Wednesday 30th September, 2015
The article itself, from The Intercept, is sadly unsurprising. It has been covered on various other Tech/Security sites across the Internet, such as Ars Technica, BoingBoing, Slashdot, Bruce Schneier's blog, etc.
What did surprise me is GCHQ's classification of what is metadata and what is content. Your userid and password * are classified as metadata. That's a bit like handing your house keys to a complete stranger who has been known to break the law (and who still has no visible controls or accountability) and thinking, "Well, it's just metadata, what can they do?"
(* Just think - this applies to any website or online service you login to - banking, emails, shopping, forums, social websites ...)
Tuesday 25th August, 2015
Article from The Guardian.
The first UN special rapporteur on privacy Joseph Cannataci ...
... added that he doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter, and said it was regrettable that vast numbers of people sign away their digital rights without thinking about it.
The article has also been picked up by Ars Technica.
Tuesday 12th February, 2013
An interesting article by Glyn Moody reveals that certain MEPs are putting forward changes to the proposed EU directive on Data Protection which are taken word for word from amendments suggested by US Lobbyists.
According to the website LobbyPlag, there are four British MEPs involved:
- Malcolm Harbour
- MEP West Midlands Region, Conservative
- (malcolm.harbour@europarl.europa.eu): Amendments with lobby content: 14 of 55 (25.45%25)
- Giles Chichester
- MEP South West Region, Conservative
- (giles.chichester@europarl.europa.eu): Amendments with lobby content: 10 of 44 (22.73%25)
- Sajjad Karim
- MEP North West Region, Conservative
- (sajjad.karim@europarl.europa.eu): Amendments with lobby content: 13 of 55 (23.64%25)
- Emma McClarkin
- MEP East Midlands Region, Conservative
- (emma.mcclarkin@europarl.europa.eu): Amendments with lobby content: 1 of 8 (12.50%25)
If they happen to represent the region you live in ...
... you might ask them who exactly they think they represent: you and the other 500 million EU citizens that pay their salary, currently running at around £80,000 per year, or a bunch of extremely rich US companies that are intent on taking away our privacy so that they can get even richer?
Read the original article for more details.
Someone has already suggested that Europe requires it's own version of the
zero rupee note.
related links
Sunday 29th July, 2012
I found some interesting links recently, while searching for more information about Privacy International's challenges about the sales of surveillance equipment to irresponsible governments. Of course there are levels of irresponsibility, but I don't think the UK government comes out smelling of roses.
The next four links came via the Bureau of Investigative Journalism:
And finally in refreshing contrast - how the Norwegians react to terrorism. Refuse to be terrorised by anyone, not even the State!
Wednesday 18th April, 2012
The Guardian newspaper website has an interesting series of articles running through this week called the Battle for the Internet. It is governments and organisations which are eroding our freedoms, and they're not just the usual suspects.