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Commentary on trends in ever cheaper and more widespread surveillance technology being deployed by state and corporate bureaucracies and criminals.
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Bribery Bill 2009 clause 12 - some Secret Intelligence Service MI6 or Security Service MI5 exemptions, but why should Local Authority Trading Standards etc. ever be allowed to bribe anyone ?
Posted on November 20, 2009Another bit of proposed legislation, which will hopefully be lost due to the forthcoming General Election, is the flawed Bribery Bill 2009 For some reason it has been introduced by Jack Straw's Ministry of (In)Justice in the House of Lords. Note that there are no provisions to strengthen the legislation against corrupt lobbying by Members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords or of senior Whitehall Sir Humphreys...
Manchester area post codes where the foolish can apply for an ID Card
Posted on November 19, 2009The junior Home Office Minister Meg Hillier, who is at least as out of her depth about ID Cards and databases as her predecessors, has now signed the Statutory Instrument which kicks off a dubious small scale version of the National Identity Register, coming into force on the 30th November 2009, several years late...
Queen's Speech - "mobile phones in prisons" more useless, repetitive, legislation planned
Posted on November 18, 2009Although we are slightly relieved that no Communications Data Bill has been sneaked into the Queen's Speech, as originally threatened by the disgraced former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, this Labour Government simply cannot resist producing some more useless and repetitive legislation, as a public relations diversion to hide their failure to control aspects of modern technology...
Home Office summary of responses to the public consultation on "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating orders and codes of practice"
Posted on November 05, 2009The Home Office has published its summary of the responses to the public consultation Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating orders and codes of practice (1.7Mb .pdf) which ran from April to July. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: consolidating orders and codes of practice - responses to the consultation (269Kb ...
United Kingdom (England & Wales) Census Day / Night - Saturday 27th March 2011 - will you boycott the intrusive, snooping questions ?
Posted on October 22, 2009The Census is set to be inflicted on us on Census Day / Night - Saturday 27th March 2011 Since it has, unfortunately, become impossible to trust this or any future Government with our
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 conviction statistics
Posted on October 21, 200920 Oct 2009 : Column 1359W Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been convicted of offences under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; if he will commission research into the efficacy of the legislation; and if he will make a statement...
Does a Registered Post mass mailing in USA = Communications Data / Banking Secrecy law breach in Switzerland ?
Posted on October 18, 2009Here is a reminder reminder that not all Communications Data or Communications Traffic Data is purely about electronic.communications like email or web page surfing or phone calls etc.. According to Reuters: UBS registered mail warns U.S. clients on tax: report Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:40am EDT (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn, editing by Will Waterman) GENEVA (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS AG warned U...
Non-reportable injunctions - Mr. Justice Tugendhat, Mr. Justice Sweeney and Mr. Justice Maddison
Posted on October 17, 2009The now abandoned Trafigura / Carter-Ruck "super injunction" saga and its associated Streisand effect continues: This is the pathetic Government Written Answer to one of the Parliamentary Written Questions which were asked by Paul Farrelly MP at the same time as the one which Carter-Ruck attempted to suppress the reporting of: 15 Oct 2009 : Column 1010W [...
Carter-Ruck's Trafigura scandal non-reportable super- injunctions - Mr. Justice Maddison and Mr.Justice Sweeney
Posted on October 17, 2009WIkileaks have published a copy of the extraordinary "super-injunction" High Court Order 11th September 2009 Order by Justice Maddison in the Trafigura toxic waste dumping scandal. Minton report secret injunction gagging The Guardian on Trafigura, 11 Sep 2009 So far, they have not yet published the Order by Mr...
More illegal Mobile Phones in Prisons, more re-cycled Answers and Policies from the Ministry of (In)Justice
Posted on October 15, 2009Is the Ministry of Justice pretending to be "environmentally friendly", by re-cycling Parliamentary Written Answers, or are they simply re-cycling their ineffective "do nothing" policies ? Compare and contrast these two Written Answers about the ongoing scandal of Mobile Phones in Prisons: The earlier Answer by David Hanson (now the replacement for Tony McNulty at the Home Office) gave totals of Mobile Phones and SIM cards seized in 2006, 2007 and 2008 for each prison, but does not bother to total them up, so we have done so, in order to compare them with the mid 2008 to mid 2009 figure trotted out six months after the fact in the latest Answer, which only breaks out a High Security estate figure from the total...
Manchester Airport "child porn" Rapiscan X-ray scanner trial - why now, after all the other trials at airports or railway stations failed ?
Posted on October 13, 2009The Daily Mail and the
Who are the Judges who are granting secret injunctions on behalf of Trafigura and Barclays etc. ?
Posted on October 13, 2009Who exactly are the Judges who are are, for no good reason,imposing secrecy orders which attempt to hide the very fact that a rich client has hired expensive lawyers to attempt to suppress a newspaper story ?. There is often a case for Injunctions etc...
Is the "Internet Eyes" CCTV web monitoring "game" merely incompetent, or an actual scam ?
Posted on October 10, 2009There has been rather too much uncritical media hype in the Daily Mail and on the BBC , about the creepy "Internet Eyes" money making scheme. This is so fundamentally flawed that it is surprising that it has not been dreamed up by the Labour policy weasel control freaks at the Home Office or at the "Department for Communities and Local Government (who seem to be trying to drop the words "Department for" on their web site) Instead of employing properly trained and Security Industry Authority licensed, camera control room operators, but allowing them to use secure,Virtual Private Network video camera feeds, remotely from home (something which is potentially attractive to many part time or disabled workers) , the Internet Eyes scheme/scam tries to exploit the most gullible of "Big Brother" voyeurs, on the cheap...
Sunday Times: "recently retired C" lambasts David Miliband for the appointment of Sir John Sawers as the new Chief of SIS / MI6
Posted on October 04, 2009The Sunday Times has a fairly detailed article on Sir John Sawers, including criticisms of his appointment by retired incumbents and contenders for the post of Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). There are named quotations from Sir Richard Dearlove (Chief of SIS from 1999 to 2004) and Sir Francis Richard (Director of GCHQ from 1998 to 2003), as well as from another, anonymous, former Chief of SIS...
Sir David Pepper, retired boss of GCHQ, joins Thales UK advisory board - familiar photo in the press release
Posted on October 01, 2009Those of you who keep an eye on the revolving door between Government securocrat mandarins and lucrative jobs offered by the defence and security industry vested interests, may be interested in this press release from the French owned Thales Group subsidiary Thales UK plc...
5 more National Identity Scheme Statutory Instruments - do Thales Group and 3M Company employees realise that they face up to 10 years in prison for any mistakes or strikes?
Posted on October 01, 2009Here are some Statutory Instruments which show that the benighted National Identity Register and Scheme is creeping ahead slowly, presumably starting to come into force for the airside workers at Manchester and City of London airports after the 20th October 2009: SI 2009 No...
Compulsory dog ID microchips plan - Yet Another National Database of human names and addresses is not acceptable
Posted on September 28, 2009The Daily Telegraph has a disturbing report about an alleged compulsory plan to insert RFID microchip transponders in all dogs in the UK, and Yet Another National Database of human names, addresses and telephone numbers, which will not solve the underlying problems, and which will pose a Privacy and Security risk to millions of innocent people...
Castrol roadside billboard ANPR snoopvertising - another DVLA database privacy scandal
Posted on September 27, 2009Various motoring blogs etc.(e.g.
David Mery gets an apology for his unlawful arrest after 4 years - it should have been 4 days at most
Posted on September 26, 2009It has taken over 4 years for David Mery and his wife to receive an apology from the Police: On 28th July 2005, I was unlawfully arrested at Southwark tube station when attempting to take the tube after work to meet my wife. Chief Superintendent Wayne Chance, Metropolitan Police Service Borough Commander for Southwark, has eventually apologised to my wife and I for their actions and the trauma it caused us: I would like to apologise on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service for the circumstances that arose on 28 July 2005 including your unlawful arrest, detention and search of your home...
RIPA Commissioner and illegal Property Interference by the Environment Agency
Posted on September 21, 2009If the Rt Hon Sir Stephen Rose had been more transparent and explicit in his (censored) Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2008-200 (.pdf) under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and the Police Act 1997, which fails to "name and shame" the culprits at the "public authorities" who have been acting illegally, the perhaps today's story in the Daily Telegraph, about the increasingly meddlesome and authoritarian function creeping "Executive Non-departmental Public Body ", the Environment Agency, would already have been dealt with over 2 years ago...
International Action Day "Freedom not Fear 2009 - Stop Surveillance Mania!" on 12 September 2009
Posted on September 15, 2009Details of UK protests (and others mostly around the European Union), set for Sunday 12th September 2009, can be found via FreedomNotFear2009.org There is also the German manifesto (in English, very similar to last year's) at the www.freedom-not-fear...
How can we have confidence that the HMRC online tax return system is safe to use ?
Posted on September 14, 2009The Mail on Sunday reported : Hackers steal £1m in online tax scam By Stephen Condron and Christopher Leake Last updated at 9:11 AM on 13th September 2009 Police are investigating how criminals managed to steal £1million from the taxman by accessing a Government computer system and granting themselves rebates...
Sir Joseph Pilling appointed as National Identity Scheme Commissioner - how can a former Whitehall "Sir Humphrey" be "independent" of the Home Office ?
Posted on September 14, 2009The Home Office Identity and Passport Service has announced: Home Secretary appoints first Identity Commissioner 14 September 2009 The first Identity Commissioner, Sir Joseph Pilling, was confirmed today by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson. The first Identity Commissioner, Sir Joseph Pilling, was confirmed today by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson...
Why is there a need for a "Big Brother Watch" campaign by the TaxPayers' Alliance ?
Posted on September 06, 2009The Sunday Times carries this interesting announcement by the TaxPayers' Alliance, of a new campaign called "Big Brother Watch". Their website www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk currently states that this is due to launch in October. The fight against the "surveillance state" is obviously necessary, but what exactly can this new campaign achieve, that the existing campaign groups could not do just as well, or much better, if they had some more money ? From The Sunday Times September 6, 2009 Think tank: Be warned, Big Brother, I've got my eye on you Matthew Elliott begins a campaign against our surveillance state Matthew Elliott In June, Stewart Smith, who suffers from arthritis, was handed a £50 fixed penalty notice after dropping a £10 note in the street...
News of the World politics blog: alleged CIA intelligence sharing threat and the Operation Pathway intelligence failure
Posted on September 06, 2009How many people read the News of the World tabloid newspaper ? Quite a lot on Sundays, when the weekly paper edition is published . How many people read the News of the World's multi-authored "politics blog" on a Saturday ? At guess, hardly anyone at all...
MI5 Security Service web site re-fresh - shadow people and foreign language version inconsistency
Posted on September 04, 2009The MI5 Security Service website design was officially re-launched on the 1st of September 2009. - New version of Security Service website We have also introduced a new Freephone number (0800 111 4645) to make it easier for members of the public to contact us to report suspected threats to national security...
The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Commencement No. 3) Order 2009 - who will be apponted as the National Identity Scheme Commissioner ?
Posted on September 01, 2009The counterproductive and enormously expensive Labour government plan for a compulsory national centralised biometric database i.e. the National Identity Scheme, is creeping slowly onwards, regardless of all the criticisms, and the utter lack of a detailed technical specification or a detailed business plan for the scheme, even after 7 years of dithering by the Home Office, which has cost hundreds of millions of pounds so far...
ACPO eCrime Strategy - no clarity on international Extradition, nor on Collateral Damage to the innocent caused by eCrime investigations
Posted on August 27, 2009The unaccountable private company with a monopoly on public Police policies, Association of Chief Police Officer of England, Wales & Northern Ireland the ACPO e-Crime Strategy August 2009 (.doc 267Kb) What this document glosses over is the reduction of resources being allocated to fighting "eCrime", even compared with the inadequate, but now defunct National Hi-Tech Crime Unit...
Climate Camp Twits - 6consulting and the Metropolitan Police Service
Posted on August 25, 2009Another aspect of the political snooping which is being aimed at the Climate Camp political protestors and their sympathisers seems to be the new emphasis on Twitter and other Social Media like Facebook, Flickr and Blog monitoring and snooping The Metropolitan Police seem to have been advised to set up their own Twitter feed However this is a typical NuLabour centralised control freak mode i...
Snooping on the Climate Camp Swoopers via SMS text messages
Posted on August 25, 2009Tomorrow sees the start of the Climate Camp protest / demo / hippy / anarchist festival, which is being held at a some supposedly as yet still secret location in London. What in earth are they going to do for a whole week ? How much of the detailed scientific and political power arguments about "Climate Change" will actually be mentioned in the press and media coverage of this event ? Spy Blog is interested in the use and possible abuse of SMS text messaging to help organise this event, which, like the G20 protests seems to be trying to organise / manipulate several groups of people to gather at symbolic rallying points , most of which are associated with Climate Change "baddies" like oil company headquarters, bio-fuel and carbon trading speculators etc...
International Action Day "Freedom not Fear 2009 - Stop Surveillance Mania!" on 12 September 2009
Posted on August 16, 2009Details of UK protests (and others mostly around the European Union), set for Sunday 12th September 2009, can be found via FreedomNotFear2009.org There is also the German manifesto (in English, very similar to last year's) at the www.freedom-not-fear...
I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist !
Posted on August 12, 2009Obviously inspired by the Icelanders are NOT Terrorists" campaign, which highlighted just how inept and internationally embarrassing Gordon Brown and his henchman Alistair Darling's mis-handling of the Icelandic banking crisis, there is now another protest against this Labour government and its army of jobsworth apparatchik bureaucrats, who are making life hell for ordinary, law abiding photographers (i...
New Enemies - part 3 of BBC Radio 4 - MI6: A century in the shadows
Posted on August 10, 2009The last part of the 3 part BBC Radio 4 series MI6:A century in the shadows entitled New Enemies, has provided a few glimpses into the current world of UK Government "intelligence". However, as is always the case, this programme raises more questions than were answered by the senior current and former heads of the Secret Intelligence Service, Joint Intelligence Committee, diplomats, and politicians etc...
ACPO policy: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition
Posted on August 01, 2009The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has published: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (.pdf 892Kb) The policy advice on the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is mostly common sense, especially regarding actual roadside ANPR with at least two other mobile patrol vehicles to actually stop and search vehicles which have been flagged up by the ANPR / Police National Computer / Local Intelligence database system...
