tracking
From cradle to grave, like the children of Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, we are increasingly pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, and numbered. From your social insurance number to your wallet full of ‘loyalty’ cards to the final liquidation of your estate, states and international corporations are increasingly interested in building personal, political, and commercial profiles of your activities – a practice commonly known as ‘data mining’. And while we may evade knowledge of this trend, declaring (like all populations in thrall) that we’ve nothing to hide, future generations may well look back and wonder how we could so easily have submitted to such a skewed relationship, one in which centres of power expected absolute an absolute accountability of their clientele but in turn demanded the asymmetry of secrecy and copyright in regards to their own activities.
Smoking Guns — Suggested Reading
Privacy commissioner outlines concerns surrounding Ontario’s Smart Grid plan
Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns
Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database
Feds push for tracking cell phones
B.C. to get license-plate scanning system
GPS Tracked Road Tolls Back On Agenda for Toronto Metrolinx
EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior”
Archive (Most recent headlines first)
2010
US Seeks to Set Standards for Online ID Verification | Apple now collecting, sharing precise location of iPhone users | Google facing multiple international probes over Street View GPS wardriving campaign | Army Preps ‘Unblinking Eye’ High Altitude Airship for Afghanistan | UK: Birmingham stops Muslim CCTV, license plate surveillance scheme | Privacy czar raises alarm on smart meter data | Australia recording features for facial recognition | U.S. airlines, small planes must install GPS | Darpa’s Self-Learning Software Knows Who You Are | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | UK surveillance systems to be scaled back, new coalition govt claims | Biometric cash machine lands in Europe | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Privacy commissioner outlines concerns surrounding Ontario’s Smart Grid plan | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | Faisal Shahzad on Homeland Security List Since 1999 | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Leading UK ISP Says It Will Defy Government’s Net Censorship Bill | Pill with antenna ensures patients take meds | UK: Pupils forced to submit to fingerprint scans for lunch, parents not consulted | Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | U.S. feds snooping on Facebook | Biometric ID Card for all US Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | UK: Spy chips hidden in 2.5 million dustbins, councils plan 60% tax hike | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | UK: Pupils aged five on hate register: Teachers must log playground taunts for Government database | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question | Nose picked by military research for next-gen face scanning, mood analysis | UK: Open Wi-Fi ‘outlawed’ by Digital Economy Bill | Pentagon Discloses Hundreds of Reports of Possibly Illegal Intelligence Activities | Cryptome.org Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown Under Copyright Law | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database | Feds push for tracking cell phones | The government has your baby’s DNA | Swedish Justice Minister reluctant to store internet user’s data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Calgary’s 911 centre to track cellphone callers to within meters | NSA beats warrantless wiretap rap | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | China Google Hack Exploited Security Gaps Introduced By State Surveillance Provisions | Privacy watchdog wants public input on social networking sites | B.C. to get license-plate scanning system | Only $350 to join GPS bandwagon and jettison privacy: track kids, auto, social network | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit
2009
UK: Telecom firms’ fury at plan for ‘Stasi’ checks on every phone call and email | GPS Tracked Road Tolls Back On Agenda for Toronto Metrolinx | UK: Terror ’suspects’ could remain on DNA database for life, innocents get 6 years | Plant experts unveil DNA barcode | Teacher rejects fingerprinting for work on religious grounds | Aspiring government economists must reveal views on stimulus plan | EU urges use of tracking boxes for motorists | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets | UK: Home Office climbs down over keeping DNA records on innocent | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | Hutterite driver’s licence photo appeal rejected | Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’ | UN Urges International Action on Cyber Security Threat | Spy agencies now free to eavesdrop on Canadians abroad | UK: Pilot project for DNA, isotope analysis of immigrants ‘deeply flawed’ | Case for Internet spying not closed | Report: Massive FBI database set to quadruple in size | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | UK: Now Big Brother targets helpful parents — 1 in 4 Britons vetted for giant new child protection database | Able Danger and DIA had advanced knowledge of 9/11 | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | Hutterites press fight vs. licence photos | UK Government plans to link criminal records to ID cards | UK Government to consider internet disconnection policy, restrictions | Privacy commissioner OKs Barwatch software | UK national ID card cloned in 12 minutes | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | US: Town on SF Bay wants to photograph every car | Facebook violates privacy law: watchdog | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | UK: Passport details to be kept on ID register despite card U-turn | Use of warrantless police wiretaps flies under the radar | US Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy | UK: Shifting justifications for ID card scheme prompts call to scrap program | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | UK: Spy bugs may