Loss of Privacy

Right now, if you report a crime in the UK, your name and information is being placed into a secret database. So far, the police have logged at least 18,000 names. If you call 999 for any reason, be it to report a crime, as a witness or to any other incident, you will be asked for your ethnicity and date of birth. That information is then being placed into a database that also contains information on suspected criminals.

On the database of one force alone, the personal details of 180,000 people who phoned police were recorded  -  four times more than the number of suspected criminals listed on the site.

North Yorkshire Police’s information management system contained data on 181,917 innocent informants, 38,259 suspects and 107,566 victims recorded as aggrieved or ‘vulnerable aggrieved’.

The information is held for a minimum of 15 years, and can be stored for up to 100 years in the most serious cases.

Personal details can also be passed from North Yorkshire Police to other forces.

The police defend their actions by stating that the collection of personal information is done to accurately identify repeat callers, possible fraudsters, and those who participate in anti-social behavior. The police have seemingly crossed the line from protector to enforcer of political agendas. Now that this information is in the public hands, the public will probably stop reporting crimes. It will also further remove the police from the public it claims to protect.

The controversy over the full body scanners at airports hasn’t even died down yet and they are starting to be used in vans roving around US streets. According to Forbes, “American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents.”

The Z Backscatter Vans, or ZBVs, as the company calls them, bounce a narrow stream of x-rays off and through nearby objects, and read which ones come back. Absorbed rays indicate dense material such as steel. Scattered rays indicate less-dense objects that can include explosives, drugs, or human bodies. That capability makes them powerful tools for security, law enforcement, and border control.

“It’s no surprise that goverments and vendors are very enthusiastic about [the vans],” says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC. “But from a privacy perspective, it’s one of the most intrusive technologies conceivable.”

It’s no surprise that law enforcement are so happy about these vans. They can infringe on your privacy without you even knowing about it. AS&E claims that there isn’t a need to worry about these vans because they don’t see as well as the airport scanners. They are attempting to deflect privacy advocates from the fact that these vans still violate a person’s privacy and their fourth amendment rights. Unlike the airports and the TSA, AS&E freely admit that these scanners can save the pictures that it takes.

New York Attorney general candidate Richard Brodsky has released his privacy platform detailing what laws he believes need to be changed to fit with our changing technology and the internet.

The information age has forced us to revisit our right to privacy. Technology has been a force for change, both good and bad. It has connected people around the world and eased daily life while simultaneously created a potential “surveillance society.” New technology has resulted in vast networks of cameras on highways monitoring traffic, allowed online advertisers to monitor and mine a person’s detailed internet activity, and created law enforcement’s ability to “enter” a home remotely—by thermal heat detectors and other means.

Privacy White Paper_final

Facebook is at it again. Thanks to Lifehacker, there’s a nifty guide so you can go into your privacy settings and keep your privacy a little while longer.