ACPO policy on ANPR: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition
Posted on August 01, 2009The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has published: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (.pdf 892Kb) The policy advice on the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is mostly common sense, especially regarding actual roadside ANPR with at least two other mobile patrol vehicles to actually stop and search vehicles which have been flagged up by the ANPR / Police National Computer / Local Intelligence database system...
Home Office: UK identity card image unveiled
Posted on July 30, 2009The Home Office has announced: UK identity card image unveiled The ID card image shows the information contained on the face of the card, including photograph, name, date of birth and signature, and the card's unique design. It will hold similar information to that currently contained in the UK passport as well as a photograph and fingerprints on a secure electronic chip - linking the owner of the card securely to their unique biometric identity...
Which was worse - the MI6 website spelling mistakes or the MI5 website Cross Site Scripting vulnerability ?
Posted on July 29, 2009The mainstream media like the Mail on Sunday, and The Sun, quoting the Conservative party spokesman and former military officer Patrick Mercer MP, have pointed out the embarrassing spelling mistakes made on the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 website Frank, a security officer, might have been expected to know there aren't three Ls in patrollling while, elsewhere, drivers taken on for chauffering duties (as opposed to chauffeuring) will be carrying out saftely checks and graduates can expect to have a great carees after joinging the service...
Gordon Brown maintains the dilution the Wilson Doctrine again
Posted on July 25, 2009Buried amongst the flurry of Government publications on the last day before the deliberately extended Parliamentary Summer to Autumn Recess, was Prime Minister Gordon Brown's latest utterance on the Wilson Doctrine. UPDATE: there were, by our count, an astonishing 1463 Parliamentary Written Answers published on this Last Day Before the Summer Recess...
RIPA Commissioners Annual Reports for 2008
Posted on July 22, 2009Regulation of Invesigatory Powrs Act 2000 (RIPA) Commissioners Annual Reports for 2008 (self censord, with a confidential annex): Report of the Intelligence Services Commissioner for 2008 - The Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Gibson Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner for 2008 - The Rt...
Terrorism Threat Level = SEVERE - what is anyone doing any different from before ?
Posted on July 21, 2009Yesterday the Security Service MI5, dutifully alerted us via email, that the Terrorism Threat Level had been reduceda notch from SEVERE to only SUBSTANTIAL Current threat level The current threat level is assessed as SUBSTANTIAL (as of 20th July 2009 - see threat level history for previous changes)...
How they do Lawful Interception of mobile phones and broadband internet in Switzerland
Posted on July 20, 2009Pending the publication of the RIPA Commissioners' Annual Reports, which might possibly be online on Tuesday or Wednesday, we would like to remind journalists, broadcasters and bloggers etc. not to confuse the meaningless statistics on the number of Communications Data requests (hundreds of thousands ? How many Subscriber Details, how many Location Data request, how many full Communications Traffic Data history requests ?) , with the meaningless statistics about the number of electronic communications Interception Warrants and Certificates (a couple of thousand ?)...
Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill - SOCPA to be replaced by Public Order Act powers in 250 metre Area around Parliament Square
Posted on July 20, 2009ParliamentProtest.org.uk blog - Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill - repeals SOCPA ss 132-138, but substitutes new enabling powers in a 250 metre Area around Parliament Square The Labour Government has today published its long awaited Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill The Good News - the abhorrent and undemocratic requirement for Prior Written Authorisation by the Police and arbitrary Restrictions on small or spontaneous demonstrations, near Parliament seems to be on its way to being repealed...
Satellite jammers in Iran ?
Posted on July 20, 2009Are these pictures of satellite jamming equipment on the top of the huge Milad Tower in Iran ? Or are they just mobile phone antennas ? According to Tehran Bureau - Jamming devices ? (4 more detailed pictures) From an Iranian source in the Middle East [unconfirmed] | "Satellite jamming devices (manufactured locally by Saberin Co...
RIPA Commissioners Annual Reports to be published on Tuesday 21st July 2009, just as Parliament breaks up until 13th October
Posted on July 17, 2009The Labour Government, fearful of by-election results, public opinion polls, the media, the Opposition and some of its own backbenchers, has reduced the amount of time available for Parliamentary scrutiny and "Westminster Village" media interest, by sneakily and unnecessarily extending the Summer Recess from the end of business this Tuesday 21st July until Tuesday 13th October i...
National Policing Improvement Agency annual report and accounts 2008-09 - mobile handheld computers, ANPR database, DNA database, PNC, IMPACT, Aircell for the Tube, Prüm
Posted on July 15, 2009Reading the National Policing Improvement Agency annual report and accounts 2008-09 we were reminded of our previous Spy Blog article: Police Receive £50 Million For 10,000 Hand Held Computers i.e. £5,000 each - are they gold plated ? - new window">Police Receive £50 Million For 10,000 Hand Held Computers i...
BBC Radio 4 - MI6: A Century in the Shadows - Monday July 27th 2009
Posted on July 12, 2009The BBC have emailed to suggest that this forthcoming radio programme might be of interest to Spy Blog readers, especially with the recent announcement of the appointment of Sir John Sawers as the incoming Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, and the Centenary of "the decision made by the Committee for Imperial Defence in 1909 to create a Secret Service Bureau...
"suspect your neighbours" Climate of Fear propaganda posters campaign cost £1.7 million, Terrorism Hotline costs £120,000 a year
Posted on July 11, 2009According to a Written Answer by the Home Office Minister Admiral Lord West of Spithead, the
Metropolitan Police Service incomplete "war on photographers" advice
Posted on July 11, 2009The Register reports: Met warns officers off photographers The return of copper plate photography? By John Oates Posted in Policing, 9th July 2009 12:59 GMT The Metropolitan Police has issued guidance to its officers to remind them that using a camera in public is not in itself a terrorist offence [...
Reminder: Home Office RIPA CoP Con closes today
Posted on July 10, 2009There is still time to send in your response (via email) to the Home Office Public Consultation on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating orders and codes of practice which closes officially today, Friday 10th July 2009. Ignore the attempt to only focus on the official Questions, and feel free to tell the Home Office your positive suggestions about, and constructive criticisms of, the current mess of Regulations...
Facebook, Mail on Sunday and Sir John Sawers incoming Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6
Posted on July 05, 2009The Mail on Sunday has another exclusive story about an aspect of data privacy and security, which are two ides of the same coin: MI6 chief blows his cover as wife's Facebook account reveals family holidays, showbiz friends and links to David Irving By Jason Lewis Last updated at 11:43 AM on 05th July 2009 The new head of MI6 has been left exposed by a major personal security breach after his wife published intimate photographs and family details on the Facebook website...
Alan Johnson lies about ID Cards and £1.2 billion a year identity fraud
Posted on July 02, 2009Spy Blog shares the sentiments and analysis published by Longrider in: Well, That Didn't Take Long... This deconstructs the Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson's appalling article in The Guardian We need identity cards, and soon. The claim that "Identity fraud" somehow costs the UK economy "£1...
UK Cyber Security Strategy - even more bureaucracy, but no financial budget, legislative power or democratic accountibility
Posted on June 27, 2009Back in November 2007, Spy Blog commented: Countering terrorism with more quangos - more detail of Gordon Brown's security statement The Labour Government has now published, without bothering to consult the general public, its first public UK Cyber Security Strategy, "coincidentally" in the same week as the US government re-launched their own military Cyberspace Command plans...
Tor relays and exit nodes for Iran, and for the rest of us
Posted on June 21, 2009The Twitterverse and the mainstream media seem to be convinced that Twitter and Facebook etc. are important in getting first hand reports and images and videoclips, past the Iranian government censors. Others acknowledge that these have helped to spread the story in the West, but are a bit more sceptical about what is actually being used successfully in Iran at the moment, They are also rightly critical of the pointless attempts at Denial of Service attacks on Iranian government websites etc...
NightJack blog versus The Times newspaper - are there wider implications for anonymous sources and writers ?
Posted on June 17, 2009Some sections the UK political blogosphere and of the newspapers, are discussing the implications of the recent failed attempt by a blogger to obtain an injunction preventing The Times newspaper from publishing his name as the author of an "insider,"on the job" blog based on his experiences as a serving Police Detective Constable See the ruling by Mr...
London School of Economics: Briefing on the Interception Modernisation Programme
Posted on June 16, 2009Researchers from the Policy Engagement Network, based in the London School of Economics Information Systems and Innovation Group, have produced a 57 page report, which is essential reading for anyone worried about the Home Office's EU Directive based mandatory Communications Traffic Data Retention laws, and their vague plans for extending this even further the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the review of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) codes of practice and legislation ...
Sir John Sawer KCMG appointed as the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI56
Posted on June 16, 2009Today' saw the announcement of the appointment of Sir John Sawers KCMG as the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 He is presumably now in the process of being briefed, to take over this role, when the present incumbent Sir John Scarlett retires in November...
ID Card scheme function creep - sneaky compulsory registration of mobile phones by the back door ?
Posted on June 15, 2009Although it seems that the Labour Government has delayed the Parliamentary rubber stamping, originally scheduled for this Wednesday, to sometime later, perhaps next month, a couple of the Secondary legislation Draft Statutory Instruments which list some more of the the devilish detail of the National Identity Register compulsory centralised biometric database and ID Cards scheme are now available online...
Will Home Secretary Alan Johnson bother to listen to opponents of the ID Cards scheme, during his supposed review "by the end of the summer" ?
Posted on June 14, 2009The Sunday Times seems to have been anonymously briefed again by Home Office and Downing Street spin doctors. Why does this Labour Government persist with such media manipulation and propaganda ? What harm would it do for the Home Secretary to officially announce such a Review of the policy ? Why do they have to sneak it out via a Sunday Newspaper briefing ? The Sunday Times June 14, 2009 Alan Johnson eyes ID card U-turn Jonathan Oliver, Political Editor ALAN JOHNSON, the home secretary, has launched an urgent review of the £6 billion identity card (ID) scheme, paving the way for a possible U-turn on one of Labour's flagship policies...
The Guardian reveals details of the mechanics of the failed Hotmail plot by the anti-Gordon Brown faction of Labour MPs
Posted on June 11, 2009The Guardian has a follow up article giving some details of the mechanics of the unsuccessful "Hotmail plot" by the anti-Gordon Brown faction of Labour Members of Parliament Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed The rebels switched from email to texts on a disposable mobile but bid to oust PM was doomed * Allegra Stratton, political correspondent * guardian...
Home Office ministers re-shuffled
Posted on June 09, 2009Gordon Brown has handed the poisoned chalice of the post of Home Secretary to Alan Johnson, presumably to diminish his chances of becoming Labour party leader, after Gordon Brown is removed or resigns. Johnson is now the 6th Labour Home Secretary since 1997,and we have no expectation that he will be any more competent than his predecessors...
HMRC tax records centre left unguarded by Mapeley, who also run the Passport / ID Card interrogation centre buildings
Posted on June 09, 2009The Daily Record reports: Nightwatchman left tax files centre open and unguarded while he sneaked off for a burger Jun 9 2009 By Stephen Stewart A HUNGRY security guard left highly sensitive files at risk while he went in search of a McDonald's. The nightwatchman quit his post at the Customs centre in Dundee and propped open a door so he could get back into the building as he had no keys...
Postman Patel - Edward Teague - Rest in Peace
Posted on June 09, 2009Craig Murray has confirmed that political blogger Edward Teague has died: In Memory of Ed Teague, Postman Patel The Postman Patel blog http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/ was one of Spy Blog's favourite blogs, with particularly interesting facts and commentary about Climate of Fear terrorism hype and on Russian oligarchs etc...
Who's Watching You ? - GCHQ's Sir David Pepper interviewed - but still too many surveillance topics in one tv documentary
Posted on June 08, 2009Overall, the short BBC2 tv documentary series Who's Watching You ? was of considerable interest, but our initial criticism still stands - they tried to cover far too many "surveillance" topics, several of which need much more explanation and analysis, for the public and politicians to be properly informed about their implications...
DVLA still selling drivers names and addresses to dodgy Private Wheel Clampers, according to The Times
Posted on June 06, 2009The Times reports that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is still selling your private name and address details to dodgy Private Wheel Clamping companies, despite their previous promises, after the previous scandal hit the media back in 2005...
signonnow@hotmail.co.uk - The Email Address Most Likely To Be Snooped On ? - Labour in crisis: the Hotmail conspiracy
Posted on June 03, 2009The Guardian newspaper has a story about The Email Address Most Likely To Be Snooped On over the next few days, which has some points of interest for political whistleblowers, political conspirators and investigative journalists and bloggers. Labour in crisis: the Hotmail conspiracy Over past month 'rebellion of all the talents' has never met but plotted by email, borrowing tactics from Trotsky * Allegra Stratton, Patrick Wintour and David Hencke * The Guardian, Thursday 4 June 2009 [...
Jacqui Smith to resign as Home Secretary - but when exactly ?
Posted on June 02, 2009The mainstream media are reporting that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is due to resign - good riddance ! When exactly will she go ? No doubt the Westminster Village will concentrate on her expenses scandals, but it is the repressive yet incompetent Home Office polices which she should have resigned over...
Has any other political blogger been spammed by The Jury Team ?
Posted on June 02, 2009Spy Blog is not aligned with any political party. We have had some unsolicited email spam today from Sir Paul Judge's The Jury Team: Return-Path: [...] (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) Good! Using START TLS should be the default for your SMTP email server - at least some of the intermediate email forwarding will then be strongly encrypted, and relatively secure against content snooping in transit N...
Steve Moxon - Home Office Immigration whistleblower vindicated by FOIA disclosures about Beverely Hughes
Posted on June 02, 2009Perhaps some of the scandals which have been suppressed by the deliberate Whitehall political delays to Freedom of Information Act requests, may now be slowly starting to emerge. Home Office Immigration scandal whistleblower Steve Moxon, writes: Beverley Hughes is quitting 'cos she's just been found out to be a liar: new FOI disclosures Beverley Hughes, MP and children's minister, is standing down, she says, to spend more time with her family...
Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6 / SIS worries about lost civil liberties
Posted on June 01, 2009The annual Hay Festival, held at Hay-on-Wye near the Welsh border, is a very genteel affair, but some of the authors and speakers who entertain the arts and meedja intelligensia and other Guardianistas venture into the realms of politics and society etc...
Richard Tomlinson versus MI6 rapprochement ? Is this due to the amended Terrorism Act ban on eliciting or communicating information about former intelligence agency officers ??
Posted on May 30, 2009Another Secret Intelligence Service MI6 anonymous briefing to the Sunday Times: From The Sunday Times May 31, 2009 MI6 woos home renegade ex-spy Richard Tomlinson David Leppard THE renegade former MI6 spy Richard Tomlinson has finally come in from the cold...
38 Degrees - will the data protection issues inhibit sign up ?
Posted on May 26, 200938 Degrees website (not a very snappy name) has launched, which hopes to somehow emulate the success of "grassroots" political campign movements like MoveOn.org, which successfully harnessed the internet to recruit activists and supporters and to raise money, in the USA...
RAF Innsworth stolen personnel security vetting files coverup
Posted on May 25, 2009The Guardian and the BBC (see BBC2 tv documentary Who's Watching You ? starts Monday 25th May 9pm) seem to have found out a little more about Yet Another Ministry of Defence Data Privacy / Security Scandal and the subsequent Coverup: Stolen RAF vice files spark blackmail fear Vetting data included drug abuse and use of prostitutes by senior officers * David Hencke, Westminster correspondent * guardian...
Illegal retention of Police surveillance photos of innocent people
Posted on May 23, 2009Will the Metropolitan Police and other Police forces curtail their "Surveillance State" abuses of photographs and videos of innocent people, following this legal Judgment in the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) ? Wood v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2009] EWCA Civ 414 (21 May 2009) For an expert legal view, see the Panopticon blog Privacy and the Police - Important Court of Appeal Judgment It is important to note that the result of the Court of Appeal's judgment is that the taking of the photographs did not per se constitute a unlawful interference with Mr Wood's right to privacy...
BBC2 tv documentary Who's Watching You ? starts Monday 25th May 9pm
Posted on May 23, 2009A new television documentary series: Who's Watching You ? begins on Monday, 25 May, 2009 at 2100 BST on BBC Two. According to the BBC web pages: Episode 1: Surveillance society? Richard Bilton meets people who watch us and those who have fallen foul of modern surveillance A new three part series looks at why the UK has become one of the most watched places in the world - with millions of CCTV cameras, a growing network of number plate recognition cameras, one of the largest DNA databases in the world and government plans for the basic details of all our phone calls e-mails, and every internet site we visit to be logged and kept...
Home Office and research about the (lack of) effectiveness of CCTV in reducing crime
Posted on May 19, 2009The Home Office has been recently citing a review of published academic studies on Closed Circuit Tele Vision (CCTV). Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker even managed to use the word "privacy" in the same breath as "CCTV", which may be a first for a Labour Home Office Minister, or it may just be more NuLabour Orwellian newspeak re-definition of a common English word, to have virtually the opposite meaning...
ISC report (again) on the 7th July 2005 London bomb attacks - some jargon explained, but still no blame on MI5 or the Police for intelligence failures
Posted on May 19, 2009It is hard to see how Yet Another Censored Report by the Intelligence and Security Committee into the 7th July 2005 London bomb attacks will satisfy the victims and their families and many others, who want an actually independent Public Inquiry. They still have not bothered to examine any possible links with the failed 21st July 2005 attacks...
Naming of the MP Expenses whistleblower leak intermediaries ?
Posted on May 17, 2009The MP's expenses scandal seems to have paralysed the "Westminster village" of professional politicos for the last couple of weeks or so. Given Spy Blog's interest in Whistleblowers and in the privacy and security of anonymous whistleblowing sources (see our Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers, Investigative Journalists, Political Bloggers and Activists - http://ht4w...
SOCA Annual Report 2009/09 - Appendix III: SOCA Reports and Assessments 2008/09 - will these be made public ?
Posted on May 14, 2009The secretive Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has published its SOCA Annual Report 2008/09 (.pdf) (72 pages) The Times recently published a comment, with which we agree: The budget for Soca is about £400 million, compared with the £2.5 billion a year designated for counter-terrorism, leading to criticism that the Government has never taken organised crime seriously...
Gordon Brown pretends that "knife crime" is a "new kind of crime"
Posted on May 12, 2009Why is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister ? Both the BBC and The Times (UPDATE: and the official transcript of the speech on the number 10 Downing Street website) quote him, without seeming to notice or care about exactly what nonsense or deceit he was uttering: Mr Brown told a crime conference in west London: "We face new kinds of crime - especially knife crime, organised crime, e-crime and identity theft BBC: Brown unveils anti-crime strategy The Times: Failing Serious Organised Crime Agency to be overhauled [UPDATE] even the Official Transcript of the Speech on the No...
National Identity Cards Scheme creep - 4 Draft Orders laid before Parliament under the Identity Cards Act 2006
Posted on May 12, 2009The Labour Government seem to be intent on their freedom and civil liberties "scorched earth" policy of inflicting the controversial centralised biometric database National Identity Register on us ahead of the General Election. Will Parliament rubber stamp these 4 new Statutory Instruments published today, and kick off the National Identity Register, even before a National Identity Scheme Commissioner is appointed ? Will the BALPA and UNISON trades unions who represent airside workers at Manchester and London City Airport, take industrial action and finance test cases through the courts, against this discriminatory imposition of ID Cards on them ? What they want is a single security credential, capable of opening doors and barriers to gain access "Airside", which is valid at all UK airports...
UK computer forensics expert Jim Bates wins High Court appeal against a police search warrant
Posted on May 09, 2009Hopefully none of the Forensics Experts mentioned in the previous Spy Blog article Operation Alegbra child rape convictions in Scotland: open WiFi tracking, digital camera image forensics will get treated like the UK Digital Forensics expert Jim Bates, who, despite 30 years experience as an expert for both the Prosecution and the Defence, in many cases involving child porn images on computers, seems to have been targeted by the Police, and arrested, on exactly the same charges as most of the people in the Operation Algebra case were convicted of i...
Operation Alegbra child rape convictions in Scotland: open WiFi tracking, digital camera image forensics
Posted on May 09, 2009"Child Abuse" is one of the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse regularly invoked as a justification for ever more Government snooping and censorship of the internet, even though these problems have existed for thousands of years before the internet was invented...
Operation Algebra child rape convictions in Scotland: open WiFi tracking, digital camera image forensics
Posted on May 09, 2009"Child Abuse" is one of the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse regularly invoked as a justification for ever more Government snooping and censorship of the internet, even though these problems have existed for thousands of years before the internet was invented...
Home Office spinning about 6 and 12 years data retention for innocent people's DNA profiles and Fingerprints
Posted on May 07, 2009The smug and complacent, yet incompetent and untrustworthy, Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and her side kick Vernon Coaker, have been spinning their grudging response to the European Court of Human Rights Judgment against them in the Marper case, regarding their illegal and immoral retention of innocent people's DNA human tissue samples and analysed DNA profiles on the Police National DNA Database...
GCHQ: our Intelligence and Security mission in the Internet age
Posted on May 03, 2009The Daily Telegraph newspaper, used to be seen as a Tory leaning newspaper, but recently,it seems to have become a Labour government / Whitehall bureaucracy official mouthpiece. As such,it seems to be the only mainstream media publication which carries a denial of the report by The Sunday Times and The Register, regarding the internet snooping capability upgrade investment supposedly being made at the Government Communications Head Quarters GCHQ, electronic communications spying agency...
Communications Data public "consultation" with only one permitted option
Posted on April 27, 2009The delayed and modified Home Office "consultation" on Communications Data snooping and retention. Protecting the Public in a Changing Communications Environment (.pdf) 690Kb Responses, by Monday 20th July 2009 to: Nigel Burrowes Communications Data Consultation Room P...
Jacqui Smith: more weasel words about the hrassment of innocent photgraphers
Posted on April 22, 2009More weasel words from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith about the harassment of innocent photographers: 20 Apr 2009 : Column 27 Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab): Can I seek an assurance from my right hon. Friend that the circumstances that led to the photographs being taken in Downing street do not lead to further pressures on the rights of photographers, both professionals and amateurs, to take photographs in this country, especially as this event coincided with an incident in the past few days where somebody was allegedly challenged by a police officer for taking photographs of a bus garage? We need to learn lessons from the event and draw together the common-sense work being led by my hon...
BBC Radio 4 iPM - Can U See Me ? CCTV camera spotting and sousveillance
Posted on April 21, 2009Spy Blog has been counting visible CCTV spy / surveillance / safety cameras, for over 10 years now ("from habit that became instinct"). We have even conducted and advised on "spot the CCTV camera tours" for the benefit of artists, academics and the media etc...
Damian Green MP arrest - Police tampering with computer evidence or political snooping on civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti ?
Posted on April 18, 2009The latest allegation in the Damian Green MP arrest scandal, is that, according to The Times: From The Times April 18, 2009 Shami Chakrabarti was target in police search Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson Police who arrested the Conservative frontbencher Damian Green trawled his private e-mails looking for information on Britain's leading civil liberties campaigner...
Public Consultation on reforming parts of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
Posted on April 18, 2009If we can summon up any enthusiasm, or delude ourselves that the Home Office politicians might genuinely listen to our concerns and practical suggestions, then Spy Blog might make a formal submission to this new Public Consultation: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating orders and codes of practice (...
The arrest of opposition Senator Stuart Syvert in Jersey - another Damian Green MP style scandal ?
Posted on April 17, 2009The scandalous arrest of Damian Green MP is not the only case of an elected member of Opposition who has been arrested and snooped on by the Police and Government in the British Isles, for doing his job and raising controversial allegations from whistleblowers, actions which should be protected by Parliamentary Privilege...
The arrest of opposition Senator Stuart Syvret in Jersey - another Damian Green MP style scandal ?
Posted on April 17, 2009The scandalous arrest of Damian Green MP is not the only case of an elected member of Opposition who has been arrested and snooped on by the Police and Government in the British Isles, for doing his job and raising controversial allegations from whistleblowers, actions which should be protected by Parliamentary Privilege...
Operation Pathway arrests - where are the explosives or weapons ?
Posted on April 14, 2009Fascinating as the repellent Downing Street spin and defamation scandal involving Gordon Brown and his Labour party apparatchik henchmen is, it is not the only scandal to have emerged last week. There was also the resignation of Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who was the head of the Counter-terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police Service...
Re-appointment of the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Intelligence Services Commissioner
Posted on April 04, 20092 Apr 2009 : Column 79WS Written Ministerial Statements Thursday, 2 April 2009 Prime Minister Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Intelligence Services Commissioner Gordon Brown (Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour) In accordance with Section 57 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, I have re-appointed the right hon...
Is Huwaei really more of a security risk to the UK Critical National Infrastructure than other foreign telecommunications equipment companies like Cisco or Ericsson ?
Posted on March 29, 2009The Sunday Times has an article about the unspecified potential threat to the UK's telecomms cloud, and thereby to the UK's Critical National Infrastructure, posed by Chinese designed and manufactured equipment from
Is Huawei really more of a security risk to the UK Critical National Infrastructure than other foreign telecommunications equipment companies like Cisco or Ericsson ?
Posted on March 29, 2009The Sunday Times has an article about the unspecified potential threat to the UK's telecomms cloud, and thereby to the UK's Critical National Infrastructure, posed by Chinese designed and manufactured equipment from
How much "war on terror" training for "tens of thousands" of people is the Labour government providing ? As little as 3 hours (including a coffee break)
Posted on March 23, 2009Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown's article in The Observer yesterday, managed to use the headline "war on terror", even though, only a few months ago, the consensus seemed to have been, that this phrase is actually counterproductive. We are about to take the war against terror to a new level Gordon Brown The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009 [...
Passion and Dalliance blog: Why you need balls of steel to operate a Tor exit node
Posted on March 19, 2009This blog posting about the experience of a former Tor exit node server operator in the UK, is worrying: Passion and Dalliance blog: Why you need balls of steel to operate a Tor exit node I became interested in Tor in the spring of 2007 after reading about the situation in Burma and felt that I would like to do something, anything, to help...
OGC finally publish the two Stage Zero Gateway Reviews of the ID Cards programme - 1510 days = 4 years 1 month 18 days after the initial Freedom of Information Act request
Posted on March 19, 2009The Office of Government Commerce, an Agency of Her Majesty's Treasury, has finally publish the two Stage Zero Gateway Reviews of the ID Cards programme It has taken- 1510 days i.e. 4 years 1 month 18 days after the initial Freedom of Information Act request, which should, according to the law, and the principle of "open government" and public transparency, have taken no more than "20 working days"...
The Polygraph Rules 2009 - more "Lie Detectors", but not for the politicians and spin doctors
Posted on March 17, 2009Julian Assange, investigative editor of the whistleblower leak publishing website WikiLeakS.org, rightly bemoans the decline in paid investigative journalists - he says that there are as few as 40 such journalists working for newspapers in the USA these days...
Metropolitan Police terrorism fear Propaganda Poster lies about bombs, reconnaissance and CCTV cameras
Posted on March 16, 2009The contract of advertising agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy with the Metropolitan Police Service expires at the end of March. They are being
The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 come into force on 6th April 2009
Posted on March 16, 2009If you search for news articles about the European Union Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC, you will, unfortunately find several articles, even from the computer and telecommunications technical press, which claim that the new mandatory requirement to store Communications Traffic Data logfiles for 12 months came into force yesterday, something which is not strictly accurate in the United Kingdom...
The BBC botnet - UK cyber crime policing is still hopeless
Posted on March 14, 2009The BBC TV program Click, which showcases new technologies, especially internet related ones, has broadcast an interesting half an hour special today (available for the next 7 days via the online BBC iPlayer). They investigated the world of Botnets, of thousands of trojan horse malware infected, mostly home PCs running Windows, connected via broadband internet connections, which are used to send most of the world's spam email and also for Distributed Denial of Service attacks...
National Security Forum appointees - why is there no pandemic disease or biotech or financial markets or cyber security expertise ?
Posted on March 10, 2009Back in August last year, we were puzzled by the National Risk Register, which supposedly reflects the Government's strategic planning underpinning our national security. See: Has the National Risk Register been politically censored ? This National Risk Register seemed to magically reduce the risk of nuclear war to zero, and decided that the risk of pandemic flu was at least as likely as that of severe weather...
