The Swiss parliament’s upper house on Wednesday approved deals with the United States and four other countries to share data on potential tax dodgers, bringing the Alpine state closer in line with international standards. Under the deals Switzerland will have banking data sharing arrangements with France, Britain, the United States, Denmark and Mexico in cases…
Category: Surveillance
Senators push Obama for biometric national ID card
Declan McCullagh reports: Two U.S. senators met with President Obama on Thursday to push for a national ID card with biometric information such as a fingerprint, hand scan, or iris scan that all employers would be required to verify. In an opinion article published in Friday’s edition of the Washington Post, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and…
EPIC Recommends That Congress Suspend Body Scanning Program
From EPIC.org: In testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, EPIC President Marc Rotenberg urged Congress to halt the plan to deploy body scanners in the nation’s airports. “Based on the documents we’ve obtained, the views of experts, the concerns of American, and the extraordinary cost, Congress should suspend the program,” said Mr. Rotenberg….
Police accessed 140,000 phone calls and texts last year
Tom Clifford reports: Police have defended intercepting or retrieving information from more than 140,000 calls and text messages last year and targeted critical politicians who have demanded the police stop for acting on “erroneous information,” but a lawyer has described the police action as “excessive state interference in the privacy of citizens” and a danger…