Big Brother gets bigger, says global privacy study

Update Jan 3 with more background on report

According to a new international privacy report, governments around the world are increasingly invading the privacy of citizens with surveillance, identification systems, and archiving of private data.

Driven by concern over immigration and border control, countries have been quick to implement database, identity, and fingerprinting systems, according to the 2007 International Privacy Ranking report.

There was also an increase in the trend of governments archiving data on the geographic, communications, and financial records of citizens, as well as enacting legislation intended to increase the reach into individuals' private lives, the report found.

"At the same time, technological advances, technology standards, interoperability between information systems, and the globalization of information have placed extraordinary pressure on the few remaining privacy safeguards," the report says. "The effect of these developments has been to create surveillance societies that nurture hostile environments for privacy."

Specifically, governments have implemented or proposed use of fingerprint and iris-scanning biometrics, real-time tracking and monitoring through communications channels, geographic vehicle and mobile phone tracing, national DNA databases, global information-sharing agreements, and the elimination of anonymity in cyberspace.

The lowest-ranking countries in terms of privacy protections continue to be Malaysia, Russia, and China, with Greece, Romania, and Canada ranked highest.

In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the United States is the worst country in the "democratic world" and is outranked by both India and the Philippines on overall privacy protection. The U.S. has fallen into the "black" category reserved for countries with "endemic surveillance."

In the European Union, the worst-ranked country is the United Kingdom, particularly with regard to surveillance. Specifically, councils in England and Wales continue to spread surveillance policies, including RFID, CCTV, ID and data sharing, and road user tracking, according to the report.

The report, prepared by Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is based on EPIC's annual Privacy and Human Rights survey, an 1,100-page report that covers 75 countries.

[Pete Bardo]

Still think US is best place to live?

Ok, all you Republicans out there. Here's your chance to blast the "Liberal Media" again. And all you Democrats, you can join in, too.

I've heard y'all screaming "Love It or Leave It" for far too long now. It's now time for use all to stand together against the growing encroachment on our civil liberties--the very liberties that made us stand out in the crowd, the liberties that make us proud, the liberties that make us free men and women.

If we are the leaders of the free world and we continue down this path, and others follow our lead, there will be no free world left by the time GW and his buddies are done.

[Lee in San Diego]

Yes!

I for one am willing to give up all my freedoms to remain safe, as
Rudi Guiliani said after 9/11 "Thank God that George Bush is our
President." /snark


Please note the snark closing tag, I really don't feel that way.

[Dalkorian]

YES!

Yes, I still do think the US is the best place to live, in part
because we are able to vote the current criminals out of office
soon. We could also impeach them (under a growing number of
charges including but not limited to treason, war crimes, crimes
against humanity and lying to Congress), but of course our
current Congress has been spineless in that regard (my guess is
our fuhrer has some nasty dirt on them and has threatened to
use it:)).

If all else fails, it's written in the Constitution that it's the
people's RESPONSIBILITY to rise up and overthrow a corrupt
government. If fuhrer bush is stupid enough to joke again about
not leaving office next year, I feel we might just do it. At least I'm
ready!

[maladitz]

Ultimate irony?

To comment on this post on the loss of privacy, I had to register and give out information on myself. That's more fodder for the data bases that the article mentioned, all in the big file that could be named "ME" and in spite of disclaimers that say your information is kept private, sold at some point.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[chasester]

oh please

Did you ever stop to think about why the Liberals only complain about the encroachment yet do nothing about it?

Ever think that just maybe - they want the abilities to use the same stuff themselves.

The Liberals are no better, it's a fallacy to believe they are.

[bjdooley]

The US is Alone

The USA is the only industrialized country that does not have specific and universal privacy legislation in place. Even the UK has a privacy act. In the USA, the only protection is a vague reference to the Constitution (subject to interpretation ad infinitum), and a contradictory patchwork of laws and regulations that is further weakened by anti-privacy initiatives such as the PATRIOT Act.

[StormNineNet]

Remember 'Enemy of the State'?

Since 9/11, I've watched this c(o)untry decend into the ranks of Soviet Russia, Red China... everything that the previous generation led witchhunt-senate trials to defend our nation against duing the Macarthy era.

Every morning, I wake up to CNN. Every morning, it seems more and more like our country has become the insane dream of a madman.... like something inspired by George Orwell's 1984. We aren't there yet, but if the Christian Conservatives have their way about it, that reality isn't very far off.

