Post archive for ‘privacy’
ID cards may be voluntary but the Database State will be impossible to avoid
Dear Richard Caborn MP,
In recent days the Home Secretary has announced that airside workers at Manchester and City airports will no longer be compelled to enroll with the National Identity Register as a condition of their continued employment. This news has been presented as a pledge that Identity Cards will never be compulsory for UK [...]
UK subjects will be compelled to submit to ID cards
To: Alan Powell, Editor, The Star
Dear Sir
James Hall is wrong to claim ID cards will be voluntary (Letters, 10 June).
Sheffield residents won’t be forced onto the National Identity Register directly, unless they’re from outside the European Economic Area, however the Government intends to make it impossible for us to live without an ID card.
Compulsion will [...]
CCTV has almost no impact on crime, says Home Office report
Last year I wrote about the ineffectiveness of mass CCTV surveillance and suggested that we should fix the broken way in which CCTV is used in the UK. Now a report funded by the Home Office has reached the same conclusion. It turns out that CCTV has almost no impact on crime. Except in car [...]
UK DNA abuse to continue despite EU ruling
I’m disgusted by the Government’s new DNA database proposals being laid out as a “consultation” today. Jacqui Smith’s transparent attempts at spin are risible. So is any claim by this Government that it values freedom, civil liberties or the presumption of innocence.
SIX TO TWELVE YEARS. That’s the length of time Smith wants to keep the [...]
Digital privacy is a challenge for society, not technology
Yesterday I travelled to London to hear Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross talk about resisting the all-seeing eye of the state, private business, and nosy individuals. The event promised to discuss practical measures to protect privacy:
With the rise of the database state and firms profiting from user-profiling, it’s vital to resist surveillance and ensure the [...]