statism watch

Walk. Don’t walk. Apply sunscreen. Enjoy tyranny. Burma Shave.

Related: Mind-reading experiment uses brain scans to eavesdrop on thoughts | Nose picked by military research for next-gen face scanning, mood analysis | Mind-reading systems could change air security | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Erasing traumatic memory possible, researchers say | Researchers use brain scans to read people’s memories | Halifax thinks again about subjecting applicants to lie-detector tests | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | India’s use of brain scans in courts dismays critics | Brain will be battlefield of future, warns US intelligence report | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists

Maggie Fox, Reuters
June 22, 2010

Scan predicted 75 percent of behavior

Brain scans may be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.

They found a way to interpret “real time” brain images to show whether people who viewed messages about using sunscreen would actually use sunscreen during the following week.

The scans were more accurate than the volunteers were, Emily Falk and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

“We are trying to figure out whether there is hidden wisdom that the brain contains,” Falk said in a telephone interview.

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Welcome to the New World Order, Australia. But go ahead and rationalize, evade, retreat further into television, we’ll all wake up as slaves one day. Face tracking CCTV? This is precisely what George Orwell warned us about. Absolutely disgusting, WAKE UP. Resistance is mandatory, the alternative is neofuedal serfdom or worse. Maybe we should all review Martin Niemöller’s famous 1946 statement that condensed his feelings about the culpability of the German people as the Nazis seized power. Read it. Think.

“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. THEN THEY CAME for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. THEN THEY CAME for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Related: Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | Biometric ID Card for all US Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | | Privacy commissioner OKs Barwatch software | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Billboards that look back | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Tokyo Vending Machines Learn New Trick: Facial Recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Alberta privacy commission to rule on bar scans

Gemma Jones, The Daily Telegraph
June 3, 2010

THE New South Wales Government is quietly compiling a mathematical map of almost every adult’s face, sharing information that allows law enforcement to track people by CCTV.

Experts said yesterday few people realised their facial features were being recorded in an RTA database of drivers licence photos that the Government has allowed both state and federal police to access, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The federal body CrimTrac has asked NSW for its database so it can be mined nationally by police using the facial recognition information contained in it.

University experts in facial recognition said the correct match rate was as low as 90 per cent, meaning the names of people with faces sharing a similar structure to criminals could be returned in searches.

Dr Carolyn Semmler from the University of Adelaide said police wanted to eventually use facial recognition in smart CCTV cameras allowing people to be tracked anywhere there was a camera.

Some airports, such as Singapore, employ facial recognition technology and the US is considering using it at border crossings.

“Police hope that at some point an individual can be tracked,” Dr Semmler said yesterday.

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Look for the continued convergence of debit, credit, and biometrics – an effective way to squeeze consumers and retailers as the ‘austerity’ bug spreads throughout the world economy. If cash is ever eliminated, and it appears that there are powerful interests pushing us in this direction, then every aspect of your financial life will be subject to monitoring, grey markets will be eliminated, and fraud will explode in the new virtualized economic space.

Related: Manitoba looks at debit cards for welfare recipients | Do you take cash? In UK bills being supplanted by debit, RFID credit as retail revolution grows | TTC opens door to electronic payment | Flaherty drafting voluntary code for new credit company debit cards | Banks balk at new credit card rules | The next cellphone trick: transferring money | Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | Digital Money Forum Pushes For Electronic Currency | Obama signs U.S. credit card reforms into law | Credit card changes benefit families, Flaherty says | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | US backing for world currency stuns markets | Coming soon to your cellphone: Your credit card via RFID chip | ‘Smart’ Credit Cards, Pilot Project set the Groundwork for Wireless Credit Wallets | New credit cards may shift unauthorized-transaction liabilities to the holder

John Leyden, The Register
May 12, 2010

A Polish bank has become the first in Europe to offer the use of biometrics instead of PINs at cash machines.

Customers of BPS visiting one of its ATM in Warsaw have the option of using placing their fingerprints on readers, instead inputting a four digit code, to authorise withdrawals or other transactions following the introduction of new technology this week.

The system is based on the recognition of the pattern of veins in an enrolled customer’s finger, a form of biometric technology developed by Hitachi. The technology is already widely used in Japan but new to Europe.

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That’s very Blade Runner. Surprised they didn’t outright ask for the portable face scanners, another existing technology that police aren’t currently allowed to use, and with good reason. Suppose that’s the next step though. As an aside, it was surprising to learn that suspension with pay is something that’s mandated by the government, since this has never been mentioned in any item this journal has seen cross the news desk – we’re always left to assume it’s police brass making the decision to pay their wayward charges in full.

Related: Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | Biometric ID Card for all US Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | US Move to National ID Cards Delayed | UK: Chipped ID card scheme launched in Greater Manchester | UK Government plans to link criminal records to ID cards | Privacy commissioner OKs Barwatch software | UK national ID card cloned in 12 minutes | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Billboards that look back | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | Tokyo Vending Machines Learn New Trick: Facial Recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Alberta privacy commission to rule on bar scans | Ontario sees allies in licence proposal | New licence may double as passport | Wilkins touts ’simple’ ID card for travel to U.S.

