I couldn't agree more with what you say about the increasing encroachments of officialdom on individual freedom and privacy. In a funny kind of way the more trivial the example is the more clearly it reveals megalomania on the part of those who should regard themselves as our servants rather than our masters. I've also noticed the BBC increasingly deploying its in-house comedians to sneer at such concerns. For example BBC comics frequently use the phrase "it's political correctness gone mad" in an ironic mocking way as if anyone who thinks political correctness has indeed gone mad is by definition a bigoted right-wing idiot. This is a classic psychological technique for discrediting an idea without engaging with it intellectually - simply associate it with culturally uncool attitudes and those who fear being caricatured as Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells will run a mile from it, without ever even stopping to ask whether the mockery is justified. A few months ago I heard Radio 4 comic Steve Punt slip in a bit of this type of covert propaganda, on behalf of CCTV, during a quiz show he was presenting. Comedians singing the praises of ubiquitous state surveillance! Whatever next? So much for comedy as a vehicle for political and cultural dissent.