The growing threat of a stealth tax on the rubbish we throw away was exposed by startling figures yesterday.

More than 2.5million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with microchips to weigh their contents.

This is an increase of nearly two-thirds in just a year. The bins, which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for ‘pay-as-you-throw’ rubbish tax schemes.

Under such schemes – which are likely to be hugely unpopular – families who put out more waste will pay higher taxes to their local council.

Disclosure of the rapid spread of chipped bins followed the announcement this week of the first council to bring in a bin tax. Bristol City is presenting its scheme as a reward for recyclers, with cash payments to homes that leave out less rubbish.

The spread of chipped bins marks the revival of a tax idea that the Government appeared to have abandoned last year.

Gordon Brown promised to ditch bin taxes in the spring of 2008, at a point when the unpopularity among voters of fortnightly collections, strict bin rules, and the threat of pay-as-you-throw was at its height.

In January last year, ministers acknowledged that not one council had applied to test pay-as-you-throw schemes.

But yesterday, research by the Big Brother Watch campaign group showed that the use of chipped bins has quietly spread over the past year.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

Police are arresting innocent people in order to get their hands on as many DNA samples as possible, senior Government advisers revealed last night.

The Human Genetics Commission said the Big Brother tactic was creating a ’spiral of suspicion’ among the public.

The panel – which contains some of Britain’s leading scientists and academics – said officers should no longer routinely take samples at the point of arresting a suspect.

They also called for all police – including support staff – to place their own DNA on the national database in a show of solidarity with a public being routinely placed under suspicion.

By law, officers are only allowed to make an arrest if they have ‘ reasonable suspicion’ that a person has committed a crime.

But the HGC, which has carried out a lengthy review of the merits of the database, said evidence had emerged of police arresting people purely so they could take their DNA.

Its chairman, Professor Jonathan Montgomery, said: ‘People are arrested in order to retain DNA information that might not have been arrested in other circumstances.’

The claim, which was backed by evidence from a senior police officer, delivers a significant blow to the Government’s defence of the database – which contains more than 5.6million samples.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

U.S. marketers and consumer advocates are preparing for battle over the rules governing online advertising tailored to individual browsing habits, often tracked and collected without notice or permission.

The U.S. Congress is due to intervene in the issue in the coming weeks, with a bill in the House of Representatives that would oblige websites to state explicitly how they use the information and allow those using the site to opt out.

A billion-dollar industry and consumer privacy are at stake.

Advertisers and popular websites say visitors prefer ads that are targeted to their interests and must accept advertising as a necessary condition to obtain free content.

But 75 percent of Americans said in a recent survey they were opposed to tailored advertising if it meant their behavior surfing the Internet was being tracked.

“People want the benefits of the Web but don’t know about the surveillance aspect,” said Stephen Baker, author of “The Numerati,” about the extent of online data collection. “And when they hear about it, they get the heebie-jeebies.”

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania who surveyed 1,000 Americans from June 18 to July 2 concluded there was a deep concern that tracking Internet habits for tailoring ads was wrong.

The survey came at a time when the debate in Washington over privacy and online advertising is at a “roiling boil,” said Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an industry trade association.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

Grab it at  Wikileaks

These confidential documents detail information on an official program for centralized, real-time, interception of Internet traffic in Switzerland. The interception will start on August 1, 2009.

The documents are those referenced yesterday by the Swiss-German weekly newspaper WOZ

It’s not exactly Big Brother and the overall intentions seem to have the public’s best interests at heart. But many are very uncomfortable about a proposed new law introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday that could affect anyone using the Internet in Canada.

The bill, with the unwieldy name of "An Act Regulating Telecommunications Facilities to Support Investigations," would allow police to force your ISP to hand over any records of your emails, chat room conversations, website history or surfing habits to authorities without a warrant.

Police across the country contend it’s a necessity because the Worldwide Web has become a haven for criminals, pedophiles, terrorists, drug dealers and scam artists, who use its anonymity and the current regulations to plot and commit criminal acts that take advantage of the public.

They point out the old laws were written in a time before the world had ever dreamed of something called "the Internet" and that new rules are needed to fight new enemies and the technology they employ.

"It makes crimes easier to commit but harder to investigate," explains Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

Source/Full Story: CityNews.ca

The former head of MI6 has hit out at ’striking and disturbing’ invasions of privacy by the Big Brother state.