Karen Howlett, The Globe and Mail
May 10, 2010

While technology exists to allow officers to verify identities, police can’t use it

Police chiefs are calling on the McGuinty government to make Ontario the first province in Canada to give officers access to a database of driver’s licence photographs to help instantly verify the identity of suspects and traffic accident victims.

The Ontario police chiefs descended on the legislature on Monday to present government officials with a list of requests that also include new powers to suspend officers facing serious criminal charges without pay and to allow officers to testify in court through affidavits instead of in person.

The chiefs went public with measures they’ve been seeking since 2006, which require changes to the Police Services Act, in an effort to heighten awareness about the government’s lack of response.

But Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci made it clear during a meeting with the chiefs that he has no plans to introduce changes during the remainder of the government’s mandate — the next election is in October, 2011.

As things now stand, police officers can retrieve personal information on drivers and passengers contained in the Ministry of Transportation’s database, but not a driver’s licence photo. As a result, police often rely on fingerprint evidence to verify identities, a process that can take several days.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police says the technology exists to allow officers to instantly compare a picture in the ministry’s database with a driver’s licence photo. In a pilot project, 500 officers in the field are using the technology. The project will be expanded to another 300 officers.

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The military in Afghanistan has, as revealed in this article, a biometric database which “includes tens of thousands of civilians as well as suspected insurgents” in the words of an army spokesman.

That technology is being field trialed and tested in Afghanistan, and along with supporting systems – surveillance cameras, drones, blimps, checkpoints, biometric ID, militarized police, face scanning – will be mounting a full-scale invasion of Canada before long. It’s already at the gates. Even if you don’t care about the war in Afghanistan, even if you don’t care that the brown people are being killed off over there – there are over a million dead Iraqis as a result of that war alone – you should care about this because the same military control system is coming for you.

Flashback: U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Canadian forces covered up shooting of sleeping 17-yr old: Afghan translator | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan | US Air Force confirms new ‘Beast of Kandahar’ drone | German army chief resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | NATO pledges probe of deadly Afghan air strike; civilians killed | Pakistan remains silent as U.S. air attack kills 80 | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians | NATO denies air strike killed Afghan civilians | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan

Elyas Wahdat, Reuters
April 20, 2010

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) – NATO troops opened fire on a vehicle in southeast Afghanistan, killing four unarmed Afghans, the alliance said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of recent incidents the United Nations has called disturbing.

The father of two of the victims said three of those killed were teenagers and the fourth was a policeman. They were returning from a volleyball match, added Rahmatullah Mansoor, a judge in Khost’s provincial court.

NATO initially said two were “known insurgents” but later acknowledged all may have been civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the incident in a written statement saying the four were civilians and the act went against foreign troops’ commitment to protect the public.

The issue of civilian casualties caused by foreign forces is an emotive one in Afghanistan and has undermined public support for their presence in the country. In the latest incident, troops fired on the vehicle after it accelerated toward their convoy in Khost province and ignored light signals and warning shots, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

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Police in the US and the UK are rolling out mobile fingerprinting technology, no consultation, just the threat of arrest ‘if you’ve got something to hide’ – meanwhile, the schools are turning into little prisons, and your kids – trained to be little prisoners in the social panopticon. CCTV in the toilets. Armed police in the halls – and if you protest it, you’re getting filmed by the police, you little punks. You got a problem with that? You can bloody well report to the office for detention. And you can fully expect these isolated systems to be rapidly tied into your biometric ID cards before too long. We gotta keep an eye on you proles.

Flashback: Fingerprints Now Required to Shred (That Means Skateboard, Dude) | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | Parents, children to be fingerprinted at initial 250+ nursery schools in UK | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | UNBC students give thumbs down to fingerprint scanners | Give public biometrics the finger

Laura Clark, The Daily Mail
March 30, 2010

As many as 3,500 UK schools are using fingerprint technology in administrative tasks such as pupils’ borrowing library books or buying canteen lunches

A school has provoked uproar after taking children’s fingerprints without permission from their parents.

Pupils were ‘frogmarched’ to be fingerprinted so they could use touch screens in the canteen to have money deducted from their account, thereby speeding up lunch queues.

Capital City Academy in Brent, north London, was later forced to apologise and wiped all prints it obtained before asking for consent.

It also introduced an opt-out for parents uncomfortable with the technology, allowing pupils to enter a four-digit pin code instead of scanning their print.

The revelation comes as teachers today warned schools are routinely taking children’s fingerprints without permission from their parents.

As many as 3,500 schools take biometric data from pupils to speed up basic administration such as buying canteen lunches or borrowing library books.

(more…)

Flashback: Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe–or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

BBC News
March 24, 2010

A Heathrow Airport security guard was given a police warning after he was allegedly caught staring at images of a female colleague in a body scanner.

The 25-year-old worker was quizzed by police over alleged remarks he made to his co-worker after she entered a scanner by mistake.

The incident took place at Terminal 5 on 10 March.

It is believed to be the first time an airport worker has been disciplined for abusing a body scanner.

