In my post yesterday looking at betting odds for the date of the next general election, I hinted that a change of government could be a positive step for civil liberties campaigners.
 
I’ve now stumbled across this excellent piece from the ever impressive James Graham. He questions where the Conservatives will go with Human Rights if [...]

One of the big hopes of civil liberties campaigners is that a change of government will bring an end to Labour’s creeping surveillance state. Of course the reality will be somewhat different, but if the politicians keep to their word, we should at least see an end to ID cards and ContactPoint.
 
But when might that [...]

Travellers who had trips ruined by Passport Service mistakes have claimed £500,000 in compensation in the past five years. The figures revealed by The People show claims of up to £2,000 due to passport and visa application errors.
 
It makes you wonder how much the government has budgeted for compensation payments when the inevitable problems with [...]

It seems not a week goes past now without another example of public sector officials misplacing our private data. The latest dose of stupidity comes from a NHS Trust staff member in Lancashire. The health worker lost a memory stick being used to backup 6,000 records from clinical databases at HMP Preston.
The memory stick was [...]

…it may just land you with a visit from Plod.
 
The BBC’s Five Live Breakfast sparked a flurry of anti-surveillance texts this morning following their story on internet companies being forced to keep records of our emails.
 
From March, new legislation will force ISPs to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for one year. [...]

A database developer sacked for lying on his CV hacked into systems to spy on his former colleagues and delete emails.
Julius Oladiran, 46, was dismissed from after his employers discovered his boasts of a master’s degree, and top Government jobs were all lies.
Desperate to know what people were saying about him, the conman installed spyware on [...]

This blog post now featured on openDemocracy
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On 29 January the EEMA (European Association for e-identity and Security) and the Digital Identity Forum are holding a seminar entitled “The Business Use and Applications of the UK National Identity Card”
Have a read of this from their website:
Over a period of time, public opinion, as measured by opinion [...]

Welsh Lib Dem AM Peter Black brings our attention to Cabinet Minister James Purnell who has misplaced important documents for a second time.
Rather than poke fun at the unfortunate Mr Purnell, I’d like to second what Peter Black says:
The purpose of this post is not to draw attention to Mr. Purnell’s double whammy, though he [...]

Tayside Police said systems installed in local businesses to protect staff and deter shoplifters are often not properly maintained.

Crime prevention officers are urging firms and shops with CCTV cameras to check their system is working properly.
Most large towns and cities have public CCTV monitored by police and supplemented by large stores and shops with in-house [...]

Reports that police have been granted new powers to snoop on your PC without a warrant have been denied by the Home Office.
 
According to the Sunday Times report, the Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan via Europe to allow police across Britain to conduct “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers to [...]