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Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights Daily Breaking News.
Home Secretary ditched ID cards without telling Brown
GORDON Brown’s main rival for the Labour leadership tore up the government’s key ID card policy without informing the Prime Minister, it was reported last night. The Home Secretary Alan Johnson is said to
Read More »Bluetooth “Big Brother” tracks festival-goers
Researchers are using Bluetooth technology to observe the meanderings of tens of thousands of festival-goers at a top European rock festival, hoping their findings will launch a new generation of tracking devices. The team
Read More »The UK DNA database needs proper scrutiny
Last December the European Court of Human Rights decided in S and Marper v The United Kingdom that the retention by the State of DNA profiles is a breach of Article 8 of the
Read More »Big brother is watching
The furore around the Chinese government’s Green Dam software has raised the issue of the way modern technology is used to monitor our daily lives. Here, we list seven of the technologies that can
Read More »Minister demands Government stop ID cards
Minister for community safety Fergus Ewing has written to the new UK home secretary Alan Johnson asking for the scheme to be cancelled. He has disputed claims by UK immigration minister Phil Woolas that
Read More »Eavesdropping on Printers
First, we develop a novel feature design that borrows from commonly used techniques for feature extraction in speech recognition and music processing. These techniques are geared towards the human ear, which is limited to
Read More »Zimbabwe Abuses Could Constitute Crimes Against Humanity
A study by human rights groups in southern Africa say torture and other abuses in Zimbabwe have been so widespread and systematic that they could be considered crimes against humanity. And it says these
Read More »Is the writing on the wall for the Government’s ID card scheme?
Why are we asking this now? The Government had been due to award a key contract as part of its grand biometric ID card scheme this autumn. Three companies – Thales, Fujitsu and
Read More »Internet privacy: Where everybody knows your name
Nightjack’s blog is, as its author put it rather beautifully yesterday, “slowly melting away as it drops off the edge of the Google cache”. Nightjack has gone, too, exposed by the Times as Detective
Read More »Orson Welles, the blacklist and Hollywood filmmaking
This is the first part of an interview with Joseph McBride, author of What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career(2006). The second part was posted June 17. While in
Read More »ID cards ‘will not protect UK against terrorism’
Lord Steyn will say the controversial scheme is “unnecessary”, un-British and should be scrapped. It comes as a senior Tory attacks the Government for not safeguarding our right to privacy and demand a reversal
Read More »Tasers can obtain DNA samples?
The rationalizations for ‘pain compliance’ – that is, torture to get you to go along with police orders – will likely only ramp up from here. Need DNA for a case? How about doing
Read More »Home Secretary to rethink ID cards
A review of the principles underpinning the government’s £6billion national identity card scheme is among the first orders of Alan Johnston, the new home secretary. Unnamed sources close to Jacqui Smith’s successor confirmed to
Read More »British Photographers Forced To Play Roulette With Anti- Terror Law
In Britain, cops have the power to search you if you take a picture of a “sensitive” area, but they won’t tell you which areas are “sensitive,” because they’re so “sensitive.” The British Journal
Read More »Pentagon Cyber Command threat to civil liberties
The Obama administration’s plan to create a Pentagon Cyber Command to conduct both defensive and offensive cyberwarfare is arousing concern about potential threats to privacy and civil liberties. A new report in the New
Read More »Abuse at British embassy investigation “fundamentally flawed”
An investigation into abuse by private staff at the British embassy in Baghdad was “fundamentally flawed”, according to Human Rights Watch. The London director of the group, Tom Porteous, told the House of Commons
Read More »Phorm raises £15m for web monitoring
The company said on Wednesday that it raised £15m through a placing of 3.3m shares at £4.50 each, a discount of 85p on Tuesday’s closing price. The placing represents 19.4pc of Phorm’s enlarged share
Read More »Web Bugs & Your Privacy
Web bugs are small bits of code embedded in Websites that add functionality and share information. They’re almost impossible to ignore, but Jim Rapoza has some advice for keeping your privacy healthy nonetheless. Achooo!
Read More »Study Finds Google is Top Tracker of Web Users
When asked about online privacy, most people say they want more information about how they are being tracked and more control over how their personal information is used. Those consumer expectations are rarely in
Read More »Jacqui Smith departure causes speculation over ID cards
Westminster speculation has raised a new question mark over the future of the government’s flagship identity card scheme, following news of the forthcoming departure of home secretary Jacqui Smith. Smith was one of the
Read More »Watchdog wants police to limit CCTV demand on pubs
Tough new government guidelines are to be demanded to stop police making unfair requests to pubs and clubs around the use of CCTV. Privacy watchdog The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to make the
Read More »Street CCTV has little effect on crime
The Guardian | The use of closed-circuit television in city and town centres and public housing estates does not have a significant effect on crime, according to Home Office-funded research to be distributed to
Read More »Government may renew data sharing plans
Speaking at a conference in London organised by the Information Commissioner’s Office, he emphasised the need for a new consultation on the appropriate limits of data sharing. This follows the government’s retreat from its
Read More »Street View to reshoot Japan after complaints
By Lester Haines | Google’s Street View has agreed to reshoot all the images captured by its Japan-based spymobiles following mass complaints decrying the altitude of its vehicle’s cameras. According to the Mainichi Daily News,
Read More »Freedom of information not as it should be
THERE ARE serious problems in the law regarding the freedom to access documents at the Public Records Office (PRO), the House Human Rights Committee heard yesterday. Speaking after the session, the Justice Ministry’s Permanent
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