statism watch

Related: Airport body scanners raise radiation concerns – again | ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | 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’

The Daily Mail
June 30, 2010

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn.

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.

But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is ‘very low’, he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.

He says children and passengers with gene mutations – around one in 20 of the population – are more at risk as they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA.

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This appears to be based on the OpenID platform.

Related: China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | First it’s ‘For the Children’: Microsoft working to ID you online

Joseph Menn, Financial Times
June 26, 2010

The White House set out a sweeping strategy to make online transactions more secure on Friday. The move is the most ambitious initiative to emerge from a cybersecurity policy intended to blunt the growing menace of online crime.

Howard Schmidt, president Barack Obama’s cybersecurity co-ordinator, who took up his duties in early 2010, released the strategy paper after 12 months of discussions led by the National Security Council and involving scores of private sector groups, critical infrastructure owners and privacy advocates.

The strategy seeks the creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records.

A set of standards would let multiple vendors offer authentication services, while people whose identities have been verified would be able to move from website to website without resubmitting information.

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Gotcha. You won’t experience this problem with non-proprietary, open source products. Users stuck with iPhones may wish to disable location services in protest against this move.

Related: Feds push for tracking cell phones | Calgary’s 911 centre to track cellphone callers to within meters | GPS tracking concerns Winnipeg city workers | Surveillance Shocker: Sprint Received 8 MILLION Law Enforcement Requests for GPS Location Data in the Past Year | Regulator will force cellphone companies to adopt GPS tracking system | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Global ‘Intelligent Transport’ initiative comes to your cellphone: Location data used to track traffic flow | Mobile Phone Users Secretly Tracked for Behaviorist Study

John Byrne, The Raw Story
June 22, 2010

The world’s largest technology company by market capitalization may soon rival the National Security Agency in its ability to track Americans using their cell phones.

Apple Inc. is now tracking the “precise,” “real-time geographic location” of iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers — and has unwittingly gotten its customers to sign off on their being tracked by making a little-noticed modification to the language in its apps store.

The company’s “partners and licensees” will now be able to collect and store data about your location.

Apple’s new privacy policy comes in the wake of a new “Find my iPhone” app the company approved which allows users to recover their lost phones using AT&T’s location services.

Tracking digital consumers by location is nothing new. Websites routinely receive information about their users’ locations in order to serve relevant advertising. For example, Raw Story’s ad providers use information provided by readers’ Internet service providers to serve ads appropriate to the region in which they’re being read — for example, you might get an ad for a political campaign in your area. You can opt-out here.)

But Apple’s new terms and conditions allow it to store information about users’ exact locations, a level of privacy intrusion not heretofore seen. Websites can tell users’ locations down to a zip code, generally speaking, but they neither store nor track exact locations — which Apple and AT&T can do using triangulation down to about ten feet.

(AT&T, if you remember, was a participant in the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, which allows the US government to track the phone numbers called by its citizens abroad. A whistleblower said that AT&T in fact had its own spy room in San Francisco for the government.)

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Wardriving, for those who may not know, is the practice of going around storing Wifi network info for later exploitation – precisely what Google was doing. And the reason they give?

The company says it uses the location of Wi-Fi networks to enhance location-based services on smartphones.

It’s just to help track your cellphone for location-based services. Oh, well, that’s okay then.

Related: Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | Google Street View goes live in Canadian cities | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | Britons block Google Street View van | Google Street View comes to Canada | Google Street View could care less about your privacy

Diane Bartz, Reuters
June 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s attorney general will lead a multi-state probe of whether Google Inc. broke laws when it siphoned personal data off wireless networks around the world, which the Internet search leader has said was inadvertent.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said on Monday more than 30 states participated in a recent conference call on the issue. He said consumers have a right to know what information was collected, and whether U.S. states need to alter procedures to guard against such leaks in future.

Shares in Google slid 1.4% to US$492.81 in a relatively flat market.

In May, Google said its cars photographing streets around the world have for years accidentally collected personal data — which a security expert said at the time could have included email messages and passwords — sent by consumers over wireless networks.

“My office will lead a multi-state investigation — expected to involve a significant number of states — into Google’s deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement.

“Consumers have a right and a need to know what personal information — which could include emails, Web browsing and passwords — Google may have collected, how and why.”

Mr. Blumenthal said Google has cooperated but “its response so far raises as many questions as it answers.”

“Our investigation will consider whether laws may have been broken and whether changes to state and federal statutes may be necessary,” he said.

The revelation marked the latest development in a privacy controversy surrounding Google. The company already faces an informal investigation over the matter by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a variety of probes overseas, and class action lawsuits.

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Smart meters – a taxation and control trojan horse without peer. First it’s on a volunteer basis that you have the kill switch for your air conditioner installed. Then, once uptake passes a certain point, it’s mandatory. And the new carbon taxes are based on your minute-to-minute energy consumption, and the state energy company knows when your toaster is on and how many showers you have. It’s disgusting.

Related: Privacy commissioner outlines concerns surrounding Ontario’s Smart Grid plan | UK energy smart meter roll-out is outlined | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | Google to enter market for energy use tracking

John Spears, Toronto Star
June 16, 2010

Utilities given standards to keep private information from leaking out in unauthorized ways

Picture this:

You sign up for an energy conservation scheme that lets your local utility shut down your air conditioner temporarily if the power grid is overloaded. Shortly afterward, you get a marketing call from an air conditioning company.

