary people is being captured than ever before.

The danger isn’t just being “seen.” It’s the creation of profiles. A single snippet of video can be combined with other data, your phone location, your online activity, your shopping history, to build a detailed digital twin of your life.

The Rights We Already Have

Here’s the irony: the law already protects us. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act, you have rights over your personal data - rights that extend to images, recordings, and facial recognition scans.

• Right of Access (SARs): You can request copies of the data being held on you.

• Right of Erasure: You can demand deletion of data that has no lawful basis to be stored.

• Right to Object: You can challenge certain forms of processing, particularly where surveillance overreaches.

• Accountability Requirements: Organisations must carry out impact assessments (DPIAs) when using invasive technologies like facial recognition.

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But there’s a catch: rights unused are rights lost. Regulators won’t enforce them for you. Councils, police, and corporations won’t volunteer to hand back power. You have to claim it yourself.

Why Ordinary People Don’t Act

Despite these rights, most people remain passive. Why?

1. Intimidation by Complexity: Legal language around GDPR feels deliberately inaccessible.

2. Fear of Authority: Many assume they can’t challenge councils or police.

3. Assumption of Helplessness: People believe privacy is already dead in the digital age.

This passivity is exactly what the system relies upon. By convincing you that resistance is futile, they quietly build an architecture of total surveillance.

Why GDPR for the Watched Exists

I wrote GDPR for the Watched as a self-taught layperson, not as a lawyer. Why? Because the law is supposed to work for ordinary people. The book cuts through jargon and hands you practical tools:

• Templates for SARs and deletion requests tailored for CCTV, police, and private firms.

• Guides for challenging surveillance systems that don’t meet legal tests.

• Step-by-step instructions for escalating complaints to the ICO when organisations ignore you.

• Scripts for everyday encounters with staff or officials who try to brush you off.

This isn’t theory. It’s a playbook for action. It shows you how to demand accountability, enforce your rights, and push back against being reduced to just another data point.

The Bigger Picture

Surveillance isn’t just about cameras, it’s about control. Once people believe they are always being watched, they begin to self-censor. They avoid protests. They filter conversations. They internalise obedience.

History shows us that unchecked surveillance never stops at “criminals” or “suspects.” It spreads to everyone. The council watching traffic today is the same council that could monitor political gatherings tomorrow.

That’s why this isn’t a niche issue. It’s not just about privacy, it’s about freedom.

A Call to the Watched

You don’t need a degree, a lawyer, or a courtroom to defend yourself. You need knowledge, courage, and a willingness to act.

GDPR for the Watched was written to help you take that step. It’s for parents who don’t want their children scanned by facial recognition on the way to school. For workers tired of being filmed at every moment of the day. For citizens who believe freedom means more than constant monitoring.

We cannot stop councils, police, and private firms from expanding surveillance. But we can make them accountable. We can insist that our rights are respected. And we can remind them that even in a world of constant watching, the law still belongs to the people.

Because the moment you start exercising your rights, you stop being the watched - and start being the observer.