Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
The 2007 International Privacy Ranking
February 1st, 2008The U.S., Britain, China, Russia: All have the worst possible ranking for privacy. Via: Privacy International: In recent years, Parliaments throughout the world have enacted legislation intended to comprehensively increase government’s reach into the private life of nearly all citizens and residents. Competing “public interest” claims on the grounds of security, law enforcement, the fight […]
Leaked UK Government Document Reveals Plan to “Coerce” Brits Into National ID Register
January 30th, 2008Via: BoingBoing: “Various forms of coercion, such as designation of the application process for indentity documents issued by UK Ministers (e.g. passports), and and option to stimulate applications in a manageable way. Designation should be considered as part of a managed rollout strategy, specifically in relation to UK documents. There are advantages to designation of […]
Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision
January 28th, 2008Via: AP: —Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items — and, by extension, consumers — wherever they go, from a distance. —A seamless, global network of electronic “sniffers” will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people […]
Homeland Security’s National Applications Office (NAO)
January 19th, 2008Via: Global Research: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established a new domestic spying operation in 2007 called the National Applications Office (NOA) and described it as “the executive agent to facilitate the use of intelligence community technological assets for civil, homeland security and law enforcement purposes within the United States.” The office was to […]
Microsoft Seeks Patent for Office ‘Spy’ Software
January 16th, 2008You betcha. Via: Telegraph: Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to […]
US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand Building Biometric Database
January 15th, 2008This article expands on points touched on in FBI Prepares Vast Biometrics Database. Of course, there’s still no mention of the fact that the states involved make up the ECHELON club. A couple of interesting notes: Northrop Grumman built the systems that comprise the UK’s biometric fusion center known as IDENT1. Also, a future database […]
Modeling Urban Panic
January 15th, 2008Via: Pruned: Paul Torrens is someone after our hearts, for he has developed a realistic computer 3D model that can predict crowd behavior in various spatial configurations. It can simulate, for instance, how people navigate through busy city streets, shoppers through urban shopping centers, and tourists through unfamiliar landscapes. “The goal of this project is […]
Government Must Have Access to All Internet Traffic in the U.S.
January 15th, 2008They already have it, so I don’t know WTF black hole the next round of funding and bleating is going to be about. Via: Wall Street Journal: Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk […]
UK: THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS TO BE IMPLANTED WITH MICROCHIPS
January 13th, 2008Hint: Make sure you read the last paragraph. That’s a keeper. Double Plus kudos to anyone who can tell me the name of the company that is developing the implants with those capabilities. I thought I was up on my horrific-technologies-of-political-control information. I guess not. Full text follows. Via: Independent: Prisoners ‘to be chipped like […]
ISP Content Filtering in America: Federal Crimes and Civil Wrongs Permitting the Recovery of Punitive Damages and Attorney’s Fees
January 12th, 2008Via: The Volokh Conspiracy: The Wiretap Act makes it a federal crime and a civil wrong permitting the recovery of punitive damages and attorney’s fees for intercepting the contents of a person’s communications over an interstate communications network. Although there are no cases directly on this, network-level scanning of traffic for copyrighted content is likely […]
