statism watch

This journal has criticized Mr. Freeze in the past for characterizing the ability of Canada’s SIGINT establishment to conduct espionage on Canadian citizens abroad – first granted publicly in September 2009 – as the closing of a ‘loophole’. Now he’s back on the online intelligence beat, writing soothingly that CSIS is ‘reaching out’ to Canadian business in order to keep us safe from the newly devastating threat of cyberterror. To characterize botnets and hackers as a massive new threat to the security of the West is patently false. The net has gotten along very nicely, thank you, by organically adapting to new issues as they arise. Colin Freeze is simply following the talking points coming out of the mouths of Pentagon contractors (Like Michael McConnell) that are seeking to establish control of global information flow via federalization and nationalization of the Internet. A single article may not give one enough information to see which way the wind is blowing on an international level when such a massive project is underway. And indeed this particular CSIS program, establishing links between CSIS and strategically important corporations, is just one small indicator of the overall trend – but it follows on the American initiative to roll business networks into an NSA program through the agency of the CSE on this side of the border. StatismWatch has already done much of the research needed to collate this info – all you need to do to get up to speed is read through it. Please? Jesse Brown’s latest Search Engine podcast over at TVO, “The Enemy of The Internet” is also recommended.

Flashback: United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Colin Freeze, The Globe and Mail
March 8, 2010

As economic espionage and hacking become growing threats to the West, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is stepping up efforts to persuade businesses to safeguard secrets deemed vital to national interests.

CSIS’s corporate-outreach program, which started in the 1990s, largely fell by the wayside during the years after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, when fighting terrorism absorbed nearly all the spy service’s energies.

But emerging threats – including shadowy-but-powerful hacker networks based in China – are sparking a renewed federal interest in forging partnerships between the corporate and intelligence worlds.

“CSIS has and continues to speak with various corporations in Canada on potential security threats, which may have an impact on national security interests,” CSIS spokeswoman Isabelle Scott said in an e-mailed response to questions from The Globe and Mail. “CSIS alerts firms to common covert methods used by those who may target them.”

She did not elaborate on which hostile entities may be targeting Canada, and added that any information shared during briefing sessions with corporations is confidential.

(more…)

Related: UK Citizen snoopers recruited to spy on Londoners | UK University student fined £80 for dropping matchstick on Oxford pavement | Embryonic EU security office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty | UK: Garbage spies alarm neighbourhood | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | UK: Big Brother state wants even more spy powers | UK recruits an army of snoopers with police-style powers | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | London Police Encourage Citizens To Inform on Neighbour’s Garbage | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | US Congress passes mandatory national service bill | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | UK: Civil servants attacked for using anti-terror laws to spy on public | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | UK House of Lords warns over ’surveillance state’ | UK Shortly to Become Worse Surveillance Society than Stasi East Germany | ‘Environmental volunteers’ will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours | ‘Our People’ stand up for Putin | Vladimir Putin sets up nationalist Russian Youth brigade

Tom Whitehead, The Telegraph
March 8, 2010

Hundreds more town hall staff and private security guards are to be handed police-style powers in a fresh Home Office drive to create an army of civilian “spies”.

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.

Rank and file officers warned the move is “blurring the lines” of legitimate law enforcement and is creating a “third tier” of policing.

Even chief constables are now cautious over the scheme following it’s rapid growth, which has seen numbers increase by a fifth in just 12 months.

(more…)

Flashback: 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’

David Kravets, Wired.com
March 5, 2010

Transportation officials announced Friday 11 more United States airports will begin receiving full-body imaging machines

“By accelerating the deployment of this technology, we are enhancing our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the nation,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

Despite concerns of privacy and their effectiveness, the 11 airports are to get the 150 machines beginning Monday at Boston’s Logan International Airport, and one at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. In all, 30 U.S. airports will employ the scanning devices.