Weekend newspaper briefing spin that the controversial Data Orders Clause 152 of Coroners and Justice Bill is to be abandoned
Posted on March 08, 2009Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for (In)Justice, appears to Governing Through Weekend Newspaper Briefings, again, with the news that the controversial Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, which could have effectively destroyed the Data Protection Act, is to be dropped from the Bill...
Intelligence and Security Committee report for 2007 - 2008 - SCOPE Phase 2 cancelled, even more snooping planned
Posted on March 07, 2009The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is an increasingly useless way for the Government to pretend to provide independent scrutiny of the secret intelligence agencies. The ISC's highly censored Annual report, sometimes provide a few tantalising glimpses of what these agencies are wasting our public money on, without providing any hard evidence of any actual successes, and with no indication of value for public money...
The Convention on Modern Liberty is over - now what are you going to do to save our freedom and liberty ? Get rid of Clause 152 from the Coroners and Justice Bill
Posted on March 02, 2009Liberal Democrats - Freedom Bill 2009
Posted on February 26, 2009The Liberal Democrat's Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has launched a rough, work in progress Freedom Bill 2009.: http://freedom.libdems.org.uk/ This picks 20 of the repressive NuLabour (and a few Conservative) bits of legislation to repeal , or rights and freedoms to restore...
Sir David Omand on Protint - 'protected information' data mining of personal sensitive data by intelligence agencies
Posted on February 25, 2009Perhaps because of the media interest in the Convention on Modern Liberty, both The Guardian and the Press Association via the The Independent newspapers, have quoted from a discussion paper published over 2 weeks ago by the NuLabour "think tank" lobbyists at the Institute for Public Policy Research, through which several Labour party surveillance nanny police state policies have been "market tested", to see if they can be slipped through past the public and Parliament, without too much vocal opposition...
Practical things to do and bring to the Convention on Modern Liberty
Posted on February 23, 2009Apart from an open mind, there are several things which you can bring along to the Convention on Modern Liberty - Bloggers Summit on Saturday. The list of speakers is interesting enough, but the real benefit of such events is the chance to meet and interact with like minded people, face to face, and to to establish a foundation of trust in future online communications...
Privy Council Intercept as Evidence Advisory Group interim progress report 9th February 2009
Posted on February 20, 2009The House of Commons Library now has a copy of the bPrivy Council Intercept as Evidence Advisory Group interim progress report 9th February 2009 (.pdf image scan only) As predicted in our previous blog article, Chilcot Advisory Group on Intercept Evidence (lack of) Progress Report, there has been little tangible progress in the last year...
Information Tribunal orders publication of the early ID Cards Programme Gateway Reviews, again
Posted on February 20, 2009The Information Tribunal, re-constituted after the previous one was overruled by the High Court, on the grounds of Parliamentary Privilege, has yet again ruled in favour of the publication of the the by now very out of date, but still important, Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews into the early stages of the Home Office's controversial ID Cards Programme which became the compulsory centralised biometric database National Identity Register scheme...
Former MI5 Director General Stella Rimington's interview with La Vanguardia
Posted on February 17, 2009The Daily Telegraph (followed by the rest of the mainstream media and plenty of blog commentators) have reported the comments of the former Director General of MI5 the Security Service, Dame Stella Rimington, about her unease with the the current Labour Government's legislative assault on our civil liberties...
Where are all the Home Office press releases ? 177 spin doctors but only 5 press releases a week ?
Posted on February 16, 2009Spy Blog was trying to be fair to the Home Office Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Security Vernon Coaker, who was quoted on the topic of Communications Traffic Data retention, access and snooping, in this article in the Daily Telegraph, last Thursday Councils to be given power to snoop on calls and emails Councils and public bodies are to be able to access all email, telephone and internet records, sparking new fears over the surveillance state...
Chilcot Advisory Group on Intercept Evidence (lack of) Progress Report
Posted on February 14, 2009It is now over a year since Spy Blog commented on: Privy Council Chilcot Review report on Intercept Evidence - more *** in which we noted the lack of any technical telecomms or internet or computing expertise amongst the group of Privy Counsellors who conducted it...
Sir James Crosby's Review on Identity Assurance being written out of history by Gordon Brown ?
Posted on February 12, 2009Sir James Crosby's resignation as Deputy head of the Financial Services Authority quango yesterday occupied much of the political news agenda yesterday. One point which stood out during Prime Minister's Questions, was when Gordon Brown was squirming and tried to dissociate himself from the resignation, by attempting to downplay the closeness of Sir James as an economic advisor to Gordon Brown himself...
A couple of photos of some Police officers and VIP vehicles - whilst we still can
Posted on February 12, 2009Before publishing such images is banned under the Terrorism Act section 58A which comes into force on Monday, (they might still be banned retrospectively), here are a couple of photos of some Metropolitan Police motorcycle outriders, delaying ordinary traffic, in favour of possibly Gordon Brown or someone else who thinks that they are important, traveling in a two car convoy, turning from Holborn into Kingsway in central London, yesterday...
Home Office reponse to Consultation on second phase of EU Comms Data Retention Regulations (internet email, internet telephony etc.) coming into force on 6th April 2009
Posted on February 12, 2009The Home Office has now published its responses to the Consultation on Consultation: Transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC which closed back in October 2008. This is the extension of mandatory Communications Traffic Data Retention, beyond what would be otherwise permitted under the Principles of Data Protection i...
Serious Crime Act 2007 used to harass Indymedia server colocation administrator
Posted on February 10, 2009Our fears about the wretched Serious Crime Act 2007, and its likely use to chill political dissent and free speech appear to have been borne out. See our previous article: Serious Crime Act 2007 - proof of how useless the Opposition is to Labour's repressive legal fantasies The Register reports the chilling news that: Police bail sysadmin in animal rights extremism probe - Colo contract prompts Serious Crime Act arrest By Chris Williams Posted in Law, 10th February 2009 15:01 GMT A Sheffield man has been released on police bail after being questioned in connection with comments posted to the activist news website Indymedia, which included the personal details of a prominent High Court judge...
Mass photography protest - 11 am Monday 16th February 2009, Metropolitan Police HQ, New Scotland Yard
Posted on February 09, 2009It will be interesting to see if the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson reacts to this protest against the stupid and repressive Labour Government's terrorism laws, and the inept way in which some of his officers interpret them: Monday, 9th February 2009 Photographers snap into action over new law Comedian Mark Thomas is to join with NUJ members in an event to highlight the threat of a new UK law that could be used against press photographers taking pictures of the police...
Sunday Telegraph - British Jobs For British Spies ? MI5 overwhelmed, or lobbying for even more resources ?
Posted on February 08, 2009The Sunday Telegraph has two stories about Foreign Spies in the United Kingdom, which, if true, raises serious Questions about the current performance of MI5 the Security Service., claiming that the traditional espionage threat against the UK is not being dealt with because of the resources diverted to anti-terrorism investigations...
Surveillance: Citizens and the State - HoL Constitution Committee report
Posted on February 07, 2009House of Lords Constitution Committee 2008-2009 session - Second Report: Surveillance: Citizens and the State This report is important, bur we fear that the usual Labour Government combination of technological fantasist ignorance, together with their "nanny police state knows best" political arrogance and media spin, will try to cherry pick it, and will ignore its most important recommendations...
Exactly what correspondence or communications between MPs and their Constituents is protected by Parliamentary Privilege ?
Posted on February 05, 2009The House of Commons, collectively, and, the Speaker of the Commons in particular, is failing to make clear to the public, exactly what correspondence and communications , including electronic communications, between a Member of Parliament and his or her Constituents, or other MPs or whistleblowers, is protected under Parliamentary Privilege...
Lords Constitution Committee report "Surveillance: Citizens and the State" to be published on Friday 6th February 2009
Posted on February 05, 2009Lord Norton, one of The Lords of the Blog, writes: Surveillance: citizens and the state [...] The Lords Constitution Committee has spent over a year undertaking an inquiry into the impact of government surveillance and data collection and the effect it has on the privacy of individuals and their relationship with the state...
Metropolitan Police seeking MPs Parliamentary privileged emails without a warrant
Posted on February 03, 2009The Metropolitan Police Service appears to be trying to get hold of email correspondence between Members of Parliament, without first getting a warrant.
London Calling Photographers debate - Know your rights: Facing the police crackdown on public photography
Posted on February 03, 2009The current illegal bureaucratic "War on Photographers" is being debated tomorrow by the London Calling Photographers group: See their wiki page for this meeting tomorrow Wednesday 4th February 2009: London Calling Photographers' Meeting 4th february 2009 Know your rights: Facing the police crackdown on public photography London Calling Photographers are proud to announce the first debate...
Ralph Bendrath: Privacy in Germany 2008: A new fundamental right, a privacy mass movement, and the usual surveillance suspects
Posted on January 29, 2009Ralph Bendrath has an excellent summary of the struggle for privacy and data security rights in Germany during 2008: Privacy in Germany 2008: A new fundamental right, a privacy mass movement, and the usual surveillance suspects Those of us in the UK who oppose this inept Labour Government's mania for repressive privacy and security destroying policies, should note that other countries like Germany have similar problems, and that there is hope that we can defeat them...
Do not donate money via the Disasters Emergency Committee DEC website
Posted on January 26, 2009Those of you contemplating giving money to charity via the much hyped Disasters Emergency Committee DEC, might wish to reconsider. Remember that they pressed criminal charges against Daniel Cuthbert, an IT security consultant, under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, after he had donated £30 on his credit card (obviously leaving his own name and address etc) , but then had become worried that perhaps the inept website was vulnerable to phishng attacks etc...
Coroners and Justice Bill - Information Sharing Orders and other controversies
Posted on January 26, 2009There is still time to make use of WriteToThem.com, or other means of lobbying your Member of Parliament to get them to firstly actually debate, and then, hopefully reject, the sneaky Information Orders powers in the Coroners and Justice Bill, which gets its second reading today n the Commons, and will, presumably also get debate limited via a programming / guillotine motion...
How sneakily are Blue Sky Digital tracking NGO political campaign emails ?
Posted on January 26, 2009The UK Government are not the only people who want to track your emails, and to try to determine who your other emails contacts are. Email tracking is one of the snooping technologies which we try to keep an eye on, whether it is at the Communications Traffic Data logfile level, or through the use of tricks like web bug images in HTML emails, or URLS hidden in word documents or ...
How sneakily are Blue State Digital tracking NGO political campaign emails ?
Posted on January 26, 2009The UK Government are not the only people who want to track your emails, and to try to determine who your other emails contacts are. Email tracking is one of the snooping technologies which we try to keep an eye on, whether it is at the Communications Traffic Data logfile level, or through the use of tricks like web bug images in HTML emails, or URLS hidden in word documents or ...
Counter Terrorism Act 2008 - "attempting to elicit information" and secret DNA sampling and data sharing etc. come into force on February 16th 2009
Posted on January 22, 2009The awful and unnecessary Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 is creeping into force, having been partially commenced by the rubber stamping of this Order: 2009 No.58 (C.6) - Prevention And Suppression Of Terrorism - The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (Commencement No...
Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski - parliamentary office searched and constituency correspondence handed over to the Police, without a warrant
Posted on January 21, 2009The promises made by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Home Secretary, about new procedures and protocols to supposedly protect the correspondence of between Members of Parliament and their constituents, following the still ongoing Damian Green scandal, appear to be utterly worthless: [full Hansard link tomorrow] between 7...
A plague on The Sun ?
Posted on January 20, 2009Yesterday we noticed a typical "Climate of Fear" story published "exclusively" in the tabloid newspaper The Sun, but parroted by other newspapers like the Daily Mail (without attribution) and the Daily Telegraph, and by other media around the world, without any of them bothering to do any actual investigative journalism of their own: Deadliest weapon so far...
Lobby your MP to vote against the Freedom of Information (Parliament) Order 2009 this Thursday
Posted on January 19, 2009Please lobby your Members of Parliament to prevent them from exempting the details of their expenses from Freedom of Information Act requests, Specifically ask them to vote against the draft Freedom of Information (Parliament) Order 2009 (.pdf), this Thursday...
Rest in Peace: Patrick McGoohan and Sir John Mortimer QC
Posted on January 17, 2009This week saw the deaths of two men who have had a lot of influence in the seemingly never ending fight for our human rights and freedoms, namely the tv and film actor and director Patrick McGoohan and the lawyer and author Sir John Mortimer QC. Patrick McGoohan, despite a successful Hollywood career as an actor and director, is most famous in the UK, for the stylish tv series, The Prisoner , in which he starred, and also wrote and directed many of its 17 episodes back in 1968...
ICO Guidance on FOIA requests name and address for correspondence - another attack on Anonymity
Posted on January 13, 2009The Information Commissioner's Office has published some new Guidelines for Organisations, regarding the use of Anonymous or Pseudonymous Names by people who submit Freedom of Information Act requests: Guidance on Valid request - name and address for correspondence (...
Communications Data snooping - MI5 Jonathan Evans, BBC, DPP Kier Starmer
Posted on January 10, 2009This Tuesday 6th January 2009, there were some vague comments from Johnathan Evans, the Director General of MI5 the Security Service, regarding Communications Traffic Data snooping - embarrassingly, the mainstream media who were invited to the MI5 press briefing did not bother to ask any searching or detailed questions: "Opening up, but not lifting the lid" (The Guardian, 7 January 2009) "'We've got the terror gangs in check', says casually-dressed MI5 head in first-ever interview" (Daily Mail, 7 January 2009) "Terror trials 'reduce threat to UK'" (Daily Mirror, 7 January 2009) "We're foiling terrorists - but threat remains" (The Sun, 7 January 2009) "MI5 chief warns of threat from global recession" (Daily Telegraph, 7 January 2009) "MI5's spymaster Jonathan Evans comes out of the shadows" (The Times, 7 January 2009) N...
Remote Searching of Computer Hard Disks - remember that RIPA etc. do not protect business premises from arbitrary intrusive surveillance, property inteference etc.
Posted on January 05, 2009As some people have emailed pointing to this story in the Sunday Times, Police set to step up hacking of home PCs we feel duty bound to comment on what seems to be another of bit of anonymous Whitehall briefing and spin via the well connected journalist David Leppard...
