The UK's Total Surveillance 439
Budenny writes "The Register has a story in its ongoing coverage of the UK ID Card story. This one suggests, with links to a weekend news story, that the Prime Minister in waiting has bought the idea that all electronic transactions in the UK should be linked to a central government/police database. Every cash withdrawal, every credit card purchase, ever loyalty card use ... And that data should flow back from the police database to (eg) a loyalty card use. So, for example, not only would the government know what books you were buying, but the bookstore would also know if you had an outstanding speeding ticket!"
Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:5, Insightful)
Abuse of the info will happen, so let it never be allowed, anywhere!
"I have a right to buy those, but please officer don't tell my boss or my wife or my kids!"
Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:5, Insightful)
I know you're being sarcastic, but it's not information being free - it's information being collected to control the masses - thus being a complete solution for the removal of freedoms.
A total surveillance society is a mere 10-20 years away. Every traffic light I approach I am taped. My face is scanned every time I go to a baseball game. The SCOTUS already upheld that I do indeed have to provide ID to a police officer even if I am not suspected of any wrong doing, at their whim.
Biometrics are the rage. Biometrics and RFID will be on my passport, in my license. The REAL ID act officially creates a national ID in the US. And so on...
While the US is behind the UK in terms of true overall survellance, it's not that far. 20 years from now, when facial recognition is perfected - or some new technology that can ready our DNA from a small distance exists - you won't need customer loyalty cards anymore.
And people will accept it all - because it will all happen slowly, over time, and add seeming convenience to everything. Why carry an ID or a credit card? The police car will instantly recognize you, know exactly where you've been in public in the past few days, weeks, months... Everywhere your car travels, RFID tags or your cell phone will give away your location and be recorded.
See, aside from the DNA sniffer... all of this is reality now. 1984 was a little ambitious - we needed a few more years to totally accept living in a police state, but that's because there was no MySpace back then to distract us from the realities of government total awareness.
Yeah, lable me a tin foil hat person, but I'm going to hold out as long as I can - no EZPass, no customer loyalty cards, a new non-RFID passport, etc., etc. I may go down, but not without some degree of a fight.
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Interesting)
We could have that now under certain circumstances, but we don't. When I go to the petrol station to fill up, my car's registration is read and OCR'd, so why do I have to go in and give my loyalty card and credit card? It should just be able to recognize that it's my car, authorize the pump to dispense a ceratin amount of petrol and let me drive off. It co
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Interesting)
Your idea of convenience is having gas station security call you every time your SO takes your car to the station? Or you're on
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:4, Funny)
If that sounds bad, then you really don't want its evil cousin: POTUS.
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed, why spend the effort to destroy when you can much much more easily disable?
For the same reason that V didn't simply disable the House of Parliament: the act of destroying - particularly by means of a well-aimed bullet - is intended to send a precise message to the authorities about the relative balance of power between the government and the people.
Most modern cars have tracking transponders (Score:5, Interesting)
Spy transmission chips embedded in tires that can be read REMOTELY while driving.
A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFid chips embedded in the tire).
I hope this guys RFID dumper helps people learn about their car more (if supported scanner is in the AIAG frequency standard range)
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.
Taggant research papers
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/ ~ota/disk3/1980/8017/801705.PDF [princeton.edu]
(remove spaces in url from slashcode if needed)
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].
It is for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
Photos of chips before molded deep into tires!
http://www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html [sokymat.com]
You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is very secret.
Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.
The photo of the secret prototype WAS at
http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html [tadiran-telematics.com]
http://www.telematics-wireless.com/site/index1.php ?ln=en&main_id=33 [telematics-wireless.com]
but the fact is... YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE A RADIO TRANSPONDER not counting your digital cell phone which is routinely silently pulsed in CA bay area each rush hour morning unless turned off (consult Wired Magazine Expose article). Those data point pulses are used by NSA on occasions.
The us FBI with NRO/NSA blessings, has requested us gov make this tire scanning information as secret as the information regarding all us inkjet printers sold in usa in the last 3 years using "yellow" GUID barcode under dark ink regions to serialize printouts to thwart counterfeiting of 20 dollar bills. (30 to 40 percent of ALL California counterfeiting is done using cheap Epson inkjet printers, most purchased with credit ca
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:5, Insightful)
And then be shocked to discover that most of your countrymen think moving into fascism is a good idea. At best, they will say that they do not support fascism - unfortuantly what they do support will look and act like fascism - just without the historical baggage associated with the term.
