Friday, November 5, 2010

No2ID: UK Police Continue DNA Collection Practices



STARTING OVER - "Too many people believe we've won."
c/o No2ID

If you have an occasion to ask a member of the Government one question, it could be this: 'Why review what you promised to scrap?'

ID cards for UK citizens have been abandoned, as has ContactPoint. But one by one the other privacy-threatening databases that we were told would be stoppedare being 'reviewed'. A Civil Service review means business as usual for an indefinite period, even if it does not come back recommending no change.

An example: It is almost 2 years since the Human Rights Court ruled that retaining DNA and fingerprints once charges have been dropped is a fundamental invasion of privacy. But the police in England and Wales carry on collecting and retaining samples from almost everyone arrested for any reason. The coalition stated it would "adopt the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database" - but no plans have been issued for doing even this.

The public debate has fallen quiet and needs to be woken up. Too many people think we have won. In a way we are starting the campaign again - but we are not starting from scratch.

NO2ID has *you*: the most effective support network of any civil liberties campaign. Together we can rouse the public and shake up complacent press and politicians.

And as with ID cards, the more people know about it the less they like it.


A PLEDGE TO CONTINUE

In late 2005, when the ID Cards Bill was being pushed through Parliament, over 11,000 people signed NO2ID's pledge to refuse to register for an ID card and to donate £10 to a legal defence fund to assist those who challenged the Scheme. When we called in the pledge in November 2007 thousands of people donated and the money has been held in a dedicated bank account, untouched.

The Coalition is now scrapping ID cards and the National Identity Register, and the Identity Cards Act 2006 will soon be repealed. The compulsion to register was never imposed and has ceased to be a likelihood for the foreseeable future, but the bureaucratic obsession;with ID, mass surveillance and information trafficking goes on.

We therefore give notice that NO2ID intends to cease to hold a separate legal defence fund when the Identity Documents Bill, the repealing legislation, has passed both Houses, and to apply the funds to the general purposes of the campaign against the database state.

Much was given anonymously. The administrative cost of identifying and tracing everyone who gave by name could easily exceed the amount given. But we will respect your wishes if you were only against ID cards and do not want your donation used in our future fight against the database state.

If you gave and would like your pledge returned write to NO2ID:

PLEDGEBANK,
Box 412, 19-21
Crawford Street, London W1H 1PJ
(with evidenceof your donation.)

If you would like to help our continuing campaign to:

* STOP all unnecessary collection by government of personal information about law-abiding residents of the United Kingdom;
* STOP sharing of personal information between government bodies, orits use for new purposes, without the genuine, informed consent of the persons concerned or a specific warrant from a court;
* BUILD positive protections in law for individual privacy; and
* CREATE a right to compensation for unauthorised use of personal information;

-then you can of course send a further donation to the same address.

*+ 17th November - Identity Documents Bill Report Stage/3rd Reading House of Lords +*

The Identity Documents [repeal] Bill has now completed its passage through the House of Commons and will next move on to Committee Stage in the House of Lords.

Follow the bill's progress at:  http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/identitydocuments.html

Thursday, November 4, 2010

REDUX: Tech policy roundup for 112th session

Get the story on this redacted T-Shirt exhibiting that
D.C. styled transparency from Headline. 
:::Know any Electronic Privacy rockstars?  Preference Central wants to get your nominees on their 400 to follow list.

WIRED: White House Issues New Directive on Unclassified Information 
                See also their Threat Level Blog:: Sunshine & Secrecy

                Civil Liberties Watchdog Russ Feingold Loses Senate Seat
  
                Group Demands Immediate Halt of Full-Body Airport
                Scanners


WSJ:      EU Seeks Tougher Online Code in bid to safeguard data        
            
              Rutgers suicide case poses test for NJ privacy law 
               (use of webcams)

              What the Newly ElectedCongress Means for Business: 
              Telecomm - Technology             
House Republicans will likely put the brakes on efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to re-regulate Internet lines. Phone and cable companies are fighting the plan, and Republicans have already warned the FCC to drop the plan.
Telecom and tech policy issues are likely to take a back seat next year. But Republicans and Democrats could find common ground in efforts to write stronger rules on Internet privacy.On Wednesday, two leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas) and Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), jointly warned that they plan to put "Internet privacy policies in the crosshairs" with hearings and legislation. 
 Amy Schatz 
        See also: FCC's November agenda has no mention of 
                       net neutrality 

WaPo:  Twitter hires ex-Senate aide Sharp to its first D.C. post
          
            Internet Privacy could be a priority for 112th Congress 

Sir Bonar, Her Majesty's Government Data Sharing Czar

BTC - Watch this madness.



Sir Bonar Neville Kingdom, an extremely senior member of the UK's Civil Service, Permanent Secretary and Whitehall's Data Sharing Czar, shares the UK Government's attitude to electronic identity and electronic interception of data with the London  Open Rights Group conference, 2009. 
...

Apparently, Sir Bonar tweets his insights about data, privacy and government and the international data sharing agenda @SirBonar. Please check out his most recent published statements on Lulu.



