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 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!
The BBC has reported that trials have recently occurred in Scotland of using street based CCTV cameras that monitor sounds as well.
