"Worth a try"

[unixronin]

By way of bruce_schneier:

One of the few home secretaries who dominated his department rather than be cowed by it was Lord Whitelaw in the 1980s.  He boasted how after any security lapse, the police would come to beg for new and draconian powers.  He laughed and sent them packing, saying only a bunch of softies would erode British liberty to give themselves an easier job.  He said they laughed in return and remarked that “it was worth a try”.

Humorous anecdote aside, the Guardian article states some telling things about the state of government surveillance in England:

A fifth of all closed-circuit cameras in existence are in Britain, despite the Home Office admitting they appear to make no difference to crime or drunkenness.  [Home Secretary Jacqui] Smith has legislated or approved an astonishing range of powers.  She is contracting with private firms to set up a data storage device to record all emails and internet uses, costing £46m.  This is a precursor to her £12bn “interception modernisation upgrade” also to record every text and phone call.  This is ludicrous and illiberal extravagance.

Smith wants, under the coroners and justice bill, to “remove barriers to effective data sharing to support improved public services”.  Improve at what cost in liberty?  She supports the Metropolitan police’s evidence gatherer teams.  These claim powers to “record identifiable details” of citizens at any gathering who might be “bordering on civil disobedience” (including journalists reporting them).  As the Guardian has revealed, such filmed material is put on “spotter cards” and stored in a “corporate intelligence database”, in gross breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

ID cards and NHS computers promise to store the defining details and medical records of the entire population.  As data sharing spreads, these records will be virtually open to public view.  In 2000, just nine organisations were allowed warrants to access secure government records: the figure is now almost 800.  For a small fee, anyone will be able to learn anything about anyone else.  It may be illegal, but like computer downloads it will happen.

This means every patient’s medical history will become available to insurance firms, rendering some uninsurable.  Court and criminal records will end the privacy of a spent conviction and make many, including those who have committed no crime, unemployable for being on a police data system.  It was reported last week that terrorism laws are more used for local government and crowd control than national security.

Notice some of the key details there.  The Home Office admits that the staggering number of closed-circuit surveillance cameras deployed in the UK “appear to make no difference to crime or drunkenness” ... but is continuing to deploy them anyway.  You can now, in the UK, be filmed, identified, and your presence and identity stored indefinitely in an illegal database, by the police who are supposed to enforce the law, if you “might be bordering on civil disobedience”.

Not “if you’re rioting.”

Not “if you’re taking part in civil disorder.”

Not “if you’re committing an act of civil disobedience.”

Nope. It’s “if you MIGHT be BORDERING ON civil disobedience.”

What constitutes “might be bordering on civil disobedience”?

Criticizing the government?

Being seen reading a newspaper article critical of the government?

Complaining about taxes?

Listening to someone else complain about taxes?

In most of the world, the year is 2009.  In the UK, it’s 1984.

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By the way, the incident referenced in the first three paragraphs of the article above is the following, which just goes to show that rotten politicians are rotten the world over:

A pastiche of Mastercard’s “priceless” ads, the advert lists items that Smith has claimed on parliamentary expenses, including an 88p bath plug, a £550 Habitat stone model sink and a £1,000 antique fireplace.  It then highlights the home secretary’s claim for two pornographic films rented by her husband, Richard Timney, saying: “Husband’s pornographic material...cost to the taxpayer £10”.  The ad ends: “Getting people who won’t abuse the system into parliament...priceless.”

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I'll see you and raise.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/136610

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that exact program is mentioned in the articles I linked.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. I need to read more carefully.