INFORMATION

This website uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some of these cookies are essential to make our site work and others help us to improve by giving us some insight into how the site is being used.

For further information, see our Privacy Policy.

Continuing to use this website is acceptance of these cookies.

We are not accepting any new registrations.

Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

...on serious topics that don't fit anywhere else at present.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#81 Post by Alan H » November 8th, 2015, 11:31 am

Latest post of the previous page:

Edward Snowden attacks UK government over investigatory powers bill
Edward Snowden has outlined his opposition to the British government’s investigatory powers bill, arguing that Conservative politicians were “taking notes on how to defend the indefensible”.

The former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, whose disclosure of top-secret documents ultimately led to the home secretary, Theresa May, proposing the bill, made a series of tweets on Wednesday warning that the communications data covered by the legislation was “the activity log of your life”.
"I don't need privacy, I've nothing to hide" argues "I don't need free speech, I've nothing to say." Rights = Power
"It's only communications data" = "It's only a comprehensive record of your private activities." It's the activity log of your life.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#82 Post by Alan H » November 10th, 2015, 5:13 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#83 Post by Alan H » November 10th, 2015, 11:00 pm

The snooper’s charter: one misspelled Google search for ‘bong-making’ and you’ll be in an orange jumpsuit
Soon our government will know everything we are thinking, and in that moment, we will stop thinking.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#84 Post by Alan H » November 17th, 2015, 2:12 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#85 Post by Alan H » November 17th, 2015, 7:25 pm

As an example of Theresa May's idiocy, here's a list of various secure messaging systems (scored for various features) she would need to make illegal if she even wanted to see who was chatting to who, never mind seeing what they are actually saying: SECURE MESSAGING SCORECARD.

Of course, it's impossible to ban many of these and to stop people using them. Unless you copy the Great Firewall of China - even then...
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#86 Post by Alan H » November 20th, 2015, 12:17 pm

Published by the House of Commons library: BRIEFING PAPER Number 7371, 19 November 2015 Draft Investigatory Powers Bill

And from the Open Rights Group: INVESTIGATORY POWERS BILL: EMAIL YOUR MP
The Government's released its draft Investigatory Powers Bill. While we welcome the improved clarity in the Bill, there is much to be concerned about.

What should I say to my MP? What's worrying in the Bill?

ISPs will be forced to keep records of websites and mobile apps you visit for 12 months, which the police have access to. This is a huge extension of powers, creating a database of the nation's online life.

No other country in the EU or Commonwealth does this and nor does the US or Canada. ISPs may even have to increase the cost of broadband bills to cover the costs of collecting and storing all this data.

The Bill endorses GCHQ's existing extensive and intrusive surveillance powers that were revealed by Edward Snowden, rather than rolling them back. This includes powers of bulk collection and analysis of data collected by tapping Internet cables, ie. 'Tempora'. GCHQ should concentrate on targeting suspected criminals, not collecting information on law-abiding citizens.

The Bill clarifies the security agencies' powers to break into our laptops and mobile phones, including worrying new powers for non-targeted 'mass hacking', which may mean, for example, getting Apple to push out a compromised update to lots of phones. Worringly, the Bill also forces Internet companies to help in hacking their own customers. Will we be able to trust that we can use any device securely under this law?

Despite Government assurances that this Bill offers judicial authorisation for the first time, judges will have only a very narrow role. They are only allowed to check that there are grounds for the minister’s decision and that procedures have been followed. In practice this can simply amount to a rubber-stamp, and all the real power rests with Government Ministers.

Tell your MP to talk to the MPs who are scrutinising the Bill. It's important they hear about what members of the public think, not just the experts they call to give evidence.

What's happening next?

A joint committee of MPs and Peers will scrutinise the Bill. ORG will provide evidence to the Committee, and so can you. The Committee should report in the new year with suggestions for changes to the Bill. We expect MPs to vote on this in spring. It's important to start talking to them now so they are aware of the concerns that their constituents have about the Bill, and to get them to pay attention to this huge piece of surveillance law.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#87 Post by Alan H » November 20th, 2015, 12:34 pm

My email to my MP:
I am writing to express my concern about the Government's draft Investigatory Powers Bill. It is important that you and the rest of the Labour party push back on the worst parts of this Bill.

