Fighting Crime From Your Bed

Looking to help deter shoplifting right from your very own house? Now some people can.

The website Internet Eyes has launched in the United Kingdom and pays the public to monitor live commercial CCTV footage online. Users who regularly report suspicious activity, such as shoplifting, will be paid up to 1,000 pounds, or about $1,600 (U.S.).

The footage will be streamed live by the private company to user's home computers from CCTV cameras installed in shops and other businesses, the BBC reported.

Subscribers will have access to four screens at the same time. If they see anything suspicious, they can press an alert button, which sends a text and picture message to a shop assistant or manager, who then makes the decision about what action to take, a company official told the BBC.

The news agency reported more than 13,000 people have indicated an interest in the project, but they expect more people will join. The British government requires users pay a small fee to prevent misuse of the system. Anyone in the European Union can register with the site.

But, as you might expect, civil liberties groups are upset with the program. "This is the privatization of the surveillance society -- a private company asking private individuals to spy on each other using private cameras connected to the Internet. Internet Eyes must be challenged," Charles Farrier, of No CCTV, told the Guardian newspaper.