It's a lost cause trying to explain this to people who don't live in the UK IMHO. The liberal agenda prevalent on Reddit etc simply refuses to believe that the

It's a lost cause trying to explain this to people who don't live in the UK IMHO. The liberal agenda prevalent on Reddit etc simply refuses to believe that there isn't a huge conspiracy theory, where all those private CCTV systems installed in corner shops, all those local council run CCTV schemes, are all linked together and tunneled into the government so they can spy on people. But just for the hell of it: Most CCTV in the UK was installed in the 70s and 80s, when the hardware became cheap. Independent Shop owners installed it so they could catch and prosecute shop lifters. It typically goes straight to a VHS tape which is cycled through and taped over after a few days. Also for example, you have CCTV in petrol stations to catch people not paying. For some reason this type of thing doesn't seem to exist in the US...