Fliers declining to submit to the machines that create X-ray-like virtual images of the body may get intense pat-downs from Transportation Security Administration authorities. The combined 150 imaging machines are being bought, in part, by $1 billion the government set aside from its $787 billion federal bailout bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has decried the scanners as “virtual strip searchs.” The Electronic Privacy Information Center, in a Freedom of Information Act request, said the machines are capable of storing and transmitting images of passengers despite the government’s claim to the contrary.

(more…)

So, the increased online surveillance and tracking we’ve been expecting is revealed as an ‘updated’ version of the Einstein program. Looking back on previous reports on the Einstein program, it’s clear that a Federal pilot program intended (initially) to spy on government employees is now to be ready to be rolled out to the rest of the Internet. Wayne Madsen revealed through his sources in Sept 2008 that Einstein, far from conducting routine traffic analysis – the official line at the time – conducts analysis of message content, and that the technology, codenamed Pinwheel, was developed for foreign signals intelligence. Mr. Madsen further reported that “The DNI and NSA also plan to move Einstein into the private sector by claiming the nation’s critical infrastructure, by nature, overlaps into the commercial sector. There are classified plans, already budgeted in so-called “black” projects, to extend Einstein surveillance into the dot (.) com, dot (.) edu, dot (.) int, and dot (.) org, as well as other Internet domains” This should not be news to anyone – whistleblowers within the telecom industry have already revealed the extent to which the NSA wiretaps Americans. Lawsuits against the telcos were dismissed in January for reason that the damages inflicted were ‘non-specific’. But this story’s even bigger than that: US net surveillance is just one aspect of a global program. You’d best speak up now while you can.

Flashback: Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Declan McCullagh, CNET News
March 4, 2010

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who told a House appropriations hearing that Einstein 3 could only be discussed in a classified setting, speaks at the RSA conference on Wednesday. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO–Homeland Security and the National Security Agency may be taking a closer look at Internet communications in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security’s top cybersecurity official told CNET on Wednesday that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, which is designed to detect and prevent electronic attacks, to networks operated by the private sector. The technology was created for federal networks.

Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, said in an interview that the department is evaluating whether Einstein “makes sense for expansion to critical infrastructure spaces” over time.

Not much is known about how Einstein works, and the House Intelligence Committee once charged that descriptions were overly “vague” because of “excessive classification.” The White House did confirm this week that the latest version, called Einstein 3, involves attempting to thwart in-progress cyberattacks by sharing information with the National Security Agency.

Greater federal involvement in privately operated networks may spark privacy or surveillance concerns, not least because of the NSA’s central involvement in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping scandal. Earlier reports have said that Einstein 3 has the ability to read the content of emails and other messages, and that AT&T has been asked to test the system. (The Obama administration says the “contents” of communications are not shared with the NSA.)

(more…)

Would it not be a little redundant to point out that disturbing aspects of having police sitting there watching people on the TTC? What next, sub machine guns? They already have those in New York, and have for over a year as of this writing.  But of course, this will begin in marginalized communities first, so those who live downtown TO will be able to safely deny and rationalize. For now.

Flashback: USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TTC officers won’t carry Tasers, guns | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | TTC studies using Tasers | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Photo surveillance on Toronto Transit System aims to snap every user

Natalie Alcoba, The National Post
March 4, 2010

If Toronto’s operating budget is approved, you’ll be seeing more police roaming buses and subways. Toronto police say there is a plan to replace a significant portion of the TTC’s security complement with 42 officers. There are already 40 police officers on transit. The information is detailed in a report that is before the Police Services Board next week, as it continues to fight for more funding from the city.

Toronto Police Service has a uniform strength of 5500 officers. Its 2010 net operating budget is $37-million more than last year – and brass say that’s largely due to an arbitrated salary settlement that they cannot control. City staff are asking police to cut $5.9-million off their $892-million net operating budget.

(more…)

Flashback: 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 | UK: Face scanners to be installed in schools | 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

Lesley Ciarula Taylor, The Toronto Star
March 2, 2010

The nose knows.

Knows who you are, where you’ve been and, eventually, how nervous you are.

Researchers at two English universities are in the early stages of turning the nose into the ultimate biometric-scan feature: hard to conceal, difficult to change and distinctive from person to person.

