A December 17 Associated Press report falsely suggested that Congress would need to pass a law to prohibit the Bush administration from “eavesdrop[ping] on Americans’ electronic communications” without a warrant.

Something funny has been happening to the CCTV cameras in our neighbourhood. They have started growing ears. Not real ones - at least not yet - but audio functions enabling them to “hear” what is happening around them as well as see.

Galveston County became the first in Texas to purchase eye-scanning equipment as part of a national program to keep track of children by recording unique characteristics of their irises, officials said.

Instead of one huge, new National Identity Register (NIR) database, it will now be spread across three existing systems. John Reid, the Home Secretary, said it was “a sensible decision” but denied the government is taking a U-turn from its original plan.

Some newsagents fear raising the age to buy cigarettes to 18 is going to make spotting underage customers harder rather than easier.

Massive companies and organizations that want to manage their supply chains more effectively have wholeheartedly embraced the tiny wireless computer chips. But some critics, politicians and even industry insiders say there are reasons to be concerned about bringing the tracking technology into the consumer arena.

This is the 21st century, and although, modern technology has made the access to individuals’ private affairs alarmingly easy ( CCTV, NIR, verichip, RFID, Databases etc…), there is still not a single law on privacy.

A teaching union was last night accused of attempting to turn Scotland’s secondary schools into prisons after calling for pupils to be issued with photographic identity cards.

Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington.

Even more CCTV cameras are currently being installed inside British trains in a £4 million investment programme carried out by train operator One. Over 550 carriages have already been fitted with cameras in the past year alone, making a total of over 630 cameras on British trains.

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials - and hackers - to grab your personal stats.

A location-based services trial that will see a famous Tokyo neighborhood blanketed with around 10,000 RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and other beacons got its start earlier this month.

A draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme.