The Information Commissioner and others have claimed that the unusually intensive use of closed circuit television cameras in the UK and the creation of children's, DNA and health databases have turned the UK into a surveillance society.
Speaking this week to a trade association, Smith rejected the charge.
"Are we really a nation under CCTV? Do we, today, live in what critics call a surveillance society?" she said. "I don’t believe so, not for one moment."
"We have seen elementary policing progress from the deductions of Sherlock Holmes and his dear sidekick right through to the forensic use of the discoveries of Francis Crick and Dr Watson’s namesake. These developments have brought opportunities and challenges in their wake," she said.
Smith conceded, though, that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which defines to what degree citizens can be spied on by state agencies, had been abused. Much criticism has been attached to local authorities' use of powers under RIPA to spy on individuals suspected of trivial offences.
"While most of the investigations local authorities carry out are important – like protecting the public from dodgy traders, trapping fly tippers who dump tonnes of rubbish on an industrial scale across the countryside, or tackling the misery caused by noisy and disruptive neighbours – there are clearly cases where these powers should not be used," Smith conceded.
"I don’t want to see them being used to target people for putting their bins out on the wrong day, for dog fouling offences, or to check whether paper boys are carrying sacks that are too heavy. Local council requests amount to a tiny proportion of the overall numbers – but nonetheless, it’s essential to make sure we’ve got the balance right," she said.
Smith announced a review of the use of the powers and said that better safeguards should be put in place by requiring the approval of more senior staff before powers are used, as well as some accountability to elected officials.
"One question I will be asking of local authorities is whether the powers are authorised at a high enough level. Would it reinforce public confidence, and avoid frivolous use of the powers, if they could only be done with the consent of a senior executive, and subject to a form of oversight from elected councillors?" she said.
The Home Office will conduct a review next year, proposing changes to RIPA related to which authorities can use it, increasing the level of authority needed to use RIPA powers and revising codes of practice in relation to the Act.
"To allay public fears of excessive intrusion, and to keep people’s trust and confidence in the wider necessity of these powers to tackle disorder, crime and terrorism, I am … clear that we have to measure these efforts against our standards for safeguards, openness, proportionality and common sense," she said.
The UK has more CCTV cameras than any other country, the Information Commissioner has said. Around 4.5 million cameras record a citizen's movements up to 300 times a day, according to estimates.