Instead of jumping right in organizing a rebellion (which, let's face it, is a lot of hard work and unlikely to succeed, at least in the the short to medium term), it's a lot easier to see if leaving the country is an option (assuming you can find somwhere on the planet to go) and if it is an option, take it.
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:customer loyalty cards (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Interesting)
People have used these often in divorce cases to claim a spouse is cheating. In a criminal case you need a fair amount of evidence which combined together proves guilt. In a civil divorce case the suspicion of cheating just from lying about where you were at certain times can cause you to lose a case. For example, if you lied to your wife to sneak out to a baseball game instead of working late she can use your EZPa
Re:Tuesday morning sarcasm (Score:3, Interesting)
It has been stated in a previous comment that most people (these days) will support fascism. This is primarily because they have been sold this idea under another name for many years. This is clear evidence of a system of
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:3, Interesting)
You can still use cash for most transactions, and that does not yet get tracked.
Of course, if you get your cash at the bank like I do, they probably track the serial numbers from your account (too paranoid?).
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:5, Insightful)
Only those who honestly believe that this Government could organise an IT project in a datacenter need fear. The insane rantings of Blair and his Home Secretary Of The Month would be pretty damn terrifying, if I ever thought they will manage to build it and make it work. But there's very little evidence they will suddenly develop this ability.
Blair likes gigantic IT projects because they sound shiny and tough, and send taxpayers' money to Crapita by the billion. At which point a nice big chunk goes straight into Labour Party coffers. There's no real expectation that they'll need to do any real _work_ to continue being funded, thank God.
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:3, Insightful)
People like this Minister will keep trying (and spending taxpayer money) until they get something that works "good enough".
The pretty & shiny ability of being able to get information on anyone anytime is just too attractive to control freaks like these types of guys.
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:5, Insightful)
It wouldn't surprise me to see people being locked up because the system thinks they're escaped crims or terrorists because they have a similar name. OK, you get out again in a few months but try rebuilding yor life/career after that and keep smiling.
Re:Only those who have something to hide need fear (Score:3, Insightful)
Not all of them morally wrong. Past examples of 'things to hide' included race, religion and political affiliation. Putting the power to determine what is hide-worthy and infinite surveillance in the same hands effectively gives a small group complete control of a population. Control is not the foundation of a democratic government.
*gasp* (Score:2, Insightful)
In all seriousness, this scares the bejesus out of me... and I don't even live in the UK. This would make Big Brother a whole lot bigger... do people really need the government "watching out for them" every step of their lives? And what's with the reverse-feedback? I could see some useful situations (i.e. a bar could see that a patron had a DUI and call him a cab), but overall it seems rather Orwellian.
Re:*gasp* (Score:3, Insightful)
Dear UK people, it would be a good idea to invest in somthing like anonet [anonet.org] today since soon your msn/skype/aim/yim/gmail/email/computers/routers/an d anything else thats digital and has information will be also tied into this database *if* they get it together, also the government will be the least of your worries, just wait for the employers start getting access... lets just say, i'd tr
Re:*gasp* (Score:2)
The US surely needs this when i'm deciding to go there on Holiday..
Re:*gasp* (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people don't have private health insurance here, we have the NHS, and if you do choose to get private health insurance, you have to tell them how much you smoke/drink anyway.
If anything, this would be one of the few possible benefits of such a system - the amount of tax you pay could be directly linked to your lifestyle, so people who smoke would pay more because they're probably going to make more use of the NHS than those who don't. True, they already pay more due to the high level of duty on cigarettes, but smokers are an easy target and what government can resist easy tax targets. They could sell it the same way that they're selling the road usage charge idea (the one one where they stick a gps in your car and monitor where it goes) - just use a dubious moral argument to get it through (smokers|car drivers are evil and must be punished through punative taxation).
You could even go one stage further and make VAT progressive as well - instead of everyone paying the same 17.5%, your VAT rate would be directly related to income. Of course, that would mean moving to the US model where the displayed price doesn't include tax, which would mean people would actually become aware of how much money they're handing over to the government, and some resentment might result.
