Dick Ahlstrom reports: People are in effect giving up a piece of their bodies when they provide personal biometric data, meaning tight controls are needed to ensure the data is properly used, according to the Irish Council of Bioethics. The council this morning publishes a considered opinion, “Biometrics: Enhancing Security or Invading Privacy?” The substantial…
Category: Surveillance
DOJ Settles Former Drug Agent’s Suit for $3 million
The federal government has agreed to settle for $3 million a long-running suit in federal district court in Washington that alleged a former CIA officer and a State Department official unlawfully eavesdropped on a drug enforcement agent in Burma. The terms of the agreement were detailed in court papers filed Tuesday night in the U.S….
UK: Councils’ surveillance powers curbed
Alan Travis reports: The “surveillance state” powers of local authorities to snoop on the public are to be curbed under reforms announced by the home secretary, Alan Johnson. Junior council officials are to lose the authority to order surveillance operations including secret filming and eavesdropping for “trivial reasons” such as catching people putting out their…
NZ: Big Brother Will Be Watching You – The Search And Surveillance Bill
Chris Ford writes: Recently, the National Government decided to take up the previous Labour administration’s Search and Surveillance Bill. This bill would effectively make George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ character blush. Already both the Human Rights Commission and the Privacy Commissioner have condemned the bill. Human Rights chief commissioner Ros Noonan has called the proposed law…