Posted by paul on April 23, 2009 – 2:25 am
In the UK as individuals we seem to be under increasing scrutiny from Government and Big Business. Our personal privacy is under attack and everything we do seems to be recorded using new technology – from big brother cameras on the street to government mandated ISP tracking, to Phorm, to ANPR tracking as you drive your car.
This site aims to bring you the latest stories where our civil liberties and personal privacy are under attack.
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Posted by paul on July 6, 2009 – 10:52 pm
The Register reports today that BT has abandoned plans to rollout its controversial Phorm web advert targeting technology.
BT was planning to go into partnership with web tracking technology company Phorm to deliver targeted ads at its customers. The technology is suspect because Phorm would track all of your activity on the web to determine which ads to display to you on its partner sites. Up to now ISPs have been relatively benign in analysing their customer’s surfing activity.
Privacy campaigners have vigorously questioned how user’s data and privacy would be protected. The debate also spawned a petition on the Prime Minister’s No 10 Petitions website.
It is understood that Virgin Media and TalkTalk both still have the option to deploy the Phorm technology.
Will BT’s decision affect them?
Posted by paul on May 24, 2009 – 9:36 pm
A recent edition of BBC program “Who’s Watching You” has revealed that UK police forces, with the knowledge of the UK government, is building a national grid network of ANPR cameras.
ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras automatically read the number plate of passing cars and check with DVLA databases whether the vehicle is correctly registered, taxed and insured. Normally the cameras are used by police to stop offending drivers immediately.
However, the linkage of the police, council and other CCTV cameras into a nationwide network and central database means that authorities will now be able to track vehicles across cities and the whole country without anyone knowing. The database will link together sitings of a particular vehicle into a timestamped journey around the country. Since the system will automatically record all vehicles it will allow users of the database to retrospectively track any vehicle. Read More »
Posted by paul on May 6, 2009 – 10:12 pm
The BBC has reported that trials have recently occurred in Scotland of using street based CCTV cameras that monitor sounds as well.
The trials have been performed by a Dutch company called Sound Intelligence. As you pass by, the CCTV camera analyses the tone of your voice rather than what you are actually saying. Presumably if you sound stressed then you are likely to be a terrorist or mad, upon which the Big Brother police can swoop down and take you away for the good of society.
What’s next – listening in on your conversation on the street listening for significant words – like “bomb” or “airport” ???? Or maybe tapping into your phone calls or e-mails for stress or significant words. Oh, I forgot, they are already planning to do that.
Maybe they decided to trial it in Scotland to see if it could cope with the strong Scottish accent!
Via BBC
Posted by paul on May 4, 2009 – 11:43 pm
Yesterday (3rd May 2009) The Register, a UK online technology publisher, along with the Sunday Times published details on how the government’s surveillance service GCHQ is building a system to monitor all UK internet traffic and telephone calls.
The GCHQ project is called “Mastering the Internet” (MTI) which sums it all up perfectly!
The articles quote sources as saying that the UK Government through its various agencies is spending up to £1 billion on MTI projects – just to keep an eye on you and the bad guys!
Read More »
Posted by paul on May 4, 2009 – 10:51 pm
Computer security guru and privacy expert Phil Zimmerman has spoken out against the increasing use of surveillance technology in the UK.
Speaking to the BBC the article quotes Zimmerman as saying “The UK is risking sliding unwittingly into a police state because of the growing use of surveillance technology”.
Zimmerman is famous for inventing the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) e-mail encryption technology.
Interestingly he goes on to say that electronic surveillance of UK citizens by the authorities is becoming too easy. He says that if surveillance were made harder then reduction of civil liberties would be more seriously debated.
Via BBC
Posted by paul on April 28, 2009 – 7:17 am
Photo by Oranje
The BBC reports today that the UK Government Home Office colluded with internet tracking firm Phorm.
It appears that the Home Office were working with Phorm in drawing up guidance advice on targeted adverts. Home Office officials also offered “personal” advice as to whether the technology acted as an interception of communications, and whether it was lawful or not.
Phorm proposes to monitor users internet usage in conjunction with partner ISPs (such as BT) to deliver targeted behavioural adverts to internet users. BT has already trialled the Phorm technology without warning users that their personal and private web-surfing habits were being recorded and analysed by Phorm. Privacy experts are worried about the Phorm technology because it performs what is known as deep packet inspection of internet traffic.
DPI will allow ISPs and companies such as Phorm to see exactly what a web surfer or e-mailer is doing on the internet.
There is a debate as to whether DPI counts as communications interception for which a legal warrent is required in the UK. In April 2009 the EU started legal action against Britain for allowing data interception without users consent.
Via BBC
Posted by paul on April 27, 2009 – 3:31 am
A recent poll by the Metro newspaper showed that most people don’t want their internet browsing and e-mails intercepted by the UK Government.
The UK Government recently introduced new laws requiring all ISPs and telecommunication companies to record details about all internet traffic, e-mails and telephone calls that pass through their systems.
In the survey 60% of Britons rejected the European directive requiring all communications to be recorded to help crack down on criminals.
It appears that people don’t trust the UK Government to store and analyse the data correctly.
Maybe the Government wants to keep track of all that Viagra spam you’ve been receiving?
Posted by paul on April 23, 2009 – 3:11 am
A recent BBC Wales News story tells how counties in North Wales are launching a scheme to provide GPS tracking of school buses and to make it available to parents. So parent will now be able to track their precious child to and from school. It’s all being rolled out in the name of reducing unruly behaviour on the buses.
The organisers Zoom say “…We don’t believe it is (spying on the children). We think it is a way of ensuring that the system works a lot better…” They also say “…The system is actually very secure. There’s no information on the (ID) cards that the pupils will be given themselves. It’s all held on a database and it’s obviously governed by data protection.”
Well that’s OK then given the UK Government’s record on securing our personal data in Government databases. As safe as houses!