A little information... (Score:3, Insightful)
Statistically, that's not true. Smokers cost the NHS less over the course of their lifetimes on average, because they tend not to live as long.
This may be counter-intuitive, but it does illustrate very nicely how dangerous a little informatio
Re:A little information... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most health care costs occur at the end of life regardless of when that occurs.
Smokers tend to have more illnesses during the course of their lives and more complicated end of life diseases such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis, both of which are a long expensive way to die.
Re:*gasp* (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Mr.Smith,
We have noticed from your grocery purchases that this month you did not buy proper amounts of vegetables from our approved Nutritional Excellence(tm) list. Instead you purchased some cakes which, you must realize, are bad for your health. Accordingly, we have no choice but to double your health insurance premiums.
Sincerely yours
Re:*gasp* (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, it's way past that. They need to move right to investing in guns by this stage.
Wait, UK? Ha ha! Too late, they've already criminalized knives .
Re:*gasp* (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:*gasp* (Score:5, Funny)
BARMAN: You're a cab.
DRUNK: The old ones are the best. Hic!
DRUNK FALLS OFF BAR STOOL.
What a benefit for consumers! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What a benefit for consumers! (Score:3, Interesting)
The system says you are an axe-wielding maniac, you are entitled to 25% off our powertools!
As the article says though, its unworkable, and doesn't even get round to web/telephone transactions and verifying the person on the other end is who they say they are.
Terrorists (Score:5, Insightful)
Terrorists!
And I do mean it. They're bad, bad folks who use scare tactics and incite the fear of getting blown up to control the population into obeying their demands.
Yeah, that's right. Your beloved government fills all the requirements for the word "terrorists". Just like the other side of the pond.
Re:Terrorists (Score:5, Insightful)
And no, government is no better than the idiots scrabbling around in caves hiding out. Both use fear to get what they want.
Tin foil hat brigade? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Terrorists (Score:2, Insightful)
Yet, the government are obviously not idiots here. They are the winners, those who gain the most from the islamists' hard work.
And if we didn't know that Dubya is incapable of coming up wi
Re:Terrorists (Score:2, Offtopic)
If MOSSAD did not meddle in the affairs of Palestinian resistance HAMAS would not have been there: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ZER403A.html [globalresearch.ca]. In fact HAMAS wrecks the peace process in the middle east exactly when and where Israel wants it so it will be extremely surprising if they are not on MOSSAD's payroll (the old question who does it benefit comes to mind).
If Bush and Bliar did not provide free adv
Re:Terrorists (Score:2, Insightful)
Fear (Score:2)
Goes to show us that TR (Teddy Roosevelt) was right, when he said
"We have more to fear from fear itself".
Osamma wanted to destroy America, and he only knocked down two buildings, and killed three thousand people.
We have taken the ball from there, and began to destroy America.
This goes to follow something my father said once, I think its a famous quote... We (America) will not be destroyed from without, but from within.
Re:Terrorists (Score:2)
Re:Terrorists (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Terrorists (Score:5, Informative)
Just imagine (Score:5, Funny)
I'll never have to write my own boring blogs ever again, this could do it for me!
11am bought donuts at krispy kreme
11:15 incurred speeding fine on South eastern freeway
11:30 purchased petrol
Re:Just imagine (Score:2)
12:30 looked at someone a bit funny.
13:00 Arrested for descent of the government, thrown in prison for several months without charge because I'm a terrorist.
Re:Just imagine (Score:4, Funny)
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17556639, B&Q Stores, 59.99, Hammer action Drill
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Visitors (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Visitors (Score:2, Insightful)
I for one will stay clear of this country... I just prefer to keep my privacy and not get shot.
Re:Visitors (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't be silly, we only shoot people if they live in the same house as a terrorism suspect. Stay away from them and you'll be fine. Unless you carry a table leg in a brown bag of course.
