Category: Surveillance

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Politics Surveillance Uncategorized

The abusive relationship that are we are stuck in with the British government.

Charlie Brooker vents in his inimitable fashion about the state of British politics. To politicians, we’re little more than meaningless blobs on a monitor.

My personal snapping point was reached last week, at the precise moment Jack Straw announced the government was vetoing the Information Tribunal’s order for the release of cabinet minutes relating to that whole invasion-of-Iraq thing

I agree that many of the British people will reach their own snapping point with regard to our government sometime soon and that perhaps the state of the economy will be the metaphorical straw that causes them to stop rolling over and accepting the ongoing series of government malfeasance.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Motion Triggered Spy Cam

A project for the weekend. [via]


Motion Triggered Spy Cam – More DIY How To Projects

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Surveillance Uncategorized

The Big Brother State

The Big Brother State is an educational film about what politicians claim to be protection of our freedom but what we refer to as repressive legislation.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

I Know You’re Listening


http://xkcd.com/525/

I’m tempted to do this sometimes especially when on the phone as it is quite probable that all phone conversations in the UK are being monitored although probably only by a computer.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Libertarian Party UK 1984 campaign

Libertarian Party have decided to send a copy of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to every single MP. The books will be inscribed with the words, ‘This book was a warning, not a blueprint’, and will arrive at Parliament on or before November 5th — a date of well known historical significance for that building. [via]

Categories
Computing Surveillance

Government super-database of communication data

Current Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says that in order to keep up with technology that the police and security services need new powers and that an expansion of surveillance is necessary.

The proposed database will hold for two years details of all communications, not however the content just data about the communications i.e. who, when and how long.

BBC News: Giant database plan ‘Orwellian’

The Telegraph: Social networking sites to be snooped on by security services

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, added: “The Government’s Orwellian plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying. I hope that this consultation is not just a sham exercise to soft-soap an unsuspecting public.”

Guy Herbert, from campaign group NO2ID, said: “The Home Secretary talks about ‘principles’ but the only principle she appears to be acquainted with is convenience for the stalker state.

I too have concerns about this proposal. Presumably the idea is that criminals and terrorists even if they are smart enough not to discuss their illegal activities over telephones or via email will communicate with their associates. The database will allow investigators to map these networks of associates and open up new areas of investigation and discover new suspects.

But the vast majority of Britons are not terrorists or criminals so the database will mostly consist of data that is of no use to the police or the security services but would be to criminals who could use the data to aid in identity theft. Frankly I have no faith in the government’s ability to safeguard this data.

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Security Surveillance Uncategorized

Surveillance Unlimited: How We’ve Become the Most Watched People on Earth

Excellent new book has been published about how the UK has become a surveillance society.

SURVEILLANCE UNLIMITED is a gripping examination of the erosion of personal privacy and a disturbing look at the relationship between technology and society in modern daily life.

Nineteen eighty-four’s all-seeing eye is now a reality. Britain is a surveillance society, but in ways that Orwell could never have imagined. Your car is satellite-tracked, your features auto-identified on video, your e-mails, faxes and phone calls monitored. You are secretly followed via transmitters implanted in your clothes, via your switched-off mobile and your credit card transactions. Your character, needs and interests are profiled by surveillance of every website you visit, every newsgroup you scan, every purchase you make. Big Brother is here, quietly adding to your files in the name of government efficiency and the fight against organised crime and terrorism.

A review of the book has been posted on spyblog.org.uk

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Police chief calls for universal DNA database

The Telegraph reports that Scotland’s most senior police office has called for the creation of a DNA database of the entire population.

I can understand the logic that leads people to think that instituting massive surveillance systems or creation of large databases that hold information about every single citizen. If a little of something is good then a lot of that thing must surely be a great thing.

It is believed that because we derive benefits from the current DNA database that increasing the size of that database will derive a commensurate increase in benefits. But that is not the case and any little increase in benefit is I believe far outweighed by the costs both in terms of privacy but also financial.

As a database increases in size the number of errors in that database increase which could lead to mismatches and criminal acts erroneously linked to innocent people.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Estimate of 8.6 million CCTV cameras in UK by 2018

According to SecurityPark.net the number of CCTV cameras in the UK is expected to double by 2018.

Mirasys polled 150 delegates during IFSEC who came from different vertical sectors including banking, government, public sector and retail. Delegates estimated that the number of CCTV cameras in the UK would more than double by 2018.

The poll of security professionals estimated that an average of 8.6 million CCTV cameras will be in place by 2018, compared with the current figure of 4.2 million cameras. This figure includes deployments at people’s homes as well.

This is quite an astonishing number, it seems that everyone wants more surveillance to protect their property and ensure their security even though the actual efficacy is in doubt.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Councils warned after overzealous use of surveillance

BBC News: Councils warned over spying laws

Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association, has warned councils that the powers granted to them under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act should not be used for “trivial offences” such as dog fouling.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was designed to regulate the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation for the purpose of detecting crime, and was pushed through parliament under the banner of combating acts of terrorism and organised crime.