Google.co.uk - politically insensitive and inaccurate Metropolitan Police Service "Extremist" Sponsored Links and AdWords campaign
Posted on January 04, 2009The dangers of Deep Packet Inspection coupled with sponsored advertising keywords, e.g. the notorious Phorm, or just the dangers of sponsored search engine keywords coupled with the exisiting and future Communications Traffic Data retention and snooping databases, is illustrated by the inept Metropolitan Police Service Google AdWord / sponsored link campaign, currently afflicting www...
Tom Watson and the US Air Force Blog Response Flowchart
Posted on January 02, 2009We have a grudging respect for Tom Watson the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, now a junior Government Minister, a Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, as he was one of the earliest Members of Parliament to dare to publish his own blog. "As the minister in the UK government responsible for digital engagement", he appears to be impressed by a US Air Force Blog Response flowchart: and seems to think that British Civil Servants could benefit from it...
Sir Ken Macdonald, former Director of Public Prosecutions: "This database would be an unimaginable hell-house of personal private information"
Posted on December 31, 2008The Guardian reports: Private firm may track all email and calls, quoting Sir Ken Macdonald, the recently retired Director of Public Prosecutions: Private firm may track all email and calls 'Hellhouse' of personal data will be created, warns former DPP Alan Travis and Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian, Wednesday 31 December 2008 The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary...
Press Association: Police 'secretly taped Damian Green arrest'
Posted on December 24, 2008The Press Association, via The Guardian reports:
For how much longer will the UK media and bloggers be able to freely investigate stories like the Bob Quick anti-terrorist policeman / family wedding cars business story ?
Posted on December 21, 2008The Mail on Sunday has been delving a little into the business dealings of the controversial Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, now in charge of the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command, formerly the Chief Constable of Surrey. Given the new "thought crime" provisions brought in by the Labour government, through the recent Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, will such investigative journalism, or any further analysis by bloggers etc...
Deja vu yet again - where are the Annual (calendar year) Reports of the RIPA Commissioners ?
Posted on December 18, 2008It is late December, the House of Commons is about to take an extended break until January 12th, for no good reason, except to further reduce the amount of detailed scrutiny of the Government which they are supposed to do As in previous years, we have been awaiting the publication of the Annual Reports of the supposedly Independent Commissioners, all former High Court Judges, who are meant to oversee and audit the operation of the the Government's snooping and interception powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000...
Jacqui Smiths speech to Intellect - do we have - safeguards, openness, proportionality and common sense - or a surveillance society ?
Posted on December 16, 2008What is your definition of a "surveillance society" ? It is probably not the same as Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's still secret definition. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, like her Labour party fellow travellers, seems to be spewing Orwellian doublethink and newspeak, where normal sounding English words, have their meanings utterly reversed, without displaying any sense of shame, or pang of conscience, at their perversion...
UK Big Brother Awards - boos for NuLabour, hurrahs for Sarah Ludford, Phil Booth, Helen Wallace, Gareth Crossman, Becky Hogge and David Davis
Posted on December 11, 2008After a 4 year hiatus, the ever bust Simon Davies, of Privacy International, has re-instituted the UK Big Brother Awards, to recognise some of the people who have been trying to keep the monsters of state and corporate mass surveillance , snooping and control at bay...
BBC Politics Show - Police payments to mobile phone companies for Communications Data
Posted on December 10, 2008The BBC's Politics Show broadcast last Sunday, has collated some Freedom of Information Act disclosures on the financial payments made by Police Forces to mobile phone companies, to reimburse them for the cost of providing Mobile Phone Communications Traffic Data...
House of Commons lets the Government neuter the inquiry into the search of Damian Green MP's offices and emails.
Posted on December 08, 2008The Government has managed to neuter the enquiry promised by the Speaker of the House of Commons last week into the search of the offices and emails etc. of opposition Conservative frontbench spokesman on Immigration, Damian Green. This was supposed to be an immediate Parliamentary Committee of 7 experienced MPs, with the power to call everyone involved in Government to report, in public, "as soon as possible", ,the Police and the House of Commons bureaucracy as witnesses...
Wilson Doctrine and Parliamentary emails and the arrest of Damian Green MP
Posted on December 06, 2008Business of the House: Government Information (Unauthorised Release) (4 Dec 2008) Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) (Lab):: A little while ago I had a hand in getting the Prime Minister to reaffirm the Wilson doctrine, and he extended it to modern electronic surveillance...
ECHR judgment on the Marper case - rules that UK Government and Police indefinate retention of innocent people's tissue samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints is illegal
Posted on December 04, 2008The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has finally published its judgement in the long running Marper case, about the indefinite retention of DNA tissue samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints by the Police, even when people are not charged or found not guilty of an alleged crime...
NPIA Practice Advice on Stop and Search in relation to Terrorism and on the War on Photographers
Posted on December 02, 2008The National Police Improvement Agency, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers has now issued some updated advice: Practice Advice on Stop and Search in relation to Terrorism (.pdf) Every person searched under section 44 should be told explicitly that they are not suspected of being a terrorist...
Damian Green - Conservative MP frontbench spokesman arrested for political whistleblowing to the media
Posted on November 27, 2008Some people refer to the unpopular Labour Government as "New Labour" or "NuLabour", or, to draw parallels with the evil dictatorship of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe as "ZANU Labour". Most people with an interest in politics in the UK take this joke / mild insult in their stride, but surely even members of the Labour party must feel scared by the news that the Conservative MP Damian Green, their frontbench Home Affairs spokesman on Immigration, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and has had his homes and offices searched, including his office at the Palace of Westminster, by "Counter Terrorism Police"...
Privacy International - Speaking of Terror: A survey of the effects of counter-terrorism legislation on freedom of the media in Europe
Posted on November 26, 2008Why is it that our politicians, both in the UK and in the rest of Europe, seem to be so weak, that they have allowed themselves to be manipulated by the terrorist threat, and vested securocrat interests, to weaken our fundamental freedoms and liberties, without any noticeable gain in actual security...
Tony Blair and phone security
Posted on November 25, 2008ABC News in the USA has a whistleblower story: Whistleblower: U.S. Snooped on Tony Blair, Iraqi President Initially this whistleblower David Murfee Faulk alleged illegal snooping on the phone calls of innocent US citizens, including journalists and the families of US soldiers serving in Iraq...
BNP Membership List - the mainstream media seem to be at least 2 days behind blogs etc.
Posted on November 20, 2008The BNP Membership List publication affair demonstrates how blogs and internet web sites can be 2 or 3 days ahead of the mainstream media regarding some news stories. We have been getting tens of thousands of visitors to our 21st December 2006 article: Encryption and the BNP membership list - does your political party or campaign group protect your personal details with encryption ? commenting on the laudable use of encryption by the BNP of their membership list details, something which is, obviously in this case, still vulnerable to betrayal by a privileged insider, just like so many UK Government centralised national databases are, despite the weasel words from the Labour party politicians...
Bomb resistant Architecture and Design competition from the Home Office - will the new US Embassy in London be next ?
Posted on November 15, 2008Those lovers of awful Orwellian control architecture, the Home Office, which festered for years in the creepy, brutal and impractical 50 Queen Anne's Gate buildings, with their notorious heating and ventilation systems. have set up a Competition for Architects and Designers: Home Office launches counter terrorism competition for design students It is easy to partially protect buildings for the elite, against suicide truck bomb attacks, through the use of ancient fortification techniques like moats and a raised piano nobile - which were originally designed against ancient or medieval battering rams and rioting mobs of peasants...
Wandsworth Prison IMB report 2007-2008 - things have got even worse with illegal drugs and mobile phones in the last year
Posted on November 11, 2008Apart from retaining the Communications Traffic Data on millions of innocent people (with plans for even more extensive snooping under the Communications Data Bill), and admitting to the electronic bugging of Member of Parliament Sadiq Khan (now a junior Government Minister) when visiting his constituent Babar Ahmad (who has not been charged with any offence in the UK, but is awaiting extradition to the USA, without any prima facie evidence having been brought against him in a UK court) in prison, what has this labour government done about the ongoing scandal of thousands of mobile phones in Prisons ? See Spy Blog: Thousands of Mobile Phones seized in UK Prisons - evidence of corruption ? What has Jack Straw and his Prisons Minister David Hanson, who made vague promises to the BBC, actually done about this scandal in the last year ? The 2007 - 2008 Independent Monitoring Board annual report for Wandsworth prison (...
House of Lords minor amendment to the Counter-Terrorism Bill - removing your innocent DNA from Government databases
Posted on November 08, 2008The House of Lords has voted to accept a minor Opposition Amendment regarding the removal of innocent people's DNA profiles, human tissue samples and fingerprints from centralised Government database, during the first part of the Report stage of the controversial Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 See the debate and the vote: Tuesday, 4 November 2008 Counter-Terrorism Bil The wording of the amendment: "National guidelines on fingerprint and sample database (1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations publish national guidelines for governmental agencies establishing-- (a) a procedure by which a person can request a statement of what information relating to fingerprints and samples is held on them or on a dependent; (b) a procedure by which a person can request that such information held on them or a dependent is destroyed (c) the circumstances in which a request under paragraph (b) may be refused...
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell loses Cabinet ministerial "red box" correspondence on a train
Posted on November 02, 2008It is said that a fish starts to rot from the head first, so it comes as no surprise that the ambitious, the Government Minister with direct responsibility for the Government Gateway passwords etc. USB memory device scandal (see the immediately previous Spy Blog article) is James Purnell, the former Labour apparatchik and now Secretary of State for Work and Pensions...
Government Gateway USB memory device with system passwords and source code found in a pub car park
Posted on November 02, 2008The Mail on Sunday has a scoop report, picked up by the other mainstream media, under a somewhat misleading headline, Yet Another Government IT Security Failure: Tax website shut down as memory stick with secret personal data of 12million is found in a pub car park By Daniel Boffey Last updated at 11:06 PM on 01st November 2008 Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details...
Official Secrets Act prosecutions and media spin - Richard Jackson has been treated more leniently than Corporal Daniel James
Posted on October 28, 2008Today's guilty plea by Richard Jackson, to a single offence under the Official Secrets Act 1989 section 8 Safeguarding of information The BBC reports Official fined over missing files A senior civil servant has been fined after pleading guilty to leaving top secret documents on a train...
BBC1 8.30pm Panorama - You can run... but can you hide? - personal data privacy and security abuses
Posted on October 27, 2008Regular readers of Spy Blog will not be surprised by any of the revelations in tonight's BBC TV Panorama documentary, BBC1 8.30pm, You can run... but can you hide? which illustrates how easy it is for your personal data privacy and security to be abused, by supposedly trustworthy Government and Corporate authorised insiders, who sell or carelessly give out your data...
Icelanders are NOT Terrorists !
Posted on October 23, 2008The bungling Labour Government and Gordon Brown's mis-handling of banking and financial market regulation, as Chancellor and as Prime Minister, makes him personally at least as much to blame as anybody else on the planet, for the current international financial and banking crisis of of confidence...
Kim Howells appointed as Intelligence and Security Committee chairman
Posted on October 22, 2008Some of you may remember the empty promises made by Gordon Brown back in July, The proposals published in this green paper, 'The Governance of Britain', seek to address two fundamental questions: how should we hold power accountable, and how should we uphold and enhance the rights and responsibilities of the citizen? See : 'The Governance of Britain (...
Counter-Terrorism Bill clause 83 reminder - chilling effect on reporting or speculation about military or intelligence service or police personnel ?
Posted on October 20, 2008Just a reminder that the remaining Committee stages of the dreadful Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008, being debated in the House of Lords today, still contain plenty of things which should not be allowed onto the statute book. e.g. The Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 clause 83 Offences relating to information about members of armed forces etc...
Sunday Times: mandatory mobile phone registration database ?
Posted on October 19, 2008How long does it take to list the obvious impracticality and totalitarian evil of the idea of inflicting "identity checks" on the purchases of mobile phones and some sort of vague, inherently insecure registration plan for the 40 million or so unregistered prepaid mobile phones in the UK, as "leaked" or briefed, in today's Sunday Times article Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones ? Try it and see, and then compare your list with the many valid, reasonable objections, raised in the informed comments on the NO2ID Campaign's discussion forum: Times: Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones
Borders and Lothian Police ANPR data mining for "ethical income generation" and "creating and exploiting business opportunities" for Northgate Information Solutions
Posted on October 18, 2008We will eventually get around to fisking Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's Communications Data Bill and dodgy history of terrorism speech, but here is another "database state" function creep announcement: It appears that Northgate Information Solutions, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lothian & Borders Police, regarding some sort of Automatic Number Plate Recognition data mining service...
War on Photographers - Police "guidance" to be published in November ?
Posted on October 18, 2008Do you trust Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, not to further encroach on our freedoms or liberties whenever possible ? Her record in office to date, is at least as bad as her notorious Labour predecessors as Home Secretary, therefore we are worried by this announcement of some forthcoming "guidance" to the Police: Written answers Tuesday, 14 October 2008 Home Department Terrorism: Stop and Search Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, Law Officers; Beaconsfield, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance her Department has given to the police on the exercise of their power under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to stop and search those taking photographs in public places...
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - EU G6 plus USA Ministers discussing "remote searches of computer hard drives"
Posted on October 18, 2008Before we try to decipher Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's speech which she made on Wednesday, there are a couple of clues to some more potential repression of innocent people, which she seems to be endorsing in the near future. In the perfunctory "going through the motions without actually informing Parliament of any details", Ministerial Statement on her "informal" meeting with a select few of her European Union police and "security" Ministers, the so called G6 group, together with the USA...
MoD statement confirms loss of the 1.7million record TAFMIS recruitment database, yet again
Posted on October 14, 2008A Ministerial Written Statement confirms the story in The Sun, and our speculation that it was the TAFMIS (Training Administration and Financial Management Information System) database which has been lost, yet again: See the previous Spy Blog article - The Sun: MoD data on 1m is missing - EDS again 13 Oct 2008 : Column 28WS Data Security
Court of Appeal ruling on RIPA Part III section 49 notices and section 53 prosecutions regarding law enforcement access to encryption keys etc.