NCard reports status quo sustained in local elections

BTC - States like North Carolina elected more Republicans in local elections in efforts to curb spending,  stimulus payouts to Wall Street for economic failure, and a pending federal healthcare mandate.  According to Jim Palmer, an anti-national identity organizer based in North Carolina, election turnover to Republicans in both the House and Senate is being taken with a grain of salt.


"Perhaps, both Republicans and Democrats need to learn and understand that if you create a system where all private personal information is accessible it can and will be exploited by hackers, DMV workers, unscrupulous law enforcement, IT personnel and corporations who have access to the data," said Palmer frustrated by the cavalier performance of Statehouse Democrats who took up legislation opposing the federal identity mandate in North Carolina.  


Rep. Cole and Rep. Mackey had both made initial commitments to moving the legislation but never followed through.  Both members lost their seats to Republicans.


North Carolina's DMVs announced plans to adopt FRT or facial recognition technology to convert license pictures to digital images with biometric features last fall.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Pepsi- CDSL team up to create national ID standards for KIDS

Coaltion led by Donald Kendall launches effort to keep kids identities safe
c/o Greenwich Citizen
Donald Kendall of Greenwich, the co-founder, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo is on a crusade to protect kids' identities. He believes that children are increasingly the victims of identity theft, and that parents need to understand the risk. To that end he has launched a program called KIDS - keeping identities safe for kids.

...the Coalition now has a program to recognize state achievements in improving driver's license security. We have provided seven states awards over the past two years. Our newest program KIDS is the one of which I'm most proud, because it produces measurable results in a short time frame.

More information about the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License can be found at www.secure-license.org
:::MORE HERE:::

REDUX: TSA, Federal Surveillance stonewalls FOIA inquiry

BTC - Have we hit the glass wall where transparency is not allowed?

Here is second life for news that matters:

Government Withholds Records on Need for Expanded Surveillance Law

DHS Privacy Office ordered TSA not to answer Identity Project's FOIA request

REFRESHMENT?
Rep.Eshoo elect takes on downsizing the Intelligence-Industrial Complex
Eshoo is the chairwoman for the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management under the Select Committee on Intelligence and wants to limit the number of subcontractors the intelligence community employs, about a third of 854,000 workers. The nation’s security clearance needs to be reformed because too much information sharing and too much security clearance is given to people who have no allegiance to the government, according to Eshoo. She also wants to better track the dollars the intelligence community gets from the government.
[If it goes forward, we support and salute you!]


When body scanners become mandatory @LossOfPrivacy

KPFA FM : Betsy Hartmann Interview on population control, immigration eugenics and green eugenics
*Super relevant if you are opposed to national identity programs.

GPS ruling chips away at civil liberties

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

PCR: Facebook suspends developers for selling user ID numbers

Company says it has 'zero tolerance' for data brokers c/o PCR News

Facebook said that a “data broker” had paid Facebook app developers for user identification numbers and that as a result the company had suspended a number of developers.

Given that the user identification numbers (UIDs) were not considered to be private and that merely knowing a UID does not bestow anyone the ability to access private data, the hard line taken by the social networking behemoth is as much a statement of intent to tackle the firm’s tarnished reputation when it comes to privacy concerns.

:::MORE HERE:::

Sunday, October 31, 2010

India's national ID system makes Project Censored Top 25

BTC- Project Censored ranked India's national ID system 22nd out of their top 25 most recent list of censored stories, adding a plug for the American plight against national identity.



(22) 1.2 Billion People in India to be Given Biometric ID Cards
They'll contain a person's name, age, birth date, fingerprints or iris scans, "though no caste or religious identification." Then in five years, a giant computer will hold data for half of them, receiving a 16-digit ID number by 2014 during the project's first phase.
Thereafter, its use will be required for all government and private services from drivers' licenses to hospitals to banking. Critics, however, balk, saying "the project will turn India into an Orwellian police state (able to) spy on citizens' private lives." Despite government denials, it may be precisely for that purpose.
Thus far not enacted, America's Real ID Act plans the same thing, widespread state opposition over the cost having stopped it up to now.

Project Censored produces an annual book on the 25 most censored news stories in America.   Censorship is determined by whether or not a story has endured a range of systemic news omissions through corralled media conventions.  Rationale driving censorship are considered to be political, economic or legal. 

FEATURED BLOG: iformationliberation.com

BTC - Information Liberation was introduced to us by a little bird, a tweet rather from this guy, when I found this populist gem: a list of 259 boycott worthy airports using TSA's "adult" body scanners.

That's when I realized how much I have in common with this blog when I looked at their Big Brother- Orwellian cateogy. Now that it's an official blog-crush, they're being added to the blog rolls on the sidebar.

Here are the more recent ones getting the State mandated peep show. I didn't realize prisons had their own airports....Wait! The Backscatter market is moving into the criminal justice foray?  This includes courthouses.    See below.


Chicago Midway International Airport
Dulles International Airport
Greater Rochester International Airport
Honolulu International Airport
Houston William P. Hobby Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
La Guardia International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Saipan International Airport
San Antonio International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport



Q. Where else is advanced imaging technology used?
A. Domestic locations:


Colorado Springs Court House (CO)
Cook County Court House (IL)
Department of Corrections facility (PA)
Douglas County Colorado Justice Center
Montana State Prison
Utah State Correctional Facility