Re:Visitors (Score:2)
Re:Visitors (Score:5, Interesting)
When I went to the US last year they insisted on taking my fingerprints and photograph (retina scan I think? Looked like a normal webcam though!) as well as a record of where I was going to be throughout my entire trip there, how much currency I had with me, where I worked, where in the UK I lived etc. I'd never seen a gun before except for in the army cadets, certainly never in a non-military setting for 23 years and a police officer at heathrow with an MP5 (i.e. my whole life to that point) however when I went to the US. In 4 weeks in the US travelling from Sacramento down through California and to Arizona back up to the grand canyon I saw 2 individuals with guns as well as 5 incidents (2 in Sacramento, 3 in Phoenix) of police officers with guns pulled on people in cars - that's 6 more in 4 weeks than I've ever seen in 23 years of living in the UK outside a military setting. Of course, gun crime there is a lot higher also as we well know.
I'll note also that whilst I've seen no display of firearms by anyone in the other countries I've been to I must note that arguably the worst for information gathering and general nastiness of customs officials when I went on holiday was ironically Canada, a country that is supposedly full of friendly people. When I landed in Ottawa and got to immigration I was told to step into the customs office where I was interrogated for 3hrs and asked everything from the password to my laptop which I had in my case through to the amount of money in my bank account, whether I had a criminal record, what my job was, how long I'd worked there, whether I had a girlfriend/wife, why I had two shavers in my suitcase and whether I had any beastiality images on my laptop or digital camera (no seriously, it was hard to keep a straight face on that one). After they realised I really was just there on holiday and not a multi-billionaire, unemployed, shaver murderer importing a hoarde of beastiality porn on my laptop and camera to Canada they let me go on with my holiday, again not without however recording every little detail of my planned trip. Now I'll accept I was probably unlucky, that immigration was looking for someone specific after a tip off maybe (they did pull one other person aside but only for an hour) however again, I'm pretty sure Canadian immigration now still holds far more information on me than they probably should.
The only country I've ever been to that hasn't bothered with personal details was Norway which was a weird experience, it was literally straight off the plane in Narvik and onwards with my whale watching trip.
What I'm getting at here isn't that the UK is some innocent country where the authorities treat us really nicely or that America is a land of spying gun toting maniacs but simply that the parent comment is just simple paranoia, it's worth noting that Europe as a whole has refused to let many countries retain information on European citizens unless said country adheres to European data protection laws so there's a lot more protection out there than articles like in TFA would have you beleive.
Transparant lives. (Score:3, Insightful)
My take is that this is a game of government and business ganging up on the rest of society in the name of security. Government is the daddy, business is the favorite trusted son, and everything else is their hunting ground. The conservative dream. [amazon.com]
Ryan Fenton
and of course the next obvious step... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:and of course the next obvious step... (Score:2)
I smell FUD (Score:4, Insightful)
God, talk about FUD..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:God, talk about FUD..... (Score:2)
Or is that what they want you to think...
FYI: I'm joking... or am I... no I am... possibly
Only possibly FUD (Score:3, Informative)
So, even though there have been some fairly well reported failures in UK government IT projects I am not dismissing this one.
Changed sides (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Changed sides (Score:3, Insightful)
See, this is one of the problems. Not to pick on you, but let me use your anecdote as an example. People who think 'ok, I trust my government, let's go along with them and give up a tiny bit of privacy to get all this security they're advertising.' And they ignore us 'nutters' who are screaming things like "slip
I was afraid for a moment. (Score:4, Interesting)
1) I don't live in the UK
2) Natural incompetency will prevent this from ever seeing the light of day. They'll be a lot of noise about it, then a year or so before it's supposed to go live, there will be story after story about how this jack holes never managed to figure out what a database was, let alone link them to others.
Re:I was afraid for a moment. (Score:2)
I'm actually looking forward to the NIR (National Identity Register) because it will be a phenomenal disaster. Personal data will be leaked left right and centre, hundreds of arrests will be made based on innaccurate information, nobody will be able to do anything useful after losing their ID card (which they will do with alarming regularity) and all of this will be done without putting a dent in organised crime, illegal immigrants or terrorism. The IT infrastructure supporting the system
Re:I was afraid for a moment. (Score:2)
If you're assuming that The People will be so angry as to up and establish reform and punish those responsible, I've got a bridge in the east river to sell ya'.