I'm sure you will be well aware that this invasive Bill will do nothing to help the security services catch one terrorist, one paedophile, one criminal or one tax dodger because, other than a few incompetent ones, they will already be using encryption and other methods that circumvent even this draconian surveillance.

The only way Government can accomplish their stated aim would be to create a state that rivals Chine in terms of its surveillance. I don't think any citizen would want that however much the Tories might.

I urge Labour to oppose this Bill.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Dave B
Posts: 17809
Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#88 Post by Dave B » November 22nd, 2015, 5:20 pm

Sneaky bastards!

It seems that, during the demos for freedom of speech etc., in Hongkong the Chinese government put up an app that seemed to come from the demo organisers.

In fact it sent the phone's location and other data back to the Chinese security services.

Be even more wary what you download!
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#89 Post by Alan H » November 22nd, 2015, 6:29 pm

Dave B wrote:Sneaky bastards!

It seems that, during the demos for freedom of speech etc., in Hongkong the Chinese government put up an app that seemed to come from the demo organisers.

In fact it sent the phone's location and other data back to the Chinese security services.

Be even more wary what you download!
As I understand it, this Bill gives the Government the power (with certain, but inadequate, safeguards) to compromise your computer or phone without you knowing about it - and it would be a criminal offence if your ISP ever told anyone about it. Chine here we come!
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#90 Post by Alan H » November 23rd, 2015, 12:57 pm

Continuing the ignorance, this by Clare Foges, who - and the article should have made this clear - is a special advisor/speech writer for David 'call me Dave' Cameron: Why is Silicon Valley helping the tech-savvy jihadists?.

She is getting vilified in the comments for her ignorance - and rightly so. It's so wrong, I'm wondering if it was Cameron that wrote it...
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#91 Post by Alan H » November 26th, 2015, 4:24 pm

Showing just how clueless Theresa 'clueless' May is: UK ISP boss points out massive technical flaws in Investigatory Powers Bill

I hadn't realised that all a crook/terrorist/paedophile would have to do to avoid surveillance if this stupid bill was enacted is to use one of the smaller Internet service providers who are exempt from this Bill...

Makes you think: are the Government/GCHQ really this stupid or is this Bill not about catching the serious criminals?
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#92 Post by Alan H » November 26th, 2015, 4:59 pm

Theresa May accused of rushing surveillance bill through back door
The home secretary, Theresa May, has been accused of fast-tracking her new “snooper’s charter” legislation by the back door, giving a scrutiny committee of MPs and peers only three weeks to consider the 299-page bill.

The Commons was asked to approve a timetable requiring the joint committee on the investigatory powers bill, which will overhaul Britain’s surveillance laws in the wake of Edward Snowden’s disclosures, to report back by 11 February.

The three-week Christmas and new year parliamentary recess means that the committee, which has yet to appoint a chair, will effectively have little more than three weeks to scrutinise the highly complex surveillance legislation and could have as few as three expert witness sessions.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#93 Post by Alan H » December 5th, 2015, 8:26 pm

UK ANPR systems are one of the ‘world’s biggest surveillance systems’
In the UK there are currently 8,300 ANPR cameras that every day collect the data related to 25-35 million ‘read.’ These records are sent to the National ANPR Data Centre, but there isn’t any legal framework governing this process, that clearly represent a mass data collection.

“ANPR in the UK must surely be one of the largest data gatherers of its citizens in the world,” Porter said. “I would like to put forward that the use of ANPR cameras has an extremely unsteady legal framework,”

The UK Government considers the automatic number plate recognition systems just one of the data source available to the law enforcement and, for this reason, they don’t need to be regulated.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#94 Post by Alan H » December 13th, 2015, 1:24 am

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#95 Post by Alan H » December 14th, 2015, 10:51 am

Police may log your car trips for decade
Screenshot from 2015-12-14.png
Screenshot from 2015-12-14.png (433.17 KiB) Viewed 9304 times
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#96 Post by Alan H » December 21st, 2015, 11:48 pm

home › tech home UK world politics sport football opinion culture business lifestyle fashion environment tech selected travel browse all sections Data protection Apple calls on UK government to scale back snooper's charter
Apple has called for changes to the UK government’s investigatory powers bill, over fears it would weaken the security of “personal data of millions of law-abiding citizens”.

