An interesting read on the possible value of a privacy policy in the EU.
Nov 122012
Nov 042012
Via: www.geekwire.com/2012/microsoft-diskinect-freeloading-tv-viewers/
A patent to count the number of people in a room watching television.
Too many people? No playback for you!
Oct 252012
Via: www.zdnet.com/australian-police-want-telco-customer-data-retained-forever-7000004811/
2 years? 5 years? – try forever. Dont worry its not the content, just ip’s…
Oct 052012
Welcome to 24-hour, all weather surveillance units. Some stats in the linked pdf :
HD (needing fiber optic network for the masses of data), 500 feet range , with zoom, a face at 400 feet, ~ two week retention.
$350,000 for 11.units
Aug 282012
Via: www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/administrative-subpoenas/
No court, no judge, the ways US federal agencies get around the Fourth Amendment.
No public stats on the amount used – that may be classified.
Your still safe from thermal-imaging devices for now.
Interesting note about the “weather modification” 1976 act.
Aug 072012
Via: www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/fbis_facial_recognition_coming_state_near_you
A new FBI database system will offer facial recognition searching and deep biographical data.
The system will start with a count of 100 million Americans and link with other data such as fingerprints, iris scans, palm prints.
Expect any face of interest in a “public dataset” to be fair game i.e. independent of arrests, DMV as ‘civil submissions”. Data gathering is automated for crowds.
Social media sites with a person of interest… to friends to friends …. ?
Jul 122012
The Attorney-General’s Department is looking into 40 proposals surrounding telco data retention in Australia.
Will the intelligence community get 2 years of logs to sort from every Australian isp?
Jun 232012
Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation
Don’t worry “core” police functions still get a real sworn officers.
Investigating crimes, “detaining” suspects, working to bring cases, caring for victims and witnesses, securing high-risk individuals, intelligence, PR, aspects of forensics, legal services,cells and computer systems might all be offered under privatisation deals.
Jun 172012
Via: www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+airport+wired+with+microphones+Border+Services/6788759/story.html
Expect your conversations to be used, stored, disclosed and retained.
Welcome to the new world of border integrity.
Jun 122012
Via: edition.cnn.com/2012/06/11/us/maryland-drone-crash/index.html
The $176 million drone was lost in a routine training flight.
Crashes are highly unusual?
Guess they don’t count Predators and Reapers 
Be fun when the FAA moves from ~ 100 permitted drone operators to a ~30,000 internal US drone deployment.