It could be the 4 million closed-circuit television cameras, or maybe the spy drones hovering overhead, but one way or another Britons know they are being watched. All the time. Everywhere.

The latest gizmo to be employed in what civil liberty campaigners are calling Britain's "surveillance society" is a small, remote-controlled helicopter that can hover above inner city streets and monitor suspected criminals.

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Britain is now the most intensely monitored country in the world, according to surveillance experts, with 4.2 million CCTV cameras installed, equivalent to one for every 14 people.

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Absent from the pros and cons discussion of surveillance is any mention of who gets watched and who doesn't. Street criminals are caught on camera and corporate criminals are left to go on their merry way.

If society ends up committing to a surveillance regime, white collar crime should not be the blind spot. Open every personal and corporate transaction to public scrutiny. Put the current speed of politicians' vehicles into a live Internet feed. Tag every toxic substance with chemical markers for source identification. Post every e-mail and phone call to and from government officials on a public, searchable Web site.

I'm sure such a scheme would help catch criminals, and isn't that the whole purpose of surveillance?