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Logistics company Excel has announced an RFID trial with the UK retailer House of Fraser. RFID tags will be “attached directly to garments providing the scope to track shipment movements at item level”. No comment is made as to whether the tags will be disabled and/or removed at point of sale. Press release available here. Cross-posted from the shiny new RFID Scanner February 18th, 2004 | Comments are closed
 In Euractiv, it is reported that the next Justice and Home Affairs Council on the 19th-20th February will pass a draft directive authorising the collection of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data from non-EU nationals by airlines flying to a Member State. The data will be transferred to agencies in charge of the EU’s external borders in order to aid the management of immigration.
The original Spanish proposal was watered down after the House of Lords, amongst other bodies, pointed out that this placed a huge burden upon air and sea carriers. The draft directive will fail if it has not passed by April 30th under the auspices of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Irish Presidency has crafted a compromise whereby biometric data is excluded and the burden is limited to air carriers. Statewatch had already raised the flag on this proposal to transform air and sea carriers into data collection and surveillance agencies for external border control agencies. February 14th, 2004 | Comments are closed
The General Accounting Office warned today that the Transportation Security Administration’s high-tech system to screen airline passengers for terrorist connections faces significant testing and deployment delays, which could affect the program’s ultimate success.
There are other significant issues facing U.S. airport security, according to a former top Israeli airport security official and the director of security at Virgin Atlantic Airlines. According to these officials, who spoke Tuesday during an online Terror and Technology conference sponsored by IDPartners LLC, the U.S. runs a major risk by focusing too much on information technology and other high-tech solutions to uncover terrorist plots against airports and airlines. Rafi Ron, president of New Age Security Solutions and the former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv explains that the terrorist threat against airlines is a relatively new experience in the U.S.
Rather than rely on IT systems for the bulk of security monitoring, Ron said airport authorities should use personnel training programs in behavior pattern recognition, which has been highly successful in Israel.
February 13th, 2004 | Comments are closed
Wired reports that privacy groups, business travelers and members of Congress asked the federal government this week to reconsider its plans to implement a passenger-profiling system because agencies have not adequately addressed privacy concerns or shown effectiveness in detecting potential terrorists. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California), joined by 25 other Democrats, sent President Bush a letter Wednesday asking his administration to protect passenger privacy. The group also proposed that airlines should tell passengers exactly what information they pass along as travelers make reservations.
CAPPS II will require passengers to give more personal information when buying airline tickets, information that will then be checked against mammoth commercial databases, watch lists and warrants to screen for suspected terrorists and people wanted for violent crimes. An ideologically diverse group of public-interest groups – including Common Cause, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation -joined the letter-writing campaign, asking Congress for hearings. February 13th, 2004 | Comments are closed
I rather think this may be the first posting about animal rights and their potential violation here on White Rose. (For some dumb reason I can’t make that link work, so go via the link below, where for some equally dumb reason the exact same link does seem to work.) Anyway, this just in, via Dave Barry:
First they came for the cats … Do you also get the feeling that humans will be next? February 12th, 2004 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Paul of Manchester United Ruined My Life has this to say about ID cards, and the claim that they might prevent horrors like the recent mass drowning of those unfortunate Chinese:
UPDATE: Blunkett is saying more of the same (Thur 12th) again, so so is Paul of MURML again. February 11th, 2004 | Comments are closed
Amongst the announcement of the new Serious Organised Crime Agency one comment seems to have been largely overlooked. Tony Blair said, concerning serious crime:
On the balance of probabilities, Blair supports Big Blunkett’s latest attacks on our basic liberties. February 10th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
Here is an interesting piece about the impact of the Data Protection Act on the world of higher education. As so often, the attempt to suppress badness results in the suppression of, if not goodness, then at least the entirely reasonable. February 9th, 2004 | Comments are closed
Reproduced below is the text of yesterday’s press release from the Libertarian Alliance:
Perhaps that is now how they think of themselves. February 4th, 2004 | Comments are closed
Government invasion of privacy – for example via Identity Cards – is high profile. Arguably a greater danger is when society itself ceases to respect privacy and believes it OK to breach it as a matter of course. I’ve recently learned via the Liberty discussion board and handbag.com about an organisation called Millenium AuPairs. I must stress that as far as I know this organisation is entirely reasonable and above board. Unfortunately their application form is not. See here: Millenum AuPairs registration form Now, the question about weight might be non-PC, but that’s not the issue. Scroll down and you see that they are asking prospective nannies if they have “ever been a victim of sexual, emotional or physical abuse?”. And “If you have answered yes to any of the above, please give details”. Details! This is outrageous. Why ask? Are they assuming that victims of abuse are more likely to be abusers? I don’t know. What I do know is that this question is an invasion of privacy. As chocalatedrop put it on handbag.com:
OK, this probably doesn’t affect you today. But imagine if this sort of intrusive question becomes accepted practice on any application form… February 4th, 2004 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
The Big Blunkett’s draconian measures to ‘fight terrorists’ would not be necessary if the British justice system was functioning. When this and this can happen with increasing frequency, no wonder that terrorists have a ball in the British courts and Mr Blunkett can continue warping British laws with self-righteous indignation of a politician. February 3rd, 2004 | Comments are closed
Telegraph reports that civil liberties groups and Muslim community leaders lined up yesterday to denounce plans from David Blunkett to conduct secret trials of suspected terrorists. He said the threat from extremists was now so great that the burden of proof in criminal trials should be reduced from “beyond reasonable doubt” to “the balance of probabilities”. He also wants a debate over whether intelligence information against suspects should be given in camera to avoid compromising security. Mr Blunkett’s ideas – to be proposed formally in a Home Office paper later this month – are intended to address what the Government sees as a serious threat from Islamist fundamentalists.
Lady Kennedy, QC, a Labour peer, compared Mr Blunkett to Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe and described the proposals as “a classic Blunkett tactic”.
Mark Littlewood, the campaigns director of Liberty, said:
Michael Howard, the Tory leader, said:
Massoud Shadjareh, the chairman of the Islam Human Rights Commission, said:
Let’s hear it for the sharia law solution to terrorism. February 3rd, 2004 | Comments are closed
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