Thursday, January 5, 2006

Only the guilty need to worry | Needlenose here is a phrase that pops up every time the government moves the thin chalk-line dividing security and personal liberties: Only the guilty need to worry. This is a standard response to those who insist on the quaint illusion of personal privacy (after all, there's a reason why the Founders didn't include 'privacy' in the Bill of Rights). Trouble is, in this day and age, there are several levels of 'guilt' which aren't, technically speaking, full-on-throw-away-the-key guilty, but still work as fodder for the perception of guilt reality-show game. These include: Under suspicion Under investigation Indicted At trial Under appeal Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Each of these levels have served well in the past to induce a corresponding degree of opprobrium in the tsk-tsking public, inspire confidence in the justice system, and justify the growth-rate of the correctional industry. The trouble with the approach taken by the current administration is that their never-ending, open-ended War on Terror(tm) (much like S.J. 23, the panicky Congressional carte-blanche to the President) has mainfested itself in invention of three whole new categories of guilt: 2:14:18 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

United Press International via The Washington Times - Chinese police cite right to privacy Police in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing say an order to disclose details of their personal lives is a violation of privacy rights. The new rule is part of a campaign to stamp out corruption, the BBC reported Thursday. It requires police officers to inform their superiors if they marry or divorce, make a major purchase such as a house or car, or take a holiday abroad. 2:07:33 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

News - Yorkshire Post Today: Expanding police DNA database sparks anger Opposition MPs attack 'intolerable infringement of liberty and personal privacy' Kate O'Hara Crime Correspondent THE DNA of one in 14 people in Britain is expected to be on a crime-fighting database by April 2008 - including thousands of samples taken from innocent victims, the Government admitted last night. Other people whose profiles are now logged onto the vast crime file include more than 15,000 volunteers who believed they were helping solve crimes by giving their samples in response to police appeals to trace rapists or murderers. The news sparked outrage from opposition MPs last night, who called the huge numbers "an intolerable infringement of liberty and personal privacy." Home Office predictions suggest there will be 4,250,000 DNA samples on the national database at the end of 2007-08, or seven per cent of the population. By comparison, the second-largest DNA database in Austria covers just one per cent of the population. 2:03:10 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Government Web sites are keeping an eye on you | Tech News on ZDNet Dozens of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy, a CNET News.com investigation shows. From the Air Force to the Treasury Department, government agencies are using either "Web bugs" or permanent cookies to monitor their visitors' behavior, even though federal law restricts the practice. Some departments changed their practices this week after being contacted by CNET News.com. The Pentagon said it wasn't aware that its popular Defenselink.mil portal tracked visitors--in violation of a privacy notice--and said it would fix the problem. So did the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. 1:59:50 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Chicago Police Warn of Easy Access to Cell Phone Records. Chicago Police Warn of Easy Access to Cell Phone Records. The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens... [Privacy.org - The Source for News, Information, and Action] 1:48:24 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

D-Link Shows New Internet Security Device. D-Link Shows New Internet Security Device. Slim appliance will work as a firewall and protect PCs from viruses and spyware. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 1:32:51 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Liberty elects new officers to management board. Liberty elects new officers to management board. The Liberty Alliance, a consortium of end users and vendors developing identity standards, on Wednesday named new officers to its management board. [Identity mangement news] 1:27:28 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

End of 5 year struggle against data retention. End of 5 year struggle against data retention. After 5 years of fighting against plans for mandatary data retention, EDRI is deeply disappointed that a majority in the European Parliament has adopted a law decreeing very broad and long retention of telephony and internet traffic data, with access granted for all sorts of undefined crimes. Please visit the special Campaign WIKI for all details and relevant documents. [EDRI - Digital Civil Rights in Europe] 1:26:04 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Massive demand for unauthorised Windows patch - ZDNet UK News Ilfak Guilfanov's personal Web site has been taken offline by his hosting provider after hordes of Microsoft users scrambled to download his unofficial patch against the Windows Metafile vulnerability. According to antivirus firm F-Secure, demand for the unauthorised Windows Meta File (WMF) patch developed by Guilfanov was so high his hosting provider temporarily shut his Web site on Wednesday morning. The site was temporarily closed as "half the planet tried to download WMFFIX_HEXBLOG.EXE." reported F-Secure in its blog. "The resulting traffic amounts were so huge that his hosting provider actually shut his site down." At the time of writing, the unofficial patch is again available from Guilfanov's site. It is also available from the Sunbelt Blog. Microsoft has advised businesses not to use the patch, as the company cannot guarantee it will work. But with no official patch is due to be released until next week, security experts are urging businesses to use the unofficial patch because of the serious nature of the WMF vulnerability. 1:23:44 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

DNA pixie dust fails to solve all UK crime, shock horror. DNA pixie dust fails to solve all UK crime, shock horror. So if it's as wonderful as the Home Office says, how come? The Home Office has boasted of a quadrupling of detection of crime via DNA technology over the last five years, during which period the UK's National DNA Database has trebled in size, and now exceeds 3 million records. An enthusiastic report from the Home Office's Forensic Science & Pathology Unit (DNA Expansion Programme 2000-2005: Reporting achievement) lists impressive improvements in detection rates, thanks to DNA, which is "a powerful aid to crime investigation." [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 1:20:15 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []