Something which has come out of the repeated lockdowns and tiers being introduced has been an overall fall in the rate of crime. With people being unable to leave their homes then the opportunity for burglars to break in has been almost eliminated, and any criminals who are out on the streets stand out like a sore thumb since everybody else is shielding themselves indoors.
So what should we expect to see when the all clear is sounded and we an return to life as normal? Will we see a jump in crime as thieves are released from self imposed imprisonment en masse? Or will we notice little change as people have learned to cope with privation, lack of stimulation and an overall sense of ‘looking out for one another’ has replaced the urge for instant gratification?
We would certainly hope that it’s the latter, but experience tells us it will be the former. The Covid denialism, lockdown scepticism, and refusal on the part of a significant and vocal minority of people to wear masks in public, and to demonstrate for those beliefs in large crowds on the streets of cities all over the country shows that there are many people who can’t or won’t take the opportunity to see things from the point of view of others.
Did you know that the first 
Data breaches sound like something you only have to worry about if you’re in charge of a bank or looking after the details of high value, high security information that you don’t want business competitors or foreign governments to find out about. Unfortunately information security is far more mundane and something that all of us who are shopping online and ordering deliveries during lockdown need to think about.
I like to think of myself as an intelligent guy who can spot 
Amazon’s Ring 
Looking at social media and the news you’ll no doubt be aware that there are any number of rumours that 5G is dangerous. It causes cancer, leukaemia, it causes infertility and autism. It also causes headaches and premature ageing. And naturally these scare stories are put about by exactly the same people who said exactly the same thing about 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, high tension power lines, TV transmitters, rock ‘n roll, and even the train if it went more than twenty miles an hour. And people love to read these stories as it gives them an outside source for their problems. The inexplicable can be explained. People prefer if they can identify causation rather than put cancer or autism down to random chance and the luck of the draw.
Surveillance cameras along with home and business CCTV have been with us for years but it’s only now that wireless data in the home has become ubiquitous enough for everyone who has a wireless router to be able to take advantage of Smart home and office security technology.
Technology and the way we organise our lives around it is rapidly changing, and not always for the better. There has been a great deal of controversy about how social media and online data has influenced recent elections in the UK & the US as unaccountable agents have poured money into advertising and ‘fake news’, targeted undecided voters, and used data captured from unwitting citizens who’ve done nothing more than like or share a post they’ve seen.
Shopkeepers have always had to have an eye to their own security. While any homeowner can simply shut their doors to strangers, it’s retailers and service providers who have to keep their doors open to all comers in order to make their living. We’ve all seen the hand-written crime prevention signs saying “no more than 2 schoolchildren in the shop at one time” and felt the indignation of the young. But the store holder clearly felt that insulting and alienating what is probably a large part of their passing trade, by implying that they couldn’t be trusted if not closely observed, was worth it.