Towards safer methods of electronic surveillance

Surveillance activities by governments and corporations are at the forefront of information governance concerns. However, these activities extend into many other sectors such as health and social care and are a necessary part of the information society. It is essential that they are conducted in a safe manner. Most implementations involve centralisation of data and activities and a high degree of trust is demanded. However, distributed approaches are possible and could be much safer. An approach is described and briefly evaluated using a study within the health and social care domain.