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…
DK: New law strips blind of voting privacy
A new directive from the Interior and Social Ministry that visually impaired voters must have a council representative present with them in the voting booth has raised the ire of human rights groups. Moreover, the new requirement is in violation of both the constitution and the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with…
Opinion: Hong Kong’s data protection review is inadequate
Simon Sorockyj writes: Aligning Hong Kong’s laws with those of countries that protect data is important. Personal data is the lifeblood of modern commerce and its flow should not be restricted as it is today by an outdated regime. For the past two years, Hong Kong’s data protection regime has been under review and that…