Watch faze

THERE’S no escaping Big Brother. I don’t mean the TV series of the same name – although, if anyone is still interested, they should note it’s back on Thursday on C4 – but surveillance.

Our every move is being monitored by someone and the consequences can see you lose your job, end up in court or have details of your plastic surgery revealed to the world.

The second part of Who’s Watching You, Richard Bilton’s investigation of the world of I spy, throws up some worrying cases. Like Andy, the AA patrolman who was sacked for “fraudulent use of company time”. Management used the GPS technology fitted in vehicles to monitor his every move. They concluded he was fiddling his breaks, taking longer than the 30 minutes he was allowed.

They built up a catalogue of incidents to show he was systematically avoiding work. The facts may have suggested this, but there were practical explanations.

How many of us, asked Bilton, can account for every minute of every working day? Andy won his unfair dismissal claim at an employment tribunal, but his case highlights how facts without context can give a distorted picture.

Equally odd is the tale of the neighbours in Lincolnshire who fell out with each other.

Two of them directed CCTV cameras towards the third’s home. Gary and wife Sandra retaliated by making gestures to the cameras, simulating sex and, in her case, lifting her jumper and flashing her bra-covered chest.

The cameras may well have added to the tension, rather than help resolve the neighbourly row. The couple say they were playing up to the cameras. The neighbours say CCTV was their last chance to stop noisy and lewd behaviour.

Gary and Sandra were convicted of harrassment and made subject of a restraining order barring them for talking to people over the fence.

Anyone can become James Bond as a variety of hi-tech spyware can be bought over the counter, including a pen with a camera and a double adaptor plug with a mobile phone inside.

The makers of the programme show Bilton what can be done by secretly wiring his flat and running surveillance on him.

Mobile phones too reveal more and more about the owner. Soon you’ll be able to track your friends through their phone.

WE’RE watched on the web all the time. Everything we do online can be traced back to us.

A spokesman for a search engine explains they might know the address, but don’t know who’s behind it.

However, the sites visited give an indication of our interests, and the information is valuable to advertisers to target potential customers.

The net is not a safe place as hackers, blaggers and credit card fraudsters look for weak spots in the system, steal information and commit fraud. Last year it cost £1.2 billion, which works out at £25 for every adult.

As for your plastic surgery details being made public, Bilton learns this information after going through rubbish bags left on the street outside the office of a Harley Street surgeon.

The Time Team experts use old-fashioned methods such as digging and guesswork in The Secrets Of Stonehenge.

They’ve been investigating for six years trying to ascertain who built it, when they built it and why it is where it is.

That’s a lot of digging, some 60 trenches over six years. Soon there may be litter strewn around Stonehenge, the result of torn up guide books.

A group of archaeologists say it’ll have to be rewritten as a result of their discoveries.

Rather than being a temple, they reckon Stonehenge was a place of the dead.

Those famous stones sat at the epicentre of an immense ritual landscape.

They claim to have the evidence, including dog faeces, to back up their claims. Quite where doggy doo comes into it, I’m not sure but they seem to get very excited about it.