Re:I was afraid for a moment. (Score:3, Insightful)
Whilest it would provide a fair amount of amusement to me to watch the government screw up an IT system yet again (or rather, EDS or other complete idiots they decide to contract who have shown on numerous previous occasions to be incapable of running an abacus, let alone a national computer database+network), I can think of better things for my taxes to go on.
And you can guarantee t
the biggest mistake someone can make (Score:2)
Re:the biggest mistake someone can make (Score:2)
I'm actually over estimating their abilities here by saying it will be worked on. In all likelyhood, it will never make it out of some industrial group meetings, where it will be held for further discussion.
Re:I was afraid for a moment. (Score:3, Insightful)
Contrary to prevailing beliefs on Slashdot, governments can become very efficient indeed when they have a mind to be. Case in point, the Holocaust. It was probably the most efficient government operation ever conducted. Executions continued even while under soviet bombardment and practically right up until the red army marched into the camp gates. Source [acusd.edu].
Godwin's Law, blah, blah. For a more mudane example of government efficiency, reme
Re:I was afraid for a moment. (Score:4, Informative)
Any IT success with the congestion charge is more an exception than the rule.For example, IT in the NHS has been, in general, a disaster [computerweekly.com].
With UK government IT, if it doesn't generate income for the government it's pretty much garunteed to be a costly failure - and when it is revenue generating, they still have a habit of failure [computerweekly.com].
The Truman show (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh wait - its a bad thing, not having a life of my own...
Oh dear (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone remember the scare about the NSA commissioning programs that could pull together information on individuals from all over t'interweb and produce coherent, intelligent reports on behaviour patterns etc? The idea being that all of this data is available, but it's so massive and disparate that it would be almost futile to draw anything useful from it.
Seems kind of obsolete now, doesn't it.
Bye Bye British Democratic Heritage (Score:2, Insightful)
Pendantic Mode On (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Bye Bye British Democratic Heritage (Score:3, Informative)
Re: stopping ID cards, go to NO2ID [no2id.net].
PR will help but isn't nearly enough. Multiple electoral candidates from parties will help too.
We need to devolve power from the PM. He/she should not be allowed to exert undue influence over ministers and MPs - perhaps by no-one (including the electorate) knowing who the PM will be, thus voting purely on which candidate you trust. The elected MPs will subsequently vote for a PM, and perhaps several senior ministers.
The House of Lords should be able to set up
Did I miss something? (Score:2)
Information overload (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Information overload (Score:2)
Gun Stores already have to run an id check. If you have any outstanding warrants, I'm pretty sure they're obligated to notify the police right away. Now, if your local supermarket had to do this, too, wouldn't it be a huge convenience for the state?
You should worry about bad bookeeping (Score:5, Insightful)
So yeah let's give the cops more power and more data to peer into and let's give them more of an excuse to wave a piece of paper in my face and tell me "I don't care what you say, this piece of paper says I'm right and you're going to jail.." Yeah let's do that.
Too Complicated (Score:3, Insightful)
A much easier system would be to just let the government decide what you can eat, where you can go (and when), and what you can read (if anything). In fact, let the government set your schedule, issue you a uniform with a number on it, and install a chip in your head so you can be tracked 24/7.
Only then will we be safe from terrorists.
Sounds familliar (Score:2)
short film on getting pizza under surveillance (Score:5, Informative)
Watch Ordering pizza [aclu.org] (turn on your speakers!)
Although this film was made in response the the U.S. Information Awareness Office [wikipedia.org] program, it is equally relevant here.
Not entirely sure the story is correct though.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nowhere have I seen anything that suggested this data will be available to 3rd parties such as shops but for sure, they want the data from shops.
Anyway, the UK government have a terrible record for producing big systems either to time, budget or function so we'll have nothing to worry about for ten years by which time it will have bankrupted us and will use kit no longer available and crash out with errors and timeouts all over the place. It will probably be a doddle to hack too so at least the crims will get something useful out of it.
Britain is out of control (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Britain is out of control (Score:2)
1) The picture (which can be viewed on the government's website) shows my car driving along a street minutes before the offence.
2) I am a casual photographer, and some people I have met over the last 30 or so years dislike being photographed and/or prefer to be asked. I certainly do not appreciate my every move being monitored! How many other pictures were taken? And over how long a period?