(more…)

The implicit omission in this article is that in order for this to be implemented, your biometric image will be stored in a government database. Why is that a problem, new readers might ask? It’s a question of the balance of power and personal liberty and the coming globalization of identification. It won’t be too long before you will be face scanned at airports. Australia has already announced that it will begin doing this to visitors from ‘high-risk’ countries – in other words, the ones with Muslim people living in them. But it’s not just for demonized minority groups. It’s for you. Interpol wants this. And the biometric control grid technology will inexorably work its way outwards into the culture – Australia and Alberta are already pushing similar technology as a solutions to get into the pub -  and as databases become more and more centralized, it’s your children that will have to live in a global high tech police state, tracked and traced everywhere they go. Is that what you want?

Flashback:Biometric ID Card for all US Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | US Move to National ID Cards Delayed | UK: Chipped ID card scheme launched in Greater Manchester | UK Government plans to link criminal records to ID cards | Privacy commissioner OKs Barwatch software | UK national ID card cloned in 12 minutes | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Billboards that look back | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | Tokyo Vending Machines Learn New Trick: Facial Recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Alberta privacy commission to rule on bar scans | Ontario sees allies in licence proposal | New licence may double as passport | Wilkins touts ’simple’ ID card for travel to U.S.

Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen
March 24, 2010

OTTAWA – As early as next year, Canadians who apply for passports will receive documents with chips that contain their digital images and personal information such as name, gender, and date and place of birth.

Passport Canada says the new ‘e-passports’ will increase security, provide greater protection against tampering and reduce the risk of fraud.

But they’ve also raised concerns about privacy, identity theft, misidentification and the growth of government surveillance of citizens.

“I am not reassured that the passport office has adequately addressed the many concerns,” said Andrew Clement, a professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.

Full assurance, he said, “would require a thorough, expert and independent assessment with public reporting of all but the necessarily confidential aspects. As far as I know, nothing close to this has been done.”

The plan to introduce e-passports in 2011 – valid for 10 years instead of the current five – was announced in the 2008 budget, and re-announced in the Throne Speech this month.

Though 70 per cent of Canadians have passports, 82 per cent are unaware that the electronic documents are imminent, according to a survey done for Passport Canada.

That could soon change. Within the next couple of weeks, Passport Canada will begin a major online consultation with Canadians, spokesman Jean-Sebastien Roy said Tuesday.

(more…)

Related: Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | UK: Pilot project for DNA, isotope analysis of immigrants ‘deeply flawed’ | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Kirk Makin, The Globe and Mail
March 13, 2010

Gregory Turner feared he was bound for life in prison after an RCMP lab reported odds of 163 trillion to 1 that a tiny amount of DNA on his gold ring could have come from anybody but a 56-year-old woman found murdered in rural Newfoundland.

The only real evidence in a first-degree murder charge against Mr. Turner, the golden sheen of DNA appeared certain to become a silver bullet in the hands of the Crown.

“I told my lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, that there was no way in the world it was true,” Mr. Turner recalled in an interview. “He believed me. He said that I was too stupid to commit that crime and leave no evidence.”

A lucky hunch by Mr. Kennedy – now Newfoundland’s Minister of Health – saved Mr. Turner from a life behind bars. He sought the name and DNA profile of every technician who had worked at the RCMP lab. It turned out that the technician who had tested the ring had also been working on the victim’s fingernails a few inches away, creating a strong possibility of contamination.

The technician conceded at Mr. Turner’s 2001 trial that she had also contaminated evidence in two previous cases. In another disturbing twist, it emerged that she had mistakenly contaminated Mr. Turner’s ring with her own DNA, causing police to waste considerable time on a futile search for a presumed accomplice.

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Flashback: Nose picked by military research for next-gen face scanning, mood analysis | Mind-reading systems could change air security | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Erasing traumatic memory possible, researchers say | Researchers use brain scans to read people’s memories | Halifax thinks again about subjecting applicants to lie-detector tests | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | India’s use of brain scans in courts dismays critics | Brain will be battlefield of future, warns US intelligence report | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists

Ian Sample, The Guardian
March 11, 2010

Brain scans revealed with reasonable accuracy which short film clip volunteers were thinking about

Scientists have used brain scans to delve into people’s minds and predict what films they are thinking about from one moment to the next.

This is the first time brain imaging has been used to decipher such complex thoughts, which take place in the base of the brain in a region known as the medial temporal lobe.

The work follows an earlier study in which neuroscientists at University College London showed they could read a person’s thoughts about where they were standing in a virtual reality simulation.

“In the previous experiment we were able to predict where someone was in a simple, stark virtual reality environment. What we wanted to know is can we look at ‘episodic’ memories that are much more naturalistic,” said Eleanor Maguire, who led the study at the university’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. “The kinds of memories we form day-to-day are far more complex — they involve people and buildings and all kinds of actions.”

The scientists recruited six women and four men, with an average age of 21, to watch three film clips, each lasting seven seconds. All three films were similar, and showed an actress performing a particular activity in a street. In one film, for example, a woman drank a coffee before binning the cup, while in another, a different woman posted a letter.

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