Claire Swedberg reports: Rhode Island’s governor, Donald Carcieri (R), has vetoed the latest effort by the state’s legislature to pass a bill limiting how RFID technology would be employed to track students at schools and school functions, as well as vehicles as they are tracked by E-ZPass or other toll-collection systems. With his veto of…
Category: Surveillance
Berlin tries to torpedo EU deal with US for bank data exchange
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said on Friday Berlin would try to stop an EU agreement to transfer bank information to the United States. “The federal government has distanced itself from the SWIFT agreement,” she told the Berliner Zeitung daily. “I consider it unfortunate that the EU is trying to push through this agreement according…
Swiss privacy watchdog to sue Google Street View
Back in August, when Hanspeter Thür, Switzerland’s Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, demanded that Google withdraw Street View from Switzerland, Google responded by pledging to blur more and do more to protect personal privacy. Whatever steps Google took were apparently not sufficient, as Frank Jordans of the Associated Press now reports that Thür has…
EU draft council decision on sharing of banking data with the US and restructuring of SWIFT
From Wikileaks.org: Summary The CIA and other intelligence agencies have long been interested in the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecomminications (sic), or SWIFT. The Society, headquartered in Belgium, is the primary system used for international, and some national, bank transfers. Whoever controls SWIFT has access to the full details of millions of yearly bank…