http://www.theregister.co.uk/…

The government is pressing ahead with plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a massive central silo for all UK communications data, The Register has learned.

Home Office civil servants are working on plans for the database under the banner of the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP). The team has recently been expanded and a director-level official appointed to run the project, which is not yet official policy in public.

The project has been pushed hard at Whitehall by the intelligence agencies MI6 and GCHQ. One ISP source described their demands as “science fiction”. It’s envisaged that the one-stop-shop database will retain details of all calls, texts, emails, instant messenger conversations and websites accessed in the UK for up to two years.

Others have countered in Communications Data Bill discussions that a central, searchable database will not “maintain capability”, but grant investigators unprecedented power to cross-reference data sources (including location data from mobile phone triangulation), go on “fishing trips”, and infringe privacy.

The Information Commissioner’s Office voiced such opposition when early details of the IMP were reported in May. But according to our sources, public resistance to the überdatabase has so far had no significant impact on policy.

I reported on this in May. Doesn’t look like much has really changed but it seems that there has been some outrage over it. As expected the government doesn’t care what the subjects say and are continuing more or less full steam (as inefficiently as that is).

I think that if I were over in the UK I’d work to start a movement to fill the database. Generate huge amounts of bogus data. Modify email servers to throw in randomly sized file attachments from /dev/urandom into every message sent and the receive end can remove it. Either the government starts filtering everything which would increase necessary cpu power, they’d start dropping messages, or they log lots of completely bogus data. I think each scenario is a win. Push TOR and other anonymous/encrypted forms of communication and you render their efforts mute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

Ministers are to consider plans for a database of electronic information holding details of every phone call and e-mail sent in the UK, it has emerged.The plans, reported in the Times, are at an early stage and may be included in the draft Communications Bill later this year, the Home Office confirmed.

A Home Office spokesman said the data was a “crucial tool” for protecting national security and preventing crime.

Ministers have not seen the plans which were drawn up by Home Office officials.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Communications Data Bill will help ensure that crucial capabilities in the use of communications data for counter-terrorism and investigation of crime continue to be available.

“These powers will continue to be subject to strict safeguards to ensure the right balance between privacy and protecting the public.”

The spokesman said changes need to be made to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 “to ensure that public authorities can continue to obtain and have access to communications data essential for counter-terrorism and investigation of crime purposes”.

But the Information Commission, an independent authority set up to protect personal information, said the database “may well be a step too far” and highlighted the risk of data being lost, traded or stolen.

Assistant information commissioner Jonathan Bamford said: “We are not aware of any justification for the state to hold every UK citizen’s phone and internet records. We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable.

“Defeating crime and terrorism is of the utmost importance, but we are not aware of any pressing need to justify the government itself holding this sort of data.”

A number of data protection failures in recent months, including the loss of a CD carrying the personal details of every child benefit claimant, have embarrassed the government.

The plans also prompted concern from political groups.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said: “Given [ministers'] appalling record at maintaining the integrity of databases holding people’s sensitive data, this could well be more of a threat to our security than a support.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne called the proposals “an Orwellian step too far”.

He said ministers had “taken leave of their senses if they think that this proposal is compatible with a free country and a free people”.

And having millions of CCTV cameras are? Tracking people as they walk and drive around? Forcibly extracting DNA samples from people and keeping it on file even after they are found innocent? This guy acts as if this is anymore than a matter of degrees.

“Given the appalling track record of data loss, this state is simply not to be trusted with such private information,” said Mr Huhne.

Yes because that alone is the reason we shouldn’t be handing over all our communications to the monopoly on violence? How about the whole innocent before proven guilty idea we once had?

What scares me is the lack of outrage and the ease at which their version of Homeland Security advocates spying on their entire population. People in those positions of power should not be using 1984 as a roadmap. I think as the government grows in this way one of the responses is going to have to be infiltration of those who develop these systems and sabotaging them. A WMRN database would be far more palatable.

http://apnews.myway.com/…

A tech company with ties to a school district plans to test a tracking system by putting computer chips on grade-schoolers’ backpacks, an experiment the ACLU ripped Monday as invasive and unnecessary.The pilot program set to start next week in the Middletown school district would have about 80 children put tags containing radio frequency identification chips, or RFID chips, on their schoolbags. It would also equip two buses with global positioning systems, or GPS devices.

The school and parents will be able to track students on the bus, and the district hopes the program will improve busing efficiency, Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger said. The devices are intended to record only when students enter and exit the bus, and the GPS would show where the bus was on it’s route.

Parents could opt out of the program, Kraeger said.

The pilot program, made by MAP Information Technology Corp., is to run for several months at the Aquidneck School, she said. The district, which serves about 2,500 students, is the company’s only client, said Deborah Rapp, the company’s director of marketing and communications.

I don’t even understand how this is useful. Are they having problems with kids not getting on buses or jumping out windows while in transit? I’d be wrapping the RFID in a Faraday cage or would let it meet the microwave for a bit. The GPSed buses makes sense I suppose but I’m not sure how it would help improve efficiency. Just pick up a map, draw it’s route and solve.

http://www.engadget.com/…

Ah — dead, eerily-prescient, 20th century authors… they just can’t stop proving you right, can they? In a decidedly Orwellian turn, British authorities are considering a proposal to implant “machine-readable” RFID tags under the skin of some prison inmates as part of a plan to free up space in the country’s overcrowded prisons. Just like the nightmare world described in your favorite cautionary tales, the chips would enable authorities to track the location of implantees using satellite and radio-wave technology. The program would build off of the current ankle-tagging currently in place, and according to a official from the Ministry of Justice who finds the plan double-plus good, “All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue.” Of course, the controversial concept does have its detractors, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, says that, “If the Home Office doesn’t understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don’t need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass.”

Do these guys understand that a traditional RFID will not be picked up by a satellite? Even an active RFID only has a 2km range from my understanding and would need to be triangulated. Are they going to be putting lots of receivers up around town? Perhaps next to their cameras or on cell towers. I wonder how many of the people they intend to implant are in jail for non-violent victimless “crimes?”

First the pets, then your creditcards and IDs, then the kids bookbags, then the criminals, then every new born and finally all those left. We are halfway there with some people voluntarily chipping themselves already.

N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban

A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm.

“The margin between a child’s stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin,” said Sen. Nicholas Scutari.

If our society hadn’t gotten all uptight about guns we wouldn’t have to worry about this. Making this illegal won’t stop kids from getting realistic looking toy guns. Nor will it stop them from getting real ones. It’s the parents responsibility to make sure little Jimmy doesn’t get ahold of a firearm and it’s the cop’s responsibility to be reasonable when dealing with an uncertain situation.

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