Posted on October 13, 2008Hat tip to David Mery, for spotting this before us: The Court of Appeal has recently ruled on a case involving the Regulation of Investigatory powers Act 2000 Part III Investigation of electronic data protected by encryption etc section 49 notices and section 53 prosecutions regarding law enforcement access to encryption keys or forcing the hand over of de-crypted material etc...
Counter-terrorism Bill - covert DNA sampling and analysis with no effective safeguards
Posted on October 12, 2008Media reports about the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008, currently being debated in the House of Lords, seem to be focussed exclusively on the 42 days internment without charge issue, which may or may not be dropped by the obstinate, unelected, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown...
The Sun: MoD data on 1m is missing - EDS again
Posted on October 10, 2008According to The Sun, the UK Ministry of Defence appears to have lost Yet Another Unencrypted Hard Disk With Over a Million Sensitive Personal Data Records on it.
Home Office - Code of practice for public authorities disclosing information to a specified anti-fraud organisation under sections 68 to 72 of the Serious Crime Act 2007
Posted on October 08, 2008It looks as if the combined efforts of the WhatDoTheyKnow.com FOIA request submission and tracking website, together with the interest in the topic shown by the BBC Radio 4 iPM programme - Share What They Know?, has eventually resulted in the disclosure of the "missing" Statutory Code Of Practice, which is supposed to regulate the infinite powers under the Serious Crime Act 2007, for public authorities to share your personal sensitive data, without your prior informed consent, with private sector "specified anti-fraud organisations"...
Cabinet Re-shuffle leaves vacancies for two Ministers of State at the Home Office, and the Chair of the intelligence and Security Committee
Posted on October 03, 2008Prime Minister Gordon Brown's desperate attempt to save his political career by playing musical chairs with his inept crew of Ministers is being ignored somewhat by the main TV broadcast media. Neither the BBC News 24 nor Sky News have given this Cabinet Re-Shuffle story their top billing, and have concentrated on the twice disgraced Peter Mandleson, who oozes back to his former job at the Ministry of Trade and Industry , subsequently re-branded misleadingly as BERR, the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform...
Home Office promises £3.5 million for the new Police Central e-crime Unit - what happened to the £25 million that the old National Hi Tech Crime Unit launched with in 2001 ?
Posted on October 02, 2008Who seriously believes that there is less "cyber crime" in the United Kingdom in 2008 than there was back in 2001 ? Presumably the Home Office does, given its announcement of the paltry £3.5 million over three years funding which they are spending on the new Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU - hardly a memorable acronym), See the Home Office Press release:
Computer Misuse Act amendments come into force on 1st October 2008
Posted on September 29, 2008The controversial amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which were brought onto the statute book by the Police and Justice Act 2006, are finally coming into force this Wednesday 1st October 2008. See: SI 2008 No. 2503 The Police and Justice Act 2006 (Commencement No...
Freedom Not Fear Day - Saturday 11th October 2008
Posted on September 29, 2008Freedom Not Fear Day - Saturday 11th October 2008 It is not just in the United Kingdom that people are getting heartily sick of the repressive technological control freakery, which supposedly democratic governments are imposing on their populations, in wasteful, ineffective, often counter-productive "security theatre" attempts to "Be Seen To Be Doing Something" about political and sociological problems, like crime or terrorism...
BT Webwise Phorm deep packet inspection snooping without consent trial starts Tuesday September 30th 2008
Posted on September 29, 2008The
Where are the Most Menacing CCTV Spy Cameras ?
Posted on September 23, 2008There are now generations of children who have never known life without CCTV camera surveillance in the United Kingdom. We are no safer from crime as a result of the millions of such cameras snooping on much of our lives. Long gone are the days when the snoopers could only afford, or were only content, with just a single spy camera...
Still time to email your MEP regarding the Telecoms Package Amendments
Posted on September 23, 2008There is still time to email / fax your Member of the European Parliament e.g. via WriteToThem.com, ahead of tomorrow's vote on some dubious amendments to some forthcoming European Union telecommunications and internet legislation. See The Open Rights Group for details: ask your MEPs to vote for Telecom package amendments 133 and 138 La Quadrature du Net has a wiki with the Telecom Plenary Package Amendments in question...
The Noor Hanif letter and political blog censorship via the threat of expensive legal action
Posted on September 17, 2008Spy Blog does not usually get involved with blog tag memes, whereby one blogger nominates a few others to comment on a particular topic, and then to pass on the same meme to others, chain letter style. However, we have been involved in the Streisand Effect, in defence of the right to free speech of political bloggers and the public in general, regardless of the fact that they might be expressing political views which we disagree with...
BBC Panorama - interesting transcript of the full interview with Ray White regarding GCHQ and the Omagh bomb attack
Posted on September 15, 2008Our previous article BBC Panorama - GCHQ mobile phone interception and tracking and the Omagh bomb attack and speculations, seem to have been broadly correct. The half hour broadcast programme itself, did not really add any extra factual details to the Sunday Telegraph article...
The Daily Mail is still confused by images of the MI5 and MI6 headquarters buildings
Posted on September 15, 2008Why do the Daily Mail's online picture editors keep mis-identifying images of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) headquarters building at Vauxhall Cross, at the corner of Vauxhall Bridge and the Albert Embankment, on the South side of the river Thames in London, with that of the Security Service (MI5) ? The latter is at Thames House, on the North side of the River Thames, at the corner of Lambeth Bridge and Victoria Embankment, near to the Houses of Parliament...
West Midlands Police - lost or stolen 4GB USB memory device with "top secret terrorist investigation data"
Posted on September 15, 2008Here we go again. The Birmingham Post reports that: West Midlands Police search for lost memory stick Sep 15 2008 By Mark Cowan POLICE in the Midlands have spent four days searching for a computer memory stick said to contain top-secret information on terror suspects...
National Automatic Number Plate Recognition Database data retention function creep
Posted on September 15, 2008Back in 2005, we warned that the unelected, unaccountable quango, the Association of Chie Police Officers and the Home Office were creating, by stealth , and without any public debate or consultation, a new National Automatic Number Plate Recognition Database which could retain the vehicle movement data of millions of innocent motorists, for excessive periods of time, i...
BBC Panorama - GCHQ mobile phone interception and tracking and the Omagh bomb attack
Posted on September 14, 2008The forthcoming BBC Panorama television documentary Omagh - What The Police Were Never Told scheduled to be broadcast on Monday 15 September on BBC1 at 8.30pm might be of interest to regular Spy Blog readers. The Sunday Telegraph article The words that might have saved Omagh Could a coded message intercepted by intelligence have prevented the biggest atrocity of the Irish Troubles, in which 29 people died? Despite two trials, and millions of pounds spent, still no one is in prison for the Omagh bombing...
The next Home Office data security and privacy disaster ? Sharing all our financial details with private sector "specified anti-fraud organisations"
Posted on September 11, 2008Where will the next UK Government security and privacy data loss disaster occur ? Given how inept the Home Office has failed to implement policies of Data Minimisation (as recommended in the Data Sharing Review by the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Dr...
NUJ video - Press Freedom: "Collateral Damage"
Posted on September 09, 2008The National Union of Journalists has today released a press release and an online Flash video, which gives a glimpse of the deliberate targeting of even fully accredited media photographers who are covering political protests and dissent in the UK. NUJ film shows police obstruction of journalists The nine-minute video, called Press Freedom: "Collateral Damage", includes examples of the police obstructing journalists in their work...
Communications Data Retention - internet access, internet e-mail and internet telephony
Posted on August 28, 2008Chapter 46, The Bastion Saint-Gervais, The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, 1844 - text available online via Project Gutenberg: "But why did we not breakfast at the Parpaillot?" "Because we have very important matters to communicate to one another, and it was impossible to talk five minutes in that inn without being annoyed by all those importunate fellows, who keep coming in, saluting you, and addressing you...
New GCHQ careers recrutiment website launched - why is this not run securely by GCHQ themselves ?
Posted on August 22, 2008A new GCHQ careers recruitment website seems to have been launched this week at www.gchq-careers.co.uk This is again, like the MI6 Officers website (see our previous blog article - Yet Another MI6 Secret Intelligence Service recruitment website), a Government website which has been outsourced to a recruitment agency, in this case to TMP Worldwide For no good reason, this website does not bother to use a "...
Home Office and PA Consulting lose the names and addresses of all the most serious criminals in the UK
Posted on August 21, 2008It appears that the Home Office and their sub-contractor PA Consulting have put people's lives in danger, by losing an unencrypted memory stick, containing the personal name and address details of every prisoner in in the UK, about 84,000 people, and also the 43,000 most dangerous criminals...
Yet Another MI6 Secret Intelligence Service recruitment website
Posted on August 21, 2008The spy business in the UK seems to be booming, at least so far as the creation of Flashy, if somewhat flawed, recruitment websites is concerned There was a front page advertisement for MI6 Officers in The Guardian on Wednesday [hat tip to the Obsolete blog)] - see: Guardian readers, Britain needs you If nothing else, it's a good time to be a spy: it must be, MI6 is advertising on the front of the Guardian * Richard Norton-Taylor * guardian...
The Guardian - MI5 Restricted document - Understanding radicalisation and violent exrtremism in the UK - whistleblower leak or propaganda briefing ?
Posted on August 20, 2008The Guardian newspaper (Thursday 21st August 2008) claims a Front Page Exclusive story with three articles and a bloated 350Kb .pdf image scan of a single page: MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain Exclusive: Sophisticated analysis says there is no single pathway to violent extremism Background: the makings of an extremist Explainer: counter-terrorism strategy Why has the Americanism "Explainer" crept in to The Guardian ? Picture: the MI5 briefing note N...
Sunday Telegraph magazine article on the harrassment of photographers by jobsworths - time for a bit of sousveillance ?
Posted on August 15, 2008The Sunday Telegraph "Seven" magazine, has an article about the illegal Harassment of Photographers by officious jobsworths: Has our increasingly paranoid society declared war on the humble 'weekend snapper'? Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/08/2008 Page 1 of 3 An amateur photographer is chased by the police after taking pictures on the seafront; another man is frogmarched away when using his camera in a town centre...
Draft Constitutional Reform Bill Clause 43
Posted on August 13, 2008As we get further disillusioned with what passes for effective Parliamentary scrutiny of this Government's never ending output of ever more complicated legislation, which seems to be a substitute for actually achieving anything positive, we did notice that some of our worries about the Draft Constitutional Reform Bill are shared by some other people Joint Committee on the Constitutional Renewal Bill report CLAUSE 43 361...
Racist CCTV - facial recognition techniques used to classify people by race - thankfully this is only an art project !
Posted on June 15, 2008One of very first thoughts , upon learning that Facial Recognition image processing was actually being deployed on the streets of London, in the Borough of Newham, was that if the system had any success at all in picking out individual faces from a crowd, then it would not be difficult to use such a system to racially classify people by skin colour...
Terrorist financing and money laundering Treasury documents left on a train - time for Whitehall mandarins and Ministerial heads to roll
Posted on June 15, 2008Even whilst MPs and Lords were being fobbed off in Parliament last Thursday 12th June by Government Ministers, after the Joint Intelligence Committee Top Secret papers were left on a train, regarding the lax and arrogant culture of "these rules and procedures do not apply to me personally", which seems to be endemic amongst senior civil servants in central Whitehall departments, there was Yet Another Example which threatened to give intelligence assistance to enemy terrorists and organised criminals and to unfriendly or evil nation states...
Support the re-election of David Davis via PledgeBank
Posted on June 14, 2008The Labour party politicians and apologists in the mainstream media may be trying their best to ridicule David Davis' principled stand on liberties and freedoms, which are being betrayed by this authoritarian, yet technologically inept Government, but their online internet fellow travellers, are having rather less success...
Yet Another Review of Whitehall data security - Sir David Omand . Was it an MI5 Security Service officer who lost the Top Secret JIC documents on the train ?
Posted on June 13, 2008The latest Whitehall national security data scandal is, apparently, "very serious": Yes, Prime Minister Christmas Special - Party Games, BBC: 17 December 1984: Jim Hacker: "Yes, well this is serious." Chief Whip: "Very serious." Sir Humphrey: "Very serious...
David Davis seeks by-election to shame Labour over their creeping authoritarian surveillance police nanny state
Posted on June 12, 2008David Davis, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary and Member of Parliament for Haltemprice & Howden in Yorkshire, has announced that he will resign as an MP, and fight a by-election over the principles of civil liberty and the database surveillance state which the Labour Government have inflicted on us, bit by bit, over the last 10 years...
Counter-Terrorism Bill - disclosure of information to intelligence agencies
Posted on June 11, 2008One of the sections which caught our attention on first reading the text of the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 was what appeared to be a retrospective carte blanche, to cover up any past misdeeds of the intelligence agencies, with regard to the handling of confidential disclosures from people who have a duty of confidence e...
Top Secret Joint Intelligence Committee current intelligence assessments left on a train
Posted on June 11, 2008We are now almost into the second half of 2008, well after the promised tightening up of data security procedures and techniques promised by the still secret Reviews by Kieran Poynter and by Robert Hannigan, which following the scandalous data security and privacy disasters involving the HMRC Child Benefit lost CDROM disks, and the MOD recruitment database stolen laptop computer etc...
Counter-Terrorism Bill - Coroners Inquest nobbling vote won by the Government
Posted on June 10, 2008Our theory that all the fuss about "42 days" internment without charge would lead to the rest of the controversial measures in the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 being smuggled through without any effective opposition seems to be proving true. The vote on the controversial "Coroners Inquests nobbling" section of the Counter-Terrorism Bill: Ayes: 287 Noes...
Home Affairs Committee report - A Surveillance Society ? - unenforceable recommendations which the Government will simply ignore
Posted on June 08, 2008The House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs has published (in print, but , unaccountably in the 21st Century, there is no simultaneous public publication of a web version) a report entitled A Surveillance Society ?. As with similar Home Affairs Committee reports, they seem to interview and taken evidence from a reasonable selection of people, most of whom are critical of one or more aspects of Government policy...
BT internal report leak on illegal secret Phorm test
Posted on June 05, 2008The forthcoming British Telecom annual general meeting of shareholders at the Barbican in London on July 16th, could be interesting, with a planned protest by furious BT broadband customers who were secretly snooped on for the controversial Phorm advertising interception secret technical trial - see the NoDPI...
