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Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights Daily Breaking News.
Google’s Street View rejected in Greece over privacy
A privacy watchdog has banned Google Inc. from gathering detailed, street-level images in Greece for a planned expansion of its panoramic Street View mapping service until the company provides additional privacy safeguards. In rejecting
Read More »‘Smart’ cameras doing job of human eyes
The surveillance cameras at Big Y, a Massachusetts grocery chain, are not just passively recording customers and staff. They’re studying checkout lines for signs of “sweethearting.” That’s when cashiers use subtle tricks to pass
Read More »ID scheme will cost £400m annually
By SA Mathieson | If start up costs of £300m are included, the National Identity Scheme looks set to cost government and citizens around £4.3bn more than the cost of current passports over a
Read More »A perpetually benevolent state
By Paul Evans | DNA, according to top boffins and Joe Strummer, is “all coded in the initial phase”. There’s no escaping it. And nor should there be according to Harriet Harman, a former
Read More »DNA OF THE INNOCENT TO BE KEPT FOR 12 YEARS
DNA profiles of innocent people will be held on databases for over a decade under plans that take us closer to being a Big Brother state, it was claimed last night. The plans were
Read More »YOU’LL PAY FOR ID CARDS…TWICE
THE Government today vowed to press ahead with the hated £5 billion ID cards – and roll the scheme out within months. Ignoring furious opposition over the staggering cost of the project at a
Read More »Police facing growing pressure over tactics
By Siân Ruddick | The Metropolitan Police Authority is under growing pressure over its operation around the G20 protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson shortly after he was pushed and assaulted by police
Read More »Secret Black Box Probe Will Monitor Web Activity
SPY chiefs are pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite an announcement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, of a ministerial climbdown over public surveillance.
Read More »A question of competence
When John Reid became Home Secretary he infamously described his new department as being “not fit for purpose”. Despite shunting off various responsibilities to the newly created Ministry of Justice, his bruising style, like
Read More »Bomb-proof CCTV
Depressing news for extremist privacy lovers today: a cheap CCTV camera which can reliably survive a large bomb explosion with video recordings intact has been developed. It’s no longer possible to cover one’s tracks
Read More »Police spy on activist groups
POLICE are using a network of hundreds of paid informants to feed them information about protest groups, according to secret recordings made by a potential recruit. A member of the climate-change protest group, Plane
Read More »Street View nod prompts call for privacy watchdog reform
By Chris Williams | Frustrated by years of alleged intransigence in dealing with complaints about privacy-infringing new technologies, activists have called for politicians to investigate and reform the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). London-based pressure group
Read More »Paying billions for our database state
It is cost rather than privacy concerns that will save us from Labour’s megalomaniac surveillance schemes – a point underlined this morning when David Cameron was interviewed on the Today programme. With the vast
Read More »Police watchdog fails to block new demo video
By Jack Lefley | The police watchdog has failed in an attempt to stop the broadcast of new footage of the moments leading up to the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the
Read More »Government issue warning to Town Hall CCTV
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has vowed to stop councils using CCTV to spy on staff, Yourmaidstone reports. A survey has revealed that town halls are regularly bugged and secret cameras are used to monitor
Read More »MPs to probe ISP snooping
By Chris Williams | MPs have today launched an investigation into the use of snooping technology by ISPs which allows them to profile customers for advertisers and throttle or block specific types of traffic.
Read More »Owning a camera doesn’t make you a criminal
When George Bush pronounced the war on terrorism as the “war on tourism”, we thought it was because he was an idiot. Maybe not, because it seems that tourism and terrorism are the same
Read More »School bus tracked by satellite
Parents in North Wales will be able to use satellite tracking to check their children are on the school bus, as part of a new pilot project. The smart card scheme STAR is part
Read More »FBI Workers Accused Of Spying On Teen Girls
Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. The FBI employees
Read More »Britain Sleep Walks Into a Police State as Political Dissent is Criminalised
Julie Hyland writes: “From foul deeds endless tragedy arises,” the World Socialist Web Site wrote, commenting on the state execution of innocent Brazilian worker, Jean Charles de Menezes, by plainclothes policemen on a London
Read More »RIPA review proves snoopers’ charter got out of hand
Commenting on Government review into the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: “This consultation is a tacit admission by the Government that its surveillance society has
Read More »Judge rejects bid to derail wiretap challenge
A San Francisco federal judge rejected on Friday the Obama administration’s attempt to derail a challenge to former President George W. Bush’s electronic surveillance program by withholding a critical wiretap document. President Obama’s Justice
Read More »The grim RIPA and the Surveillance state
Labour’s polling has at last picked up that many people hate their surveillance society. They tell us today they will look at their much hated Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to try to stop
Read More »Internet records to be stored for a year
Details of every email sent and website visited by people in Britain are to be stored for use by the state from tomorrow as part of what campaigners claim is a massive assault on
Read More »Government denies that British live in “a surveillance society”.
Justice Minister Lord Bach insisted the Government took its obligations under data protection and human rights legislation “very seriously”. He told a Lords debate on personal data retention: “The use of personal data is
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