Or this:

You buy an electric car that you charge up every Sunday night, but never on Mondays because you always do an overnight trip. One Monday night, your home is burgled.

In fact, this doesn’t happen right now. Privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian wants to keep it that way.

The electricity system is gearing up to gather more and more information about customers and their habits through smart meters and smart appliances, she says.

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Another precrime provision, with the additional goody of sharing your medical records with the police. Decisions like this, that may appear reasonable on the surface to some, are readily exposed as driven by a wider agenda when put in context. For one thing, the definition of ‘mentally ill’ is subject to inflation. US veterans of the wars in the middle east that have been encouraged to file for PTSD benefits (small wonder after multiple tours of duty – a Pentagon study found 10% of returning soldiers have PTSD) are in many cases surprised to discover they’re also being denied gun ownership. CNN reported back in 2007 that the total figure for mental illness could be as high as a third of vets. Nexus this in with the recent report that Obama has promised to support a United Nations small arms treaty calling for a global gun registry and stringent licensing restrictions, the brutal totalitarian-style raids, the knock and talk campaigns to build a list of citizens that own firearms, and you’re starting to get an idea of the big picture.

Related: Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | Liberals aim to put a bullet in bill to scrap gun registry | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Virkram Dodd, The Guardian
June 14, 2010

Doctors have agreed to breach duty of medical confidentiality if patients who own guns become seriously mentally ill

Doctors have agreed to breach their duty of medical confidentiality to patients who own guns if they fear they have become so seriously mentally ill they may use their weapons on themselves or the public, the Guardian has learned.

GPs say they will tell the police if a gun owner’s deteriorating health makes him or her a serious danger to the public, without the patient giving consent to their medical privacy being breached.

In order for doctors to know which patients have guns, the medical records of patients holding or applying for firearms licences would be “flagged”.

The agreement comes after months of talks between the Association of Chief Police Officers and the British Medical Association.

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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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This is, by rough count, the fourth such warning seen in the press. Studies or announcements on the radiation risk of the naked body scanners have now been produced by: UC San Francisco, Columbia University, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, and Los Alamos Labs. Additionally, the National Council on Radiation protection and measurements has said there should be an effort made to verify whether millimeter wave technology is safe for public use. So boycott these devices, it’s as simple as that.

Related: ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | 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’

Seattle Times
May 26, 2010

Airport body scanners raise concerns about radiation safety, but officials at the Department of Homeland Security say there is no need to worry.

A group of doctors and professors from UC San Francisco are raising new concerns about the safety of a type of airport full-body scanner built by Torrance, Calif.-based Rapiscan Inc.

To reveal weapons hidden under a traveler’s clothes, the scanner relies on “backscatter technology,” which uses the ricochets from low-level X-rays to create what looks like a nude image of the person.

The experts said they fear that the scanners may expose the skin to high doses of X-rays that could increase the risk of cancer and other health problems, particularly among people with weak immune systems.

But officials at the Department of Homeland Security say there is no need to worry.

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Massive secret databases containing the genetic information of infants have been revealed as existing in (at the very least) Canada, the US, and the UK. There is presently no mechanism for removing your child’s DNA from the database, which is used for genetic studies across populations. In the US, the testing is being conducted in military labs. Any questions? You may wish to direct them to your MP.

Related: Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database | The government has your baby’s DNA | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | 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

Carol Driver, The Daily Mail
May 24, 2010

DNA taken from millions of newborn babies is quietly being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent.

The blood samples, taken in heel-prick tests that check for serious conditions, can be accessed by police, coroners and medical researchers, Freedom of Information Act requests reveal.

Despite Government guidelines advising hospitals to destroy the DNA after five years, some facilities have kept them on file for more than 20 years – prompting fears that a covert database is being created.

Campaigners claim the 32-page leaflets – explaining that newborns’ DNA will be stored – handed to new mothers, does not constitute consent for hospitals to carry out further research.

Nor, they say, does it make clear the samples could be accessed by the police to identify people involved in crimes.

And, although the DNA of each child is stored anonymously, The UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, which oversees the use of samples, say they could be linked to hospital admissions and the child could be identified that way.

The samples can also be accessed by private medical companies and have been used for genetic research and mass screening for diseases such as HIV in babies’ mothers.

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Yes, the police will deign to delete your personal information; since you raised a fuss, you’ll be thrown this bone. Thank goodness for PIPEDA. Meanwhile, you’re still going to be forced to endure domestic internal checkpoints that would have made the STASI blush.

Related: Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | Condo behind security fence during G20 summit | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | G20 ’sherpas’ meet with IMF, World Bank on Ottawa | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

CBC News
May 20, 2010

The Toronto Police Service has agreed to destroy all of the personal information it collects from people who live and work in the area around the G20 summit.

There were fears the information could be misused.

On Thursday, the Toronto Police Services Board said the information will be destroyed within two days after the meeting wraps up.

The summit, which will host world leaders at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from June 26-27, has prompted heightened security in the area.

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