Nate Anderson reports: When Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion school district installed remote control anti-theft software on student laptops, it had no intention of dragging Congress into a national debate about wiretapping laws and webcams—but that’s exactly what it got (in addition to some unwanted FBI attention and a major lawsuit). The key question: should the school’s…
Category: Surveillance
A big night out: drinking, dancing, fingerprinting
Saffron Howden reports: Somewhere in Perth’s central business district is a building containing the names, ages, addresses, photographs and unique fingerprint codes of thousands of revellers who danced and drank at Sydney’s Home nightclub last year. Home, in Darling Harbour, began trialling a biometric ID scanning entry system nine months ago. Patrons lined up before…
Critics challenge B.C. privacy law proposals
The B.C. government is getting stiff opposition to proposed changes to privacy laws that would make it easier for public bodies such as the RCMP to gather and share personal information about residents of the province. A senior civil servant related told a legislative committee hearing this week that in some cases, lives could be…
Fired employees drop appeal
Today’s theme seems to be surveillance. Gary Pinnell reports: Administrator Michael Wright said Thursday he will sign an agreement with three former employees, who have decided not to pursue a wrongful termination appeal against Highlands County. “We have worked out an agreement with the county,” said Jim McCollum, the attorney for Treasa Handley, Jared Lee…