Andrew MacKinley MP - under secret surveillance ?
Posted on June 04, 2008Has Andrew MacKinley, the sometimes rebellious Labour MP for Thurrock, been snooped on by the secret intelligence agencies and by Labour Ministers ? Have his conversations with his constituents and others bee snooped on as well, in contravention of the Wilson Doctrine ? One of his constituents is Michael John Smith, who was convicted of passing aerospace secrets to the Russian KGB, but who is now trying to get his case reviewed...
Gordon Brown spinning unconvincingly for 42 days internment without charge - is this a diversion to allow the rest of the Counter-Terrorism Bill to sneak through without proper scrutiny ?
Posted on June 02, 2008Remember when Gordon Brown pretended that his Government would not be spinning important policy ideas to the favoured mainstream media before announcing them officially in Parliament first ? There has been no Statement or detailed Government consultation paper explaining the alleged "concessions" and supposed extra safeguards regarding the planned 42 days internment without charge (or even evidence) which is being planned in the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008...
National Grid electricity distribution cascade failure on Tuesday ?
Posted on May 27, 2008The Times reports, with the somewhat misleading headline: Blackouts hit thousands as generators fail From The Times May 28, 2008 Murad Ahmed and Steve Hawkes Hundreds of thousands of people were hit by electricity blackouts yesterday when six power stations shut down...
Transport Security Bill - implication that Royal Navy anti pirate operations are illegal ?
Posted on May 27, 2008One of the forthcoming Bills, which, for some short term political expediency and headlines, Gordon brown has decided to pre-announce, ahead of the Queen's Speech in November, is a Transport Security Bill The main part of this Bill appears to be intent on requiring the majority of airports in England, Wales & Scotland to agree a local airport security plan with their key stakeholders, based upon an agreed threat and risk analysis; Are we actually meant to believe that none of these airports and none of the local Police forces have any Security Plans at the moment ? If not, then why not ? The crucial part of this Bill appears to be allowing the policing element of this plan to be charged to the airport operator...
Police Receive £50 Million For 10,000 Hand Held Computers i.e. £5,000 each - are they gold plated ?
Posted on May 26, 2008Gordon Brown's dire speech to the Labour Party Conference last September promised, amongst other things,"10,000 hand held computers" for the Police. Incredibly, it seems that according to this National Policing Improvement Agency press release, and subsequent reports in The Register and by the BBC, each of these hand held computers is going to cost £5,000 each...
The Telegraph: Tories pledge to curb use of CCTV cameras - about time
Posted on May 21, 2008The Daily Telegraph reports some welcome political promises, which we will which hold them to in the future, from the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary David Davis regarding CCTV surveillance cameras. Tories pledge to curb use of CCTV cameras By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent Last Updated: 12:49AM BST 21/05/2008 A Conservative government would put strict new limits on the use of surveillance cameras, David Davis, the shadow home secretary, pledged on Tuesday night...
Path Intelligence FootPath(tm) mobile phone tracking - a few more details
Posted on May 20, 2008Toby Oliver from Path Intelligence has, via email, answered a few of our Questions and Concerns but raised a few new ones - see below. As a general point we don't use the phones IMEI's we use the TMSI and occasionally part of the IMSI See our previous article "Path Intelligence - Phorm for shopping centres ?" More coverage and comment at The Register
Has anybody missed the Home Office website(s) yet ?
Posted on May 19, 2008Various Home Office websites seem to be still suffering from serious problems which have effectively taken them offline. since late this afternoon. Websites affected range from the main Home Office website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk and the awful Press website (which never seems to have current Home Office Press releases available) http://press...
Path Intelligence - Phorm for shopping centres ?
Posted on May 18, 2008Just in case you thought that Phorm was the only threat to your privacy, here is an example of similar "no opt out" snooping technology being installed in the infrastructure of a public space, a shopping centre, which secretly snoops on individuals, without their informed prior consent, in the hope that advertising and sales revenues can be maximised...
Policing and Crime Reduction Bill announcement - already sneakily amended to remove references to Sir Clive Booth's police pay review
Posted on May 16, 2008When Spy Blog looked at the "Preparing Britain for the future" - Government's Draft Legislative Programme 2008/09 (.pdf) document yesterday, there was not the time, nor the energy to comment on the Policing and Crime Reduction Bill announcement. Yesterday we wrote: Gordon Brown has, either for genuine transparency in Government reasons, or, more likely, for cynical short term "Must be Seen To Be Doing Something" reasons just before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, pre-announced a list of forthcoming Bills, which would traditionally have been first revealed in the Queen's Speech in November...
Communications Data Bill announced
Posted on May 15, 2008Gordon Brown has, either for genuine transparency in Government reasons, or, more likely, for cynical short term "Must be Seen To Be Doing Something" reasons just before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, pre-announced a list of forthcoming Bills, which would traditionally have been first revealed in the Queen's Speech in November...
Hazel Blears and Sergeant Flanderka - "tension monitoring" i.e. snooping on local communities
Posted on May 13, 2008The Hazel Blears the NuLabour former Home Office Minister who introduced so much counter productive bureaucratic red tape and form filling when she used to be in charge of Policing and Counter-terrorism, is at it again, now that she is inflicting a new Community Snooping policy onto Local Government...
Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill - short call for evidence by June 12th 2008
Posted on May 12, 2008The Joint Select Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill (.pdf) has issued a public call for evidence: Joint Committee on the Constitutional Renewal Bill call for evidence (.pdf) According to their Press Release: "The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill has been heralded by the Government as a chance for Parliament to hold them to account more effectively and we will seek to find out how this can be achieved...
Mail on Sunday: strange "whistleblower spies" article
Posted on May 11, 2008The Mail on Sunday has put a strange spin on its "whistleblower spies" report, which must stem from the first evidence session of the Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill (not yet available online), which was, presumably held on Tuesday 6th May 2008...
The Guardian: Government scraps carbon card scheme for fear of ridicule
Posted on May 08, 2008Just in case any Labour party supporters or others, disillusioned with Gordon Brown (as we have always been) are thinking that David Miliband, the current Foreign Secreatry, would somehow be any less of a totalitarian control freak, regardless of his "good intentions", the Guardian reminds us of his Flagship Policy Idea when David Miliband (not to be confused with his equally reprehensible brother Ed Mliband, who is also a Labour Government Minister) was in charge of the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)...
ID Cards - significant criticism even from the Government 's own Independent Scheme Assurance Panel
Posted on May 08, 2008Every time that any group of independent experts with any real academic knowledge or practical business experience take a look at the Labour Government's disastrous ID Cards and centralised biometric database National Identity Register scheme, their conclusion is the same - yes, safeguarding people's individual identities from abuse by criminals etc...
Identity Cards scheme 10 year cost guesstimate report - illegally late again, fiddled figures, more spurious consultation threatened
Posted on May 07, 2008The Home Office tentacle, the Identity and Passport Service, has published the latest 10 Year Cost guesstimate Report for their increasingly hated Identity Cards and centralised biometric database National Identity Register scheme. Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report May 2008 (...
The Guardian: CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police
Posted on May 06, 2008It is hard to resist shouting "Told You So !": CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police Owen Bowcott The Guardian, Tuesday May 6 2008 Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned...
Photography does NOT equal Terrorism
Posted on May 05, 2008This example of the Suspiciously timed Climate of Fear propaganda campaign by the Police in the run up to the Counter-Terrorism Bill debates is actually being displayed in a window of the Metropolitan Police Service headquarters complex at New Scotland Yard, which backs onto Victoria Street...
How will Labour "listen to the electorate" - even more snooping ?
Posted on May 04, 2008The Sunday Times has an opinion article by Matthew Parris about the Labour party's disastrous results in the Local Elections and in London last Thursday: "My advice to Labour MPs - give up" One comment on this article chimed with our reaction to the "we must listen to the electorate" media spin uttered by Gordon Brown and the other NuLabour politicians, in a vain attempt to try to blame anybody and anything but themselves for their defeats: My first thought on hearing that New Labour intended listening to the electorate was to wonder whether said goal might be achieved in their minds through increased snooping on emails and bugging of telephone calls...
At least eight RIPA Part III section 49 notices have been served - All Your Crypto Keys Are Belong To Us
Posted on April 30, 2008The Home Office has given some vague details about the number of
Gordon Brown's Terrorist Asset Freezing bureaucracy - petty, incompetent and illegal
Posted on April 25, 2008On Thursday, the High Court made a Judgment in the case of 5 anonymous people who have been subjected to the Treasury's bureaucratic nightmare of financial asset freezing. Read the text of the Judgment on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute website: Neutral Citation Number: [2008] EWHC 869 (Admin) Case No: PTA 13, 14, 15, 17 & 19/2007 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION ADMINISTRATIVE COURT Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL 24 April 2008 B e f o r e : Mr Justice Collins ____________________ Between: A, K, M, Q & G Applicants - and - H...
Banksy "One Nation Under CCTV" - tourists and beggars
Posted on April 23, 2008The graffiti stencil artwork,"One Nation Under CCTV", presumably by "Banksy", which recently appeared in Newman Street in London, is definitely now a tourist attraction : Here are some more Spy Blog photos and social observations:
London ANPR mass surveillance snooping - Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose refused to get involved
Posted on April 21, 2008Just in case you thought that Spy Blog has not tried the available, alleged "checks and balances" which are supposed to prevent the disproportionate abuse of our privacy and freedoms, you might be interested in our brief correspondence with the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners, regarding the function creep of what were supposed to have been "save the environment" schemes: the London Congestion Charge and the London Low Emission Zone, but which have now mutated into a secretive, unaccountable, mass surveillance snooping scheme...
More secrecy over the London Congestion Charge and Low Emission Zone CCTV and ANPR spy cameras - data on innocents handed over to USA spooks
Posted on April 20, 2008The Daily Telegraph has a story which confirms our suspicions and fears about the controversial secret mass surveillance snooping scheme, which the London Congestion Charge, the London Low Emissions Zone and other linked Transport for London CCTV and ANPR systems have become, with not even a whimper of opposition from the incumbent Labour control freak Mayor of London...
Is graffiti artist Banksy being hypocritical with his "One Nation Under CCTV" art ?
Posted on April 16, 2008Former street graffiti artist "Banksy", whose often witty stencil graffiti artworks, now fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds in art galleries, is being credited with a new wall painting in London, which appeared over the weekend. The location is an "end of terrace" blank wall, on Newman Street, at the junction with Eastcastle Street...
Parliamentary Privilege allows OGC to win Appeal against having to disclose Gateway Reviews on ID Cards scheme
Posted on April 11, 2008Today's High Court Judgment regarding our FOIA request, made over 3 years and 4 months ago is totally unacceptable: High Court upholds OGC appeal against Information Tribunal and suppresses publication of the Home Office ID Cards Gateway Reviews, on grounds of "Parliamentary Privilege" Bad news for Transparency, Open Government,and Freedom of Information - the OGC has won their appeal in the High Court against the Information Tribunal, over the disclosure of the early Gateway Reviews of the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme...
e-petitions for the House of Commons by 2010 ?
Posted on April 09, 2008The Procedure Committee of the House of Commons has now published their Report about the possibility of introducing an e-petitions to the House of Commons, perhaps by 2010, based mostly on the on the experience of the No. 10 Downing Street e-petitions to the Prime Minister and the Scottish Parliament e-petitions systems...
Counter-Terrorism Bill - DNA and Data Sharing by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - no more Duty of Confidentiality or the Wilson Doctrine ?
Posted on April 03, 2008The Labour Government's latest terrorism legislation got an unopposed Second Reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday 1st April 2008. The Opposition parties and the media, as we predicted when the Bill was announced, have been distracted by the extremely controversial 42 days internment without charge provisions and have, so far, ignored all the other sneaky and repressive bits of the Bill...
Counter-Terrorism Bill - DNA and Data Sharing by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - no more Duty of Confidentiality or the Wilson Doctrine ?
Posted on April 02, 2008The Labour Government's latest terrorism legislation got an unopposed Second Reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday 1st April 2008. The Opposition parties and the media, as we predicted when the Bill was announced, have been distracted by the extremely controversial 42 days internment without charge provisions and have, so far, ignored all the other sneaky and repressive bits of the Bill...
NO2ID Database State hustings for the Mayor of London election candidates - Tuesday 8th April 2008
Posted on March 29, 2008The 10 candidates for the Mayor of London election , as well as those representing other groups contesting the Greater London Assembly elections, on May 1st 2008 are now officially listed by London Elects. Interestingly, the broad political spectrum cross-party NO2ID Campaign has organised a campaign hustings meeting, which will give members of the public and the press and media a chance to see how the candidates stack up against each other, in terms of their policies and promises for London, regarding privacy, security, surveillance, data protection, civil liberties etc...
NO2ID Database State hustings for the Mayor of London election candidates - Tuesday 8th April 2008
Posted on March 28, 2008The 10 candidates for the Mayor of London election , as well as those representing other groups contesting the Greater London Assembly elections, on May 1st 2008 are now officially listed by London Elects. Interestingly, the broad political spectrum cross-party NO2ID Campaign has organised a campaign hustings meeting, which will give members of the public and the press and media a chance to see how the candidates stack up against each other, in terms of their policies and promises for London, regarding privacy, security, surveillance, data protection, civil liberties etc...
Heathrow Terminal 5 fingerprinting temporarily delayed - bio-safety and computer security worries still remain
Posted on March 26, 2008It seems that British Airports Authority BAA has temporarily backed regarding Heathrow Terminal 5 mandatory fingerprinting of both domestic and international passengers, See The Daily Telegraph: Heathrow Terminal 5 fingerprint plans 'illegal' The Guardian: Terminal 5 fingerprinting scrapped The Register: BAA grounds Heathrow T5 fingerprinting system A previous article in The Register ICO queries Heathrow T5's huge fingerprint scam scan points to the fact that the fingerprint scanners are being supplied bythe German firm of Dermalog, who, no doubt produce excellent finger printing equipment regarding the optics, and scanning compression algorithms etc...
Danger ! Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill Part 6 tries to remove even the limited constitutional safeguards of the "destroy Parliament" Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006
Posted on March 26, 2008We were going to comment initially on the Draft Governance of Britain - Constitutional Renewal Bill (.pdf 98 pages) regarding the welcome plan to repeal sections 132 to 138 of the Serious Organised Crime Act 2005, which has chilled free speech and freedom of assembly in the over large Designated Area around Parliament Square and Millbank and Whitehall etc...