In a submission to the bill committee, released on Monday, the Californian technology firm expressed major concerns and called for wholesale changes before the bill is passed.

“We believe it would be wrong to weaken security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding customers so that it will also be weaker for the very few who pose a threat,” Apple said. “In this rapidly evolving cyber-threat environment, companies should remain free to implement strong encryption to protect customers”
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#97 Post by Alan H » December 22nd, 2015, 8:55 pm

More on the opposition to Theresa 'clueless' May's nonsense: How the Investigatory Powers Bill will affect Internet Service Providers
The Government needs to present an operational case
No one would argue that ISPs shouldn't help the police and security services when it comes to tackling serious crime and terrorism. But when we are asking companies to compromise their customers' privacy and security, it should because there is suspicion that a crime has taken place or that serious harm can be prevented.

Many European countries are ending the retention of communications data without any noticeable effect on their ability to prevent and solve crime. No other EU or Commonwealth country forces their ISPs to record Internet histories. Operational cases need to be subject to scrutiny, as they have been in the USA. There, close examination of these cases has resulted in a scaling back of bulk programmes, as the results have been shown to be poor.4 If UK ISPs are to be forced into collecting personal data on an unprecedented scale, the Government needs to present an evidence-based operational case.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Dave B
Posts: 17809
Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#98 Post by Dave B » December 22nd, 2015, 9:46 pm

I get the impression tgat this so-called government thinks it has a mandate to do whatever it wishes jn any area. Did their manifesto include such powers, does tge law? Oops, sorry, they are adjusting the laws to suit their ideology it seems.

This is begining to look like fascism/totalitarianism. There was little difference between the Nazis and the Bolsheviks. I will admit the Tories have not started pogroms yet.

Yet.

Not sure the far left would be much better given the balance of power reversed.
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#99 Post by Alan H » December 24th, 2015, 7:42 pm

What does she have to hide? Theresa 'clueless' May isn't so keen on transparency after all. Who'd have thought it... Theresa May wants to see your internet history, so we thought it was only fair to ask for hers
The Home Office has refused to make Theresa May’s internet browsing history public under freedom of information rules, arguing that a request to do so is “vexatious”.

The Independent requested the Home Secretary’s work browsing history for the last week of October under the Freedom of Information Act.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#100 Post by Alan H » January 1st, 2016, 5:42 pm

Let's just hope Theresa 'clueless' May never finds out about this: Inside North Korea's Totalitarian Operating System
The goal of a totalitarian regime is to control everything in a country: information, resources, and power. In the 21st century, that even includes omnipotence over the code that the country's computers use.

Enter RedStar OS: North Korea's own Linux based operating system, designed to monitor its users and remain resilient to any attempts to modify or otherwise exert control over it.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Big Brother is definitely watching and listening...

#101 Post by Alan H » January 8th, 2016, 5:45 pm

More opposition to Theresa 'clueless' May's idiotic Bill: Tech giants raise concerns over UK draft surveillance bill
"We reject any proposals that would require companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products via backdoors, forced decryption, or any other means," the companies say.
Alongside the silicon valley firms expressing some anxiety over the draft IP Bill is the UK's own Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

In an 11-page submission to the parliamentary committee, the ICO praises some of the bill's proposals while questioning the reach of others, including the retention of internet connection records (ICRs).
ICRs are the domain names of websites visited by internet users, but not records of specific pages.

"Although these are portrayed as conveying limited information about an individual they can, in reality, go much further and can reveal a great deal about the behaviours and activities of an individual," the ICO says.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

Post Reply