3) Yes. Absolutely. Because the fees are a lot of money, and some of us are honest hard working peopl
Incorrect Assumption (Score:2)
time (Score:2)
I'm beginning to think I'm the only person in an English speaking country without a checking account, credit card, or cell phone.
This has all the hallmarks of......... (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Announce insanely over the top version of whatever it is you want to do
2) Sit back while the population freaks out for a while and make a token defence of it
3) Back off to the point you originally intended and watch the population sigh in relief your "capitulation" in the face of their protests.
Generally, if there's one thing to realise about New Labour it's that things don't leak from a source close to anyone in the government unless there's an agenda behind it.
One more vote for the Conservatives, then? (Score:2)
One of the more fascinating aspects of my emigration to England has been my total political reorientation. Rather, my beliefs and views haven't changed all that much, but the labels used to describe those beliefs - well, my head is still spinning.
In America, I'm photographer, a writer, I work in publishing, from NYC ... pretty much the popular cliché of a member of the Democratic party: TAX-RAISING, LATTE-DRINKING, SUSHI-EATING, VOLVO-DRIVING, HOLLYWOOD-LOVING (without the tax-raising so much - and I
Re:The Labour party are socialist, not liberal (Score:3, Insightful)
V is for Videosurveillance (Score:2)
The cameras are your friends, as they are there to protect you, didn't you know?
If you have a complaint in regards to your privacy, I suggest you see the security kiosks (located every half block) and file it there. Remember to speak directly into the camera eye. Also, you must remember to include your ID#, license number, phone number and bank account number in order to ensure an accurate and timely response. Protecting your security is our busine
Time to change nationality? (Score:2)
I'm a UK citizen living in a non-English speaking foreign country, and at some point in the next few years my POP (plain old paper) non-biometric passport will need to be renewed. By the sound of things it might be cheaper and easier for me to take up the nationality of my country of residence (I have all the right qualifications for it) than go through the hassle of (re-)establishing my identity to the Thought Police^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H relevant UK authorities. I'd still end up with a biometric
Privacy (Score:2)
However, I can't see how anyone would justify sending this information back to retailers.
A poem comes to mind.... (Score:4, Insightful)
of gunpowder treason and plot.
For I see no reason that gunpowder, treason,
should ever be forgot.
Respect authority as you would your Elder Sibling (Score:3, Funny)
Your ID card protects your identity - keep it close!
Smile! Our cameras are here to protect your privacy!
The new limits on automotive traffic will ensure you get to your destination quicker!
Friendly reminder from the Revenue Service - save all financial records - We Do!
Please don't litter - remember: everything you throw away has your DNA on it, so we'll know!
Cardinal Richleu's quote (Score:3, Insightful)
We all do, say, buy, or otherwise involve ourselves in things that might not put us on everyone's best person of the year list. If you have access to enough information about somebody, simply through selective presentation one can create a danmning image of an otherwise innocent and decent indivual.
"And I see you bought drain cleaner, fertilizer, and firecrackers sir, clearly you are trying to build a bomb"
This is definately a serious potential for massive abuse.
Stealth compulsion via passports... and NO2ID (Score:3, Interesting)
As soon as they can get the tech working, passport applicants/renewers will be entered on the National Identity Register (NIR). There is no opt out.
This NIR is initially planned to be linked to your tax records, police records, passport records and even the new Automated Number Plate Recogntion [spy.org.uk] system which tracks all your car journeys.
This, of course, is just the beginning [bristol-no2id.org.uk], but is already the world's most intrusive database on citizens, going further than even China. If Brown gets his way, it looks like your credit card transactions, phone calls & emails will soon be able to automatically flag you as a possible troublemaker.
Britain's democracy has failed to stop this. It will likewise not stop future governments of any variety abusing you via your data.
NO2ID [no2id.net] has known about this all along and we have been telling anyone who would listen. The campaign is extremely well run and full of great people, but we need YOUR help to stop this Orwellian nightmare [wikipedia.org].
Re:Welcome to the world of.. 1984 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Welcome to the world of.. 1984 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:BigBrother is out of control ! (Score:2)
I'm British. And I, for one, am not scared of terrorists.
Whoever they are.
Only if... (Score:2)