“The nose is remarkably good. It lends itself quite well to recognition,” Professor Melvyn Smith of the University of the West of England in Bristol told the Star.

Smith’s team have developed PhotoFace, part of a $1 billion project by the Imperial College, the British Home Office, and General Dynamics, the U.S. defence industry contractor, to create a sophisticated and reliable facial-recognition system.

Noses are a spinoff of that.

“Noses are prominent facial features and yet their use as a biometric has been largely unexplored,” said Dr. Adrian Evans of the University of Bath, which took PhotoFace and focused it on the nose.

“Ears have been looked at in detail, eyes have been looked at in terms of iris recognition, but the nose has been neglected.”

(more…)

The Patriot Act is being routinely used for anything but terrorism. You are being lied to: it is for domestic control. Infowars.com reports “Instead of tracking terrorists, the bill has been used to track the American people. In 2008, for instance, the Justice Department made 763 requests for “sneak-and-peek” warrants, but only three of those had to do with terrorism investigations, according to senator Russ Feingold.”

Flashback: Authority to Spy on Americans Unclear as Patriot Act Expires | U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets | Report: Massive FBI database set to quadruple in size | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | US Police to get access to classified military intelligence | Obama Backs Extending Patriot Act Spy Provisions | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | US Federal Judge Tosses Telecom Spy Suits | Showdown in NSA Wiretap Case: Judge Threatens Sanctions Against Justice Department | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | Put NSA in Charge of Cyber Security, Or the Power Grid Gets It | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | US military targets social nets | ‘Einstein’ replaces ‘Big Brother’ in Internet surveillance | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Secret EU security draft risks uproar with call to pool policing and give US personal data | Vision 2015: Consolidation of U.S. Intelligence Into Global Intel Network | Bush approves surveillance bill | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Secretive Canadian spy agency to get $62-million HQ | Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier — Congress Reacts | Canada working with FBI on ’server in the sky’ | Listening in on the enemy: Canada’s master eavesdroppers

Andrew McLemore
February 27, 2010

If the Patriot Act hadn’t been approved for another year, Sunday would have looked much different.

Sunday could have meant the government was no longer given permission to wiretap the phones of Americans and seize their records and property.

But since the bill was approved by Congressional Democrats earlier this week and signed into law by President Obama on Saturday, this Sunday is just another Sunday for Americans living with the Patriot Act.

To be fair, many Democrats asked for additional protections for the privacy rights of American citizens.

But Republicans said that would detract from the ability of the country’s intelligence agencies to track down terrorists. Lacking a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate to pass the bill with the extra provisions, Democrats left them out.

Democratic Rep. Jane Harman opposed the House’s approval of the extension, citing abuses during the administration of President George W. Bush.

“While I strongly support using the most robust tools possible to go after terrorists, Congress must revise and narrow — not extend — Bush era policies,” Harman said.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com had the following to say of the overwhelming support of the law’s extension:

(more…)

Flashback: Authority to Spy on Americans Unclear as Patriot Act Expires | U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets | Report: Massive FBI database set to quadruple in size | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | US Police to get access to classified military intelligence | Obama Backs Extending Patriot Act Spy Provisions | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | US Federal Judge Tosses Telecom Spy Suits | Showdown in NSA Wiretap Case: Judge Threatens Sanctions Against Justice Department | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | Put NSA in Charge of Cyber Security, Or the Power Grid Gets It | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | US military targets social nets | ‘Einstein’ replaces ‘Big Brother’ in Internet surveillance | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Secret EU security draft risks uproar with call to pool policing and give US personal data | Vision 2015: Consolidation of U.S. Intelligence Into Global Intel Network | Bush approves surveillance bill | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Secretive Canadian spy agency to get $62-million HQ | Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier — Congress Reacts | Canada working with FBI on ’server in the sky’ | Listening in on the enemy: Canada’s master eavesdroppers

Nate Cardozo, EFF.org
February 25, 2010

The Department of Defense has released more than 800 heavily-redacted pages of intelligence oversight reports, detailing activities that its Inspector General has “reason to believe are unlawful.” The reports are the latest in an ongoing document release by more than a half-dozen intelligence agencies in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by EFF in July 2009.