 

Sir Richard Dearlove, who led the Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, claimed some were an ‘abuse’ of the law.

He attacked the ‘loss of liberties’ caused by expanding surveillance powers and described some police operations as ‘mind-boggling.’

The former spy chief joins a growing number of high-profile critics warning that individual freedom and privacy are being seriously eroded by the Government’s disproportionate efforts to guard against terrorism.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

As the architect of UK plans for the mass interception of Internet traffic resigns her post, resistance to the Big Brother scheme is increasing, writes Martyn Marwick.

As Jacqui Smith, the UK’s unpopular, indeed, deeply despised, Home Secretary (a post similar in its responsibilities those of a Minister of the Interior in other parts of the world) quits the stage to the sound of relieved cheering, resistance to her totalitarian plan to compel Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to create, maintain and make available to "the authorities" a massive database containing the details of every online communication made in Great Britain is gaining momentum.

Ms. Smith, whose dictatorial bent has become more and more evident over the years, was implacably determined to get her way but was forced by dint of outraged public opinion to pay a degree of lip service to the notion of democracy and therefore, at the end of April,  agreed to "a consultation period" during which interested parties would be able to voice their concerns about the £2 billion Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP). An innocuous title for a Stasi-like scheme that drives a coach and horses through the concept of the right of individual privacy.
And, now she’s gone, leaving the can of worms she opened for her successor to deal with.

Source/Full Story: TelecomTV

Police in North Carolina want to build surveillance cameras that would record every car license that passes by and run it through the FBI’s criminal database, alerting authorities in real time if it finds a match.

The system would store license plate numbers for up to a year to provide authorities with historic data should they want to review the data later.

…

The system would run every plate number through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center to look for anyone with an outstanding warrant or criminal record or simply someone who’s “a person of interest in a local investigation.”

Carey told the local paper that the system could be used to establish time lines for when a suspect entered or left a certain area or could be used to analyze patterns of movement or personal associations.

“A lot of people might say it’s Big Brother at work,” Carey said, but added that it would only affect those whose information was already in the NCIC database, and information gets into the database only for a reason.

So who’s in the NCIC database? The database is supposed to list missing persons, terrorist suspects, suspects wanted on outstanding warrants or those convicted of serious felonies, but peace activists have found themselves in the database after being arrested in non-violent anti-war rallies.

…

Source/Full Story: Wired.com

SPY chiefs are pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite an announcement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, of a ministerial climbdown over public surveillance.

GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, is developing classified technology to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain. The agency will also be able to track telephone calls made over the internet, as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles.

The £1 billion snooping project — called Mastering the Internet (MTI) — will rely on thousands of “black box” probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure.

The top-secret programme began to be implemented last year, but its existence has been inadvertently disclosed through a GCHQ job advertisement carried in the computer trade press.

Last week, in what appeared to be a concession to privacy campaigners, Smith announced that she was ditching controversial plans for a single “big brother” database to store centrally all communications data in Britain.

“The government recognised the privacy implications of the move [and] therefore does not propose to pursue this move,” she said.

Grabbing favourable headlines, Smith announced that up to £2 billion of public money would instead be spent helping private internet and telephone companies to retain information for up to 12 months in separate databases.

However, she failed to mention that substantial additional sums — amounting to more than £1 billion over three years — had already been allocated to GCHQ for its MTI programme.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said Smith’s announcement appeared to be a “smokescreen”.

“We opposed the big brother database because it gave the state direct access to everybody’s communications. But this network of black boxes achieves the same thing via the back door,” Chakrabarti said.

Source/Full Story:   Times Online

At Buckingham Palace, Felipe Calderon was presented with a first edition of George Orwell’s nightmarish book, which tells of a totalitarian regime and coined the concept Big Brother.

The Royal Household seeks guidance from the staff of incoming VIPs when deciding what to offer during the official exchange of gifts.

A Palace spokeswoman said: “Apparently the president really admires George Orwell.”

The 1949 book was boxed in leather by the bindery at Windsor.

Mr Calderon also received the traditional present given to guests – framed photographs of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The president’s wife Margarita Zavala received a small silver box with EIIR inscribed in gold on the lid.

The Queen received a Maque tray from Michoacan, the Mexican state from which the president comes. Philip received a wooden Olinala chest.

The exchange of gifts between rulers is a long-standing custom. In 1520 Henry VIII and Francis I of France exchanged gifts at the Field of Cloth of Gold in northern France.