be deployed for 2012 Olympics | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | New border rules create ‘invisible Berlin Wall’: mayor | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Digital Money Forum Pushes For Electronic Currency | UK installing license plate scanning network | Toronto police board challenges chief on CCTV deterrence, demands ‘phase-in’ | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship | Clinton defends new border restrictions | Saudi files for ‘killer’ tracking chip patent | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | France passes ‘three strikes’ Internet surveillance law | SMS texts being data mined in France: Man strip searched, held after joke | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | UK: Police to destroy DNA profiles of 800,000 innocent people | UK wants industry to track Internet users as plans scrapped for state database | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | UK: Children to be tracked by sat nav to stop bad behaviour | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | UK: DNA pioneer Alec Jeffreys: drop innocent from database | Microchip in a pill to monitor your meds | French legislators reject internet piracy bill | Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program | UK: Big Brother row as police start using camera cars to fine wayward drivers | Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track drivers is backed | Britain may snoop on social websites | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK’s public databases, says report | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | Internet ad tracking system will put a ’spy camera’ in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | French government accused of ‘Big Brother’ tactics over internet piracy | US Terrorist watch list hits 1 million | NY Times: Mileage Tax Would ‘Track Where Motorists Have Been’ | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | UK security whitepaper urges ‘end of privacy’ | US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | The Spy Factory: The New Thought Police | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | Electronic immunization records needed: Toronto health official | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | UK-Irish travellers to face passport checks | U.S. visitors now required to register online with Department of Homeland Security | GPS wristwatch helps parents track children | UK: Face scanners to be installed in schools | Regulator will force cellphone companies to adopt GPS tracking system | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | UK: ‘Spy-in-sky’ trials get the go-ahead despite Government promise to scrap road-pricing plan
2008
Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | Calls for GPS-tracked ’speed-limiting’ cars in UK | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | UK Culture secretary wants international age restrictions for web | Is road-tolls fix running out of gas? | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals | European court rules DNA database breaches human rights | London musicians expected to disclose ethnicity, 8 pages of personal information to perform | Myspace terms of use could become fulcrum for destruction of online anonymity in precedent setting case | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference | Retired B.C. woman surprised to find herself on international no-fly list | Indonesian AIDS patients face microchip monitoring | Tribunal shouldn’t police online hate, report says | Jim Flaherty Urging Greater Federal, International Control over Canadian economy | Road tolls called ‘inevitable’ | Coming soon to your cellphone: Your credit card via RFID chip | Federal government stages another retreat on road tolls | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Flaherty calls for mandatory IMF surveillance | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | ‘Smart’ Credit Cards, Pilot Project set the Groundwork for Wireless Credit Wallets | Google’s growth makes privacy advocates wary | 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 | US military targets social nets | UK Shortly to Become Worse Surveillance Society than Stasi East Germany | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Software blocks car phone users | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Metrolinx considering road to lls after all | Red light cameras not going up fast enough for Toronto budget | First it’s ‘For the Children’: Microsoft working to ID you online | Global ‘Intelligent Transport’ initiative comes to your cellphone: Location data used to track traffic flow | GPS Mapping Systems Enable Police Tracking | Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets | Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with implanted chips | Security officials to scan D.C. area license plates | How Big Brother watches your every move | Federal parolees to wear tracking anklets in pilot project | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Beijing Taxis Are Bugged ‘For Driver Safety’ | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | UK DNA database turns ‘innocents into criminals’, warns watchdog | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Behavioral Targeting: ‘It’s Only Going to Get Creepier’ | Bluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big Brother | Britain considers giant database of all phone calls, EMails, browsing history | Bush approves surveillance bill | Mobile Phone Users Secretly Tracked for Behaviorist Study | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Criticism for ‘UK database’ plan | Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance | Metrolinx Proposes Satellite Vehicle Tracking for Road Tolls | Canada on way to brave new world of surveillance | West Virginia: Bill Turns Traffic Cameras into Spy Cameras
2007
Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’ | Government moving to access personal info, sparking privacy fears
2006
Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion
2005
Give public biometrics the finger
2002
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