Tin Foil Hat Update

[Cronky]

Personally, if I wanted to destabilise country/culture/the west, I'd just flood it with cheap drugs and guns and let the locals do it themselves and just sit back and watch.

 

Already been done - in the UK.

[manshimajin]

Couldn't find if this has been posted before - a good example of how surveillance powers designed for ant-terrorism activity can be used for other purposes

 

Surveillance

[ramseyrocks]

Councils get power to ‘spy’ on your e-mail and net use

Clicky

Quick everyone - drop off the grid........

.

[P.K.]

Old news - why not try a bit of DIY - Carnivore

[La_Dolce_Vita]

It's bad enough that there is surveillance on the populace at all but the extent to which surveillance is carried really makes it clear who the main threat to our freedoms comes from, not terrorists, but the government.

 

Snooping sounds likes a soft word, this is inexcusable intrusions into the private worlds of its citizens. It is simply an attempt by the ruling classes to have more and more control over the lives of its citizens.

 

I don't know whether the Times was avoiding specifics but what is meant by other criminal activity, public health, threats to public safety? Will the NHS intervene if information is found that someone is self-harming? Why is it that the state believes it should step in at the cost of denying these people their privacy and freedoms. We are supposed to live in a sort of democracy.

Is the government going to use recorded surveillance information to convict criminals or to prevent the occurence of crime. I think it far more likely to be the former, given the difficulties entailed in the latter. So the state trounces over people's liberties for the sake of convicting criminals, of all sorts, who crimes are largely the product of the capitalist system.

 

It's the old 'thin end of the wedge' though...let them get away with one thing, and they'll soon be arguing the 'undeniable case' for the next stage. Lines have to be drawn.

 

In respect of the Labour government's attempts to take further control into the lives of its apparent subjects due to the terrorist threat, I think the line should have been drawn quite a while ago with the draconian powers of the TA Act of 2000. However, the Tories originally wanted to adopt a series of draconian clauses to 'protect the nation' and 11 Sept. gave the Labour the government the reason, as they saw it, to adopt these laws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although first proposed to tackle terrorism and serious crime, powers have been extended to cover other criminal activity, public health, threats to public safety and even prevention of self-harm.

[Skeddan]

these measures are a proportionate interference with individuals’ right to privacy to ensure protection of the public.

That's the test under Human Rights Act. If not proportionate, then the intrusion into privacy is unlawful (and victims can get compensation under Human Rights Act).

 

The concern is how this has been extended - how can council snoops invading privacy be necessary to ensure the protection of the public. Will there be a grave threat to the national security or the public if council snoops can't look through your bins? Could anyone rationally, let alone reasonably, think so? Good grief, it's a bit of a worry the UK public are so so very fragile!

[bluemonday]

From todays Telegraph - front page

Army of children paid to snoop

Some local councils are signing up teams of ‘environment volunteers’, many of whom are children as young as eight, who are paid to photograph or video neighbours guilty of offences such as littering and dog-fouling. The volunteers are asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe are responsible or to take down their licence plate numbers. Harlow council in Essex said it has 25 ‘Street Scene Champions’ aged between 11 and 14 who are encouraged to report the ‘aftermath of environmental crimes’ such as vandalism, graffiti and fly-tipping.

06/09/2008

 

Full article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/268...l-snoopers.html

[immortalpuppet]

Or a logical spin on that would be "if you see people causing a menace, snap and shop them."

 

Hardly snooping.

[manshimajin]

Coming to a country near you

Big Data Dump

Today, says Mr Oot, almost every case involves e-discovery and spits out “terabytes” of information—the equivalent of millions of pages. In an ordinary case, 200 lawyers can easily review electronic documents for four months, at a cost of millions of dollars, he says.

 

This has led to a new boom industry of specialised e-discovery service providers which merrily charge $125-600 an hour. George Socha, a consultant, estimates that their annual revenues have grown from $40m in 1999 to about $2 billion in 2006 and may hit $4 billion next year.

 

The process of e-discovery starts when the adversaries in a lawsuit demand to see all sorts of information in their search for relevant nuggets. Each side then has to identify all the laptops, smart-phones, memory sticks, network servers and back-up tapes that might store data created by the people in question. It probably also has to request logs from online-service providers, if those people used web-mail or similar services. The results then have to be indexed and reviewed by humans.

[thesultanofsheight]

Coming to a country near you

 

Nah. it could only happen in Amercia where virtually every lawyer is an ambulance chasing wanker, and every citizen in a lazy dumabass who thinks they'll become a millionaire through suing somebody else for compensation for something they did to themselves.

[manshimajin]

Nah. it could only happen in Amercia where virtually every lawyer is an ambulance chasing wanker

Like the irony.

 

I only hope you're right and that advocates and QC's are motivated by philanthropy not money.

 

Come to think of it I have never heard of anyone suing for big money over stupid things this side of the pond...hmmmmm

[alph3]

Army of children paid to snoop

Some local councils are signing up teams of ‘environment volunteers’, many of whom are children as young as eight, who are paid to photograph or video neighbours guilty of offences such as littering and dog-fouling. The volunteers are asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe are responsible or to take down their licence plate numbers. Harlow council in Essex said it has 25 ‘Street Scene Champions’ aged between 11 and 14 who are encouraged to report the ‘aftermath of environmental crimes’ such as vandalism, graffiti and fly-tipping.

06/09/2008

 

I got your post in response to this ImmortalPuppet, and agree with your logic but is this not how the Nazi's kept their occupied countries in check by making everyone paranoid about who was watching them/about to dob them in for this that and the other. I think Alberts statement 'the thin end of the wedge' fits nicely to this.

[immortalpuppet]

depends on how you look at it i suppose, i am all for it because i am not paranoid and i have nothing to hide or feel fearful of being snapped. I am not suggesting this is how you are looking at it but i dont understand how this could be a bad thing.

 

Personally i just think the media has tried to make people react in a negative way to create paranioa around the issue. Neighbourhood watch isnt considered a bad thing and i think snapping and shopping menaces is just a progression of that.

 

This is not the US but i think some people and certainly some parts of the media treat us like we are as paraniod/scared/mental as the states.

[Albert Tatlock]

From todays Telegraph - front page

Army of children paid to snoop

Some local councils are signing up teams of ‘environment volunteers’, many of whom are children as young as eight, who are paid to photograph or video neighbours guilty of offences such as littering and dog-fouling. The volunteers are asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe are responsible or to take down their licence plate numbers. Harlow council in Essex said it has 25 ‘Street Scene Champions’ aged between 11 and 14 who are encouraged to report the ‘aftermath of environmental crimes’ such as vandalism, graffiti and fly-tipping.

06/09/2008

 

Full article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/268...l-snoopers.html

''Of course I'm guilty!" cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. ''You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?"

 

''Who denounced you?" asked Winston. ''It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. ''She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it."

 

 

'1984' - George Orwell

[bluemonday]

Council uses anti-terror rules to spy on man with noisy wardrobe