During a state visit, the exchange usually happens on the first day and serves as a gesture of goodwill between the two nations.

Source: Telegraph

Source: Mail Online

Tens of thousands of politicians, celebrities and local bigwigs will be able to keep their addresses and details about their families off the Government’s new children’s database, it was revealed yesterday.

They will be allowed to withdraw everything but their children’s names, sex and ages from the controversial computer record.

Powerful and influential parents who believe they will be in danger from others who may be ‘hostile’ will have their details struck off the ContactPoint database along with domestic violence victims and those in witness protection programmes.

But the great majority of ordinary families will be compelled to display their contact details alongside information about their children and their schools, doctors and social workers.

News of the ‘get-out’ clause will only add to the anger and suspicion that has greeted the £224million project. It has already has been hit by a string of delays over concerns over the security of the highly sensitive data it holds.

Ministers released details about the numbers likely to be able to take advantage of the ‘get-out’ rules as they launched the database.

Officials estimate that hundreds of parents in each local authority will be included in a ’shielding’ system which will limit information about them on ContactPoint because they are judged to be ‘at risk of significant harm’.

Across all the 150 town halls that will run the database, that adds up to at least 50,000.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: surveillance, ContactPoint

Source: Telegraph

The surveillance equipment is in use in around 85 primary and secondary schools and colleges across the country.

Classwatch, the company behind the system, says it is being used as a way to monitor children who are disrupting lessons.

The firm said the equipment, which is sold with evidence bags approved by the Crown Prosecution Service to store material for court cases, can be used to compile “proof” of wrongdoing.

The system includes ceiling-mounted microphones and cameras and a hard drive recorder housed in a secure cabinet.

They cost around £3,000 to install in each classroom or can be leased for about £50 a month for each classroom.

Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner has warned the surveillance may be illegal and demanded to know why schools are using it.

Classwatch said the devices act as “impartial witnesses” which can provide evidence in disputes and curb bullying and unruly behaviour.

They can also be used to protect teachers against false allegations of abuse and provide evidence acceptable in court, it said.

Andrew Jenkins, the firm’s director, said: “The system can be turned on and turned off as they wish.

“It is a bit like a video at home. This is not Big Brother. The system is under the control of the teacher.”

A Schools Department spokesman said: “We do not prescribe what schools must do to tackle security.”

Technorati Tags: Classwatch

Source: azcentral.com

U.S. plate readers were introduced as an auto-theft deterrent, but investigators talk about using the cameras to create a virtual Arizona crime map, widening the scope beyond stolen vehicles.

By logging the daily location of thousands of registered automobiles, investigators may be able to narrow down the locations of people they are looking for.

The automated technology, for instance, gives officers the ability to check the license plate of each vehicle parked outside a known drug house or note what cars were parked outside a bank before and after a heist.

In October, Callister stopped a motorist on I-10 near Casa Grande for driving too close to another vehicle. The stop led to the discovery of $175,000 in cash and raised suspicions of money laundering.

To search for the man’s possible criminal associates, detectives could easily check the list of license plates on vehicles that passed before and after the man’s vehicle.

Plate-readers might be a boon for investigators, but agencies such as DPS already have grappled with the possibility of public resistance from those who fear the technology threatens the civil rights of law-abiding citizens. Of the thousands of license plates scanned each day, only a small fraction of the vehicles are tied to some possible criminal activity.

DPS, working with statewide task forces, could emerge as the central agency to store the data from the scans – but the agency has yet to establish guidelines on how to use the data and how long that information would be saved.

“That’s where some people might consider it an invasion of privacy,” Callister said, but he downplayed the idea, saying the plates are public information seen on public streets.

“This database is just a big pile of plates and GPS locations,” he said, adding that the potential to solve crimes outweighs privacy concerns. “If somebody is involved in a bank robbery, or kidnaps a kid, and they do have a plate, they can go back to see the vehicle was at a (specific) location.”

Cmdr. Larry Scarber, who oversees the DPS plate-reader program, said information from the cameras is used strictly to prevent crime.

“We have to be very cautious,” Scarber said of the records of vehicle locations. “Right now, we haven’t gotten rid of anything.”

Police leaders met recently with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard to discuss how to manage the vast amount of data without treading on motorists’ civil liberties or limiting the technology’s crime-fighting potential.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Big Brother