Loss of Privacy

The UK government has decided to outsource the management of their database of email, phone, text and Internet messages to a private firm.  Supposedly, there will be tougher safeguards to go with this new communications database to protect against losses and leaks.  Sir Ken MacDonald, however, fears that this will lead to a “hellhouse” of personal and private information.

“Authorisations for access might be written into statute. The most senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But none of this means anything,” said Macdonald. “All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen.”

The EU’s Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, has condemned the move as well.

Mr Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, told The Independent that surveillance technologies are developing at breathtaking speed. In a direct criticism of Britain, he said: “It is therefore worrying that new legislation proposals intend to expand the authorities’ power to allow personal data collection and sharing. Although safety measures are foreseen, the adoption of these measures would increase the risk of violation of individuals’ privacy.

The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the safeguards needed to protect civil liberties. She has emphasised that communications data, which gives the police the identity and location of the caller, texter or web surfer but not the content, has been used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and almost all security service operations since 2004 including the Soham and 21/7 bombing cases.

Yes, but the security you already had in place certainly didn’t prevent these crimes, did it?  It is only evidence that could possibly be used after the fact, which can already be obtained with the court’s permission.  There is no need to log everyone’s communications.

Senior Whitehall officials responsible for planning for a new database say there is a significant difference between having access to “communications data” – names and addresses of emails or telephone numbers, for example – and the actual contents of the communications. “We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing any content of emails, texts or conversations,” the spokeswoman said.

So, if they don’t really know the contents of my communications, then how can they possibly know that I am up to no good?

Why did the UK government incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into English Law and then, all on its own, decide to undermine and dismantle it?  I suppose we can continue to move towards more encryption to avoid detection, but why should we continually be forced to move in this direction when the government should just be prevented from doing this to begin with?  Any real criminal will find ways around this.  The tech-savvy will too.  In the end, as usual, it will be the normal folks who suffer through such a system.

Just in case you missed some of these stories in the past couple of weeks, here’s a few gems that I stumbled across.

The Rev Peter Mullen, chaplain to the London Stock Exchange, called for homosexuals to be tattooed with warnings about the perils of gay sex in a cigarette-packet-style health warning.

Where does one even begin attempting to comment on such idiotic statements?

There is a video clip of cats flushing toilets over on YouTube.  It was slightly amusing.

There is a lot of wondering about why Blackwater and US troops might be deployed on US soil.  Conspiracies abound about the possibility of martial law before the election.  It could be true, but it could also just be fear mongering.  I really wish I could dismiss the idea out of hand.

Seattle high schoolers are now going to get failing grades that will affect their GPAs.  It’s the first time in seven years that this has happened.  It’s only being changed because it violated school board policy.  Too bad they didn’t do it because it’s the right thing to do.

The federal government is proposing a consolidation of personal information into databases.

There are more than 3,000 programs or databases in the federal government that hold personal information–Social Security numbers, addresses, fingerprints, and so on–yet the government is only beginning to develop a plan for collecting, protecting, and using such information.

The feds want to put it into fewer databases to better track individuals, despite the fact that they have admitted that data mining sucks.  This will probably also be used in conjunction with their new surveillance program that will turn military satellites back onto the US.

In Peru, an ancient pyramid has been found using satellite technology.  This is what we should be doing with satellites instead of spying on our own people.

In other, really cool, news, the library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum is revealing it’s long lost secrets, albeit very slowly.

You can also buy the US Constitution as a graphic novel.  Maybe now, with pictures, George Bush will understand this fine document.

It’s no secret that there is a huge gap between organ donators and those who need organs.  Many people want to donate their organs, they simple never get around to actually filling out the paperwork do to it, thus the reason the UK is now contemplating a scheme that would assume organ donation unless an individual specifically states they do not wish to do so.

Naturally, in other countries where organ donation is presumed, their donations are higher.

While I normally hate opt-out programs, the fact that most people want to donate but are too lazy to get around to filling out the paperwork, this seems to be a good idea.