ICO asks BAA to justify mandatory fingerprinting at Heathrow Terminal 5
Posted on March 23, 2008It is welcome news that the Information Commissioner's Office is asking British Airports Authority to justify, under the Data Protection Act, the plan to force all passengers at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport to submit to intrusive fingerprint scanning and photography...
Awaitng publicaton of the National Security Strategy with a sense fear and foreboding
Posted on March 19, 2008Today should see the publication of Gordon Brown's alleged "National Security Strategy", which he signaled last summer and autumn, you know, the one which was supposed to have been published by Christmas. See previous Spy Blog articles: Gordon Brown's NuLabour "National Security Committee" - a Soviet style KGB or a US style NSC ? Countering terrorism with more quangos - more detail of Gordon Brown's security statement Since we, along with the rest of the public, are never actually consulted about such things, we have little expectation that this document will actually do anything to make us any more secure, or that the the resources available to the Government will actually be directed into the proper areas...
National Security Strategy - bias, omissions and weasel words
Posted on March 19, 2008The much hyped The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom - Security in an interdependent world (.pdf 64 pages) is now available online on the Cabinet Office website. Is anyone really clear about exactly how the current plans and policies of the Government actually fit with this National Security Strategy, except in the vague, generalised, non-specific, hand waving political management consultant speak terms ? A flavour of the various biases and omissions in this National Security Strategy document can be gleaned from a simple word count of some keywords and phrases: 2 mentions of "liberty" 4 mentions of "freedom" 5 mentions of "surveillance" 6 mentions of "horizon scanning" 15 mentions of "police" 86 mentions of "national security" 41 mentions of "risks" 34 mentions of "risk" 8 mentions of the "internet" 5 mentions of "cyber attack" 2 mentions of "cyber crime" 2 mentions of "money laundering" 24 mentions of "organised crime" 9 mention of "crime" 51 mentions of "terrorist" 53 mentions of "terrorism" 4 mentions of "flood" 11 mentions of "flooding" 11 mentions of "pandemic" 36 mentions of "climate" 4 mentions of "biological weapons" 37 mentions of "nuclear" 19 mentions of "proliferation" 32 mentions of "energy" 14 mentions of "Middle East" 14 mentions of "Iraq" 14 mentions of "Iraq" 26 mentions of "Afghanistan" 4 mentions of "Pakistan" 4 mentions of "Iran" 5 mentions of "India" 10 mentions of "China" 7 mentions of "Russia" 10 mentions of "United States" 1 mention of "Lebanon" 1 mention of "Irish" 1 mention of "Islam" 1 mention of "Islamic" The omissions are just as revealing: Zero mentions of "genetics" Zero mentions of "genetic engineering" Zero mentions of "biotechnology" Zero mentions of "Israel" Zero mentions of "Palestine" Zero mentions of "Ireland" These are serious omissions, given the potential and actual threats which they pose...
ACPO spokesman: Eugenics and kiddy printing - incompetence or spin ?
Posted on March 17, 2008What is the the Association of Chief Police Officers of England Wales and Northern Ireland playing at ? Either they have incompetent internal management systems for developing a consensus view on "policing policy areas", and then for communicating these to the wider public and the mainstream media, or they are guilty of NuLabour style media manipulation and spin, in support of a particular political or commercial agenda, despite claiming that the Police service is apolitical...
Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - trusted media contact details wanted
Posted on March 14, 2008The Reporters Without Borders: new updated version of the "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" inspired us to get around to revamping what had become a rather too long, but important blog article, which gave Hints and Tips for, initially, Home Office whistleblowers, investigative journalists and bloggers...
Farid Hilali in solitary confinement - voice analysis match of mobile phone intercept done in the United Kingdom
Posted on March 12, 2008It is still astonishing to us that the UK Government has still done nothing about the insult to our Supreme Court, the Law Lords of the House of Lords, whose Judgment on the extradition to of Farid Hilali to Spain, the first person to be arrested in the UK on a European Arrest Warrant...
Reporters Without Borders: new updated version of the "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents"
Posted on March 12, 2008The international press and online freedom group
Security Service MI5 website survey
Posted on March 11, 2008The Security Service MI5 website has a new user survey online, asking or feedback on the current, quite well designed, but rather limited. in terms of useful information, website. The survey does not ask for any personal details, but it does nag a bit, with most of the Questions being Required ones...
17th Century Bill of Rights attempt to suppress FOIA disclosure ?
Posted on March 08, 2008Why is the Speaker of the House of Commons helping the Executive branch of Government, to suppress freedom of speech and transparent open government, in a matter of huge public interest, by trying to abuse the Bill of Rights 1689 ? See Government and the Speaker of the House of Commons collude to try to abuse the 17th Century Bill of Rights to suppress the FOIA disclosure of OGC Gateway Reviews of the ID Cards Programme We are astonished and furious, that this Bill of Rights, is being abused in the High Court to try to weasel out of having to disclose the early (and now very out of date) Gateway Reviews of the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme (as it was then, circa 2002 / 2003), by the lawyers for the Government's Office for Government Commerce, supported by, incredibly, lawyers for the Speaker of the House of Commons, in their Appeal against the Decision of the independent Information Tribunal, which ordered full disclosure, in the public interest...
Jacqui Smith and National Identity Register spin, trying to hide the Crosby Report
Posted on March 07, 2008Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has now followed her dismal NuLabour / Old Labour extremist predecessors, by delivering a torrent of weasel words and nonsense in support of the wretched National Identity Scheme. Her speech and the associated National Identity Scheme Delivery Plan 2008 both seem to be designed by the Home Office spin doctors to try to deflect the attention of the media and the wider public from the Crosby Report, publication of which appears to have been suppressed for about a year by Gordon Brown...
HMRC FOIA response regarding the two tier tax return system of Special Categories for Celebs and VIPs etc.
Posted on March 06, 2008Another less than transparent response to a Freedom of Information Act request arrived by email on Thursday. See HMRC response to FOIA request for general details of the Special Categories of tax returns of Celebrities and VIPs etc. The actual response does address the 11 numbered Questions which were asked, each to a lesser or non-existent degree...
Suspiciously timed Climate of Fear propaganda campaign by the Police in the run up to the Counter-Terrorism Bill debates
Posted on March 05, 2008The latest "Climate of Fear" 5 week "counter-terrorism"advertising campaign in newspapers and on local radio, is being inflicted on the public in London, Manchester. West Midlands and West Yorkshire i.e. all the major urban city areas in England. See the Metropolitan Police Press Release Can it really be just a coincidence that this vague, "War on Tourism" / "War on Journalism" and "Snoop on Your Neighbours" propaganda will have peaked, in terms of mass media coverage, just before the votes in the House of Commons on the controversial Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 ? Why exactly could this counter productive propaganda campaign not wait until after the passage of the legislation through Parliament ? This latest campaign is even less specific than the previous one, (see "Trust your instincts" anti-terrorism propaganda - who is NOT under suspicion of terrorism ?) but it still targets perfectly innocent activities like taking photographs or video images as a tourist, or just as an amateur or professional photographer.
Surely the Phorm web page interception scam is illegal ?
Posted on March 03, 2008The Register has published some diagrams of how the appalling Phorm web advertising scheme will work, Major UK broadband Internet Service Providers British Telecom Retail, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk, all seem to have signed a "commercial suicide pact" contract, to abuse their customer's data privacy, without first obtaining their prior informed consent...
OGC High Court Appeal against FOIA disclosure of ID Cards Programme Gateway Reviews now set to start this Monday 3rd March 2008
Posted on February 27, 2008Why is the Government wasting public money on this High Court Appeal, which they must surely lose, and then be forced to comply with the rulings of both the Information Commissioner and of the Information Tribunal, to fully disclose to the public, the now out of date Home Office Identity Cards Programme early Gateway Reviews ? All the possible legal arguments were gone into in exhaustive detail, by the barristers and FOIA legal professors, during the 4 day Information Tribunal hearing back in March 2007, which ruled in favour of full disclosure...
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's statement on the Wilson Doctrine
Posted on February 24, 2008Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made a statement about the report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose on the bugging scandal in HMP Woodhill, involving Sadiq Khan MP, Babar Ahmad (see the previous blog article) and also on the Wilson Doctrine and Legally Privileged conversations etc...
"Report on two visits by Sadiq Khan MP to Babar Ahmad at HM Prison Woodhill" - Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher Rose finds no illegality
Posted on February 21, 2008Today saw the publication of : Report on two visits by Sadiq Khan MP to Babar Ahmad at HM Prison Woodhill - Report of Investigation by the Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher Rose, Chief Surveillance Commissioner (.pdf - 15 pages) See the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners website for more details about role and powers of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and also under the Police Act 1997...
Statement on the Woodhill Prison bugging, Wilson Doctrine etc.
Posted on February 21, 2008We will comment more fully on the statement by the Home SecretaryJacqui Smith regarding the report by the Rt. Ho. Sir Christopher Rose into the Sadiq Khan Mp / babar Ahmad prison bugging affair, when the transcript becomes available in a few hours. As anticipated, no illegality or wrongdoing has been discovered by the Chief Surveillance Commissioner, but he did not actually speak with the ex-Police Officer who did the actual bugging...
Wikileaks survives a fire, but is under Temporary Restraining Order partial censorship
Posted on February 16, 2008It looks as if the interesting and controversial, Wikileaks website, which promises "anonymous, untraceable, uncensorable" publication of leaked documents from whistleblowers, and which recently published the devastating No2ID Campaign annotated leaked UK National Identity Scheme document , is weathering some technical hitches and legal litigation attacks...
HMRC intercept, snooping and surveillance powers commence today
Posted on February 15, 2008Hat tip to Rob Lewis from accountingweb.co.uk who reminds us that "HMRC gets bugging powers" which commence today 15th February 2008. These are under amendments to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), brought in by under the Serious Crime Act 2007 Schedule 12, and brought into force through the The Serious Crime Act 2007 (Commencement No...
Spanish authorities ignore and insult the UK Law Lords over the Farid Hilali extradition
Posted on February 12, 2008Incredibly, the Spanish authorities, appear to have done exactly what we suspected they might from the press reports last Friday, they have deliberately ignored the Judgment of the UK House of Lords, and charged Farid Hilali with "belonging to a terrorist organisation?", the very offence which the Law Lords explicitly forbad him to be extradited on ! See Farid Hilali finally extradited to Spain - are the Spanish authorities flouting the UK House of Lords judgment ? The Law Lords' Judgments - In re Hilali (Respondent) (application for a writ of Habeas Corpus) clearly state that: [...
Home Office refuses our FOIA request for geographical details of Terrorism Act 2000 Section 44 stop and search without reasonable suspicion Authorisation Notifications
Posted on February 11, 2008The Home Office has refused our Freedom of Information Act request for geographical and duration details of the Terrorism Act 2000 Section 44 and 46 Authorisation Notifications The Home Office is trying to argue that the Section 44 powers are a deterrent but that even the geographical extent of the Authorisations should be secret...
When will Labour's snooping scandals end ? More widespread Prison bugging allegations
Posted on February 09, 2008When will the Labour database surveillance state scandals ever end ? The Daily Telegraph has published some more whistleblower revelations , which claim that the abuse of of supposedly confidential client lawyer privilege, through the secret electronic eavesdropping in Prisons, is far more widespread than the Sadiq Khan MP / Babar Ahmad scandal...
Farid Hilali finally extradited to Spain - are the Spanish authorities flouting the UK House of Lords judgment ?
Posted on February 08, 2008It appears that Farid Hilali, who faces terrorism charges based almost entirely on mobile phone Intercept Evidence and Voice Identification, has at last been extradited to Spain, according to The Daily Telegraph: Hilali, 39, was arrested in June 2004 and was flown out of RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday...
Privy Council Chilcot Review report on Intercept Evidence - more ***
Posted on February 07, 2008The Government has now published the Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence: report to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary (.pdf 64 pages - censored) produced under Rt. Hon, Sir John Chilcot GCB. This review makes the recommendation. that Intercept Evidence should, vaguely, at some undermined time in the future, be permitted in Courts in England and Wales (but not in Scotland or in Northern Ireland), for terrorism and serious crime cases , but not for Civil cases,...
UK e-Borders excessive Passenger Name Record etc. demands - surely these break several of the Principles of Data Protection ?
Posted on February 06, 2008Tom Griffin has published the further results of his FOIA request regarding the planned UK e-Borders data rape of personal information which is far in excess of what should be collected to travel across what is supposedly a Passport free border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland...
BBC News 24: Intercept Evidence to be allowed in court
Posted on February 05, 2008BBC News 24 reports that the Privy Council Review of Intercept evidence headed by Rt. Hon.Sir John Chilcot, is due to report that such evidence should be allowed in terrorism cases, which is currently forbidden by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Section 17 Exclusion of matters from legal proceedings What the caveats and provisos are, and whether they recommend that this will apply to other categories of crimes as well, we will have to wait until tomorrow, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to make a Statement, which may not necessarily, of course, accept any of the recommendations of the Review.
Jack Straw's Wilson Doctrine statement -Sir Christopher Rose to inquire into the Sadiq Khan MP / Babar Ahmad eavesdropping affair
Posted on February 05, 2008Jack Straw made a statement in the House of Commons regarding the apparent breach of the Wilson Doctrine, involving the electronic eavesdropping on conversations which should have been protected by Constituent / Member of Parliament privilege and, perhaps also of client / lawyer privilege which seems to have occurred at Woodhill prison near Milton Keynes...
The Wilson Doctrine should not be abolished, it should be clarified and extended
Posted on February 04, 2008Some of the reaction in the UK political blogosphere and by extremist media pundits, to the electronic bugging of a Member of Parliament's privileged conversations with one of his constituents, rather misses the point about the Wilson Doctrine. The "MPs are sleazy, so they should all be under surveillance, like the rest of us" attitude is predictable, but wrong...
Sunday Times: illegal bugging of Muslim MP - Wilson Doctrine breached ?
Posted on February 02, 2008The Sunday Times leads with an interesting scoop, involving two topics about which we have written about here on Spy Blog, namely the
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