The reports, submitted to the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) by various Department of Defense components, cover the period from 2001 through 2008. The IOB’s role within the Executive Office of the President is to ensure that each component of the intelligence community works within the Constitution and all applicable laws. As such, the Inspector General of each intelligence agency is required to submit periodic reports to the IOB, which in turn is required to forward to the Attorney General any report identifying an intelligence activity that violates the law. Intelligence oversight reporting is rarely disclosed to the public.

This new release, from various Defense components including the Army and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, comes in four parts, see here. Much of the reported improper activity consisted of intelligence gathering on so-called “U.S. Persons,” including citizens, permanent residents and U.S.-based organizations. Although Defense agencies are generally prohibited from collecting such information (except as part of foreign intelligence or counter-intelligence activity), it is apparent from the unredacted reports released to EFF that some DoD components have had chronic difficulty complying with that prohibition.

(more…)

Read the Microsoft document they don’t want you to see here inline, or grab the PDF.

Flashback: Swedish Justice Minister reluctant to store internet user’s data | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | UK: Telecom firms’ fury at plan for ‘Stasi’ checks on every phone call and email | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck | Britain considers giant database of all phone calls, EMails, browsing history

Robert Quigley, Geekosystem.com
February 24, 2010

Cryptome, a whistleblower site that regularly leaks sensitive documents from governments and corporations, is in hot water again: this time, for publishing Microsoft’s “Global Criminal Compliance Handbook,” a comprehensive, 22-page guide running down the surveillance services Microsoft will perform for law enforcement agencies on its various online platforms, which includes detailed instructions for IP address extraction. You can find the guide here (warning: PDF). not anymore.

Microsoft has demanded that Cryptome take down the guide — on the grounds that it constitutes a “copyrighted [work] published by Microsoft.” Yesterday, at 5pm, Cryptome editor John Young received a notice from his site’s host, Network Solutions, bearing a stiff ultimatum: citing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), Network Solutions told him that unless he takes the “copyrighted material” down, they will “disable [his] website” on Thursday, February 25, 2010.

So far, Young refuses to budge.

Cryptome is no stranger to controversy: last year, when it leaked a detailed surveillance guide from Yahoo, which, embarrassingly enough, included a pricing sheet tallying up the costs of its various services, Yahoo demanded its takedown, also under DMCA. (The Microsoft guide doesn’t contain a pricing list.) Cryptome refused to back down, and the guide is still up.

Geekosystem swapped emails with Young about the situation, and he said that if Network Solutions follows through and takes Cryptome down on the 25th, “we will set up elsewhere, arrangements are always ready for that.”

He had this to say when we asked him what he found most repugnant about Microsoft’s guide:

(more…)

You know your new driver’s license? That’s part of the international biometric-enabled control grid you will not be told about until it’s already in place. That’s right – this isn’t just for brown people travelling from the Middle East. It’s for you, too. So what are you going to do about it now that you know?

Flashback: 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

CBC News
February 23, 2010

Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from 10 high-risk countries, say government officials.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the plan on Tuesday as he released a government white paper compiled by intelligence agencies. The paper said Islamist radicals born or raised in Australia represent a permanent and increased threat to the country.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith echoed the Prime Minister’s comments. He said the white paper shows that the threat from al-Qaeda is evolving, and Australia must also be aware of threats from “homegrown” terrorists.

“We have to be very careful to watch that in Australia,” he said.

An Australian court handed out heavy jail sentences last week to five Australians of Lebanese, Libyan and Bangladeshi origin for conspiring to commit an act, or acts, in preparation for a terrorist act between July 2004 and November 2005. They had gathered weapons and planned to attack an unknown target.

Smith would not say which countries will be included in the list, but applicants from those nations will have to submit their fingerprints and photos to be cross-checked against databases of known criminals and terrorists.

(more…)