Now, maybe all of this has just driven me to insanity, but I swear that 9/11 seemed inspired by the film "A Long Kiss Goodnight". Then again, maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn't put it past our govt to pull a fund raiser to push a next-gen agenda. Maybe it's all for a purpose... maybe it's to ready humanity for the militarization of space. Who knows?

What is clear is that if things continue down the current path, our country will be destroyed. Not by terrorists, but by other governments that see us standing around with our pants down. Think about it... why is China using all the money they take in from hazardous exports and putting it back into amassing their military? Maybe I'm wrong... maybe it's just Taiwan that they want. Don't get me wrong... I don't have anything against any one ethnic group, and I'm not prejudiced in the least. I just watch, listen, and think.

One of the other comments here mentioned that the constitution of the USA makes it the citizen's responsibility to overthrow the govt if it becomes corrupt. This is true. However, take this into consideration... this was written during a time when the most destructive weapons on earth were powder kegs, iron-ball-cannons, and muskets. In our current day and age, the possibility of the govt turning nuclear weapons on it's own citizens and then claiming it was a terrorist attack is a strong possibility... one to big to ignore. Can your hunting rifle stand up against a M1A1 Tank? Can your shotguns stand up against AH64 Apaches? This leaves us in a very problematic situation. The govt *is* corrupt, the congress *is* spineless, and yet over the past few decades they've made moves to quelled any possibility that the people could ever *force* them to change course. The way I see it, it's like being stuck on an AmTrak that is on fire with the doors & windows welded shut. Global warming is a reality, and tentions are rising over fuel. There *will* be more wars, and whilst the global (so-called) leaders drive us into a frenzy using everyone's religeons as a propaganda engine to fuel the fire, the reality will be the same as it always has been... the powerful killing off the weak... holy wars with back-end profitiering...

There's a poem, if you want to call it that, by 'Godspeed - You Black Emperor', titled 'Dead Flag Blues'... I think it fits the quickening that seems to be on it's way:

The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
and a dark wind blows

the government is corrupt
and we're on so many drugs
with the radio on and the curtains drawn

we're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
and the machine is bleeding to death

the sun has fallen down
and the billboards are all leering
and the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

it went like this:

the buildings tumbled in on themselves
mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
and pulled out their hair

the skyline was beautiful on fire
all twisted metal stretching upwards
everything washed in a thin orange haze

i said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
these are truly the last days"

you grabbed my hand and we fell into it
like a daydream or a fever

we woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
for sure it's the valley of death

i open up my wallet
and it's full of blood.

[ralfthedog]

The M1A2 can be taken out by a....

The M1A2 can be taken out by a few dinner plates, a wine bottle, some gas and a rag. The AH 64 Apache takes a bit more work. I will not talk about the ways to take one down.

[ralfthedog]

Privacy is dead.

Technology has made privacy imposable. Microphones and video cameras get smaller and harder to detect all the time. Nearly all communication is done through electronic methods. We have two choices.

1. We can pretend that we can't be watched 24/7 365. If we stick our fingers in our ears shut our eyes and shout Shakespeare as loud as we can, then we will not see or hear our prison doors.

2. We can understand understand that we live in glass houses, and we can make the lack of privacy reciprocal. If the Police have a camera on every corner, we must have a web cam in the police control room. They want to bug our houses, We need web cameras in every cop car.

In a perfect world we could go wherever we wanted in total secrecy and talk to whoever we wanted in total privacy. That perfect world is gone. Now the best we can do is watch the watchers and prevent them from abusing their power.

[Dave Glass]

protection or prison?

The idea of the Panopticon, or all seeing machine, was first described by Jeremy Bentham, a famous utilitarian philosopher. He described a prison system that would be self regulating. The prison would be shaped like a cylinder with cells rising several stories high leaving the middle empty except for one key structure. In the middle would be a guard tower which none of the prisoner could see into but which guards could see out of. This way the prisoners would never know for sure if they were being watched. You would begin by having plenty of guards in the tower and when one person broke the rules you would punish everyone. This way everyone would not only be worried about breaking the rules themselves but also about others breaking the rules. According to Bentham, not only could you reduce the number of guards in the tower to virtually nothing, but the inmates would begin disciplining each other for fear that they might be punished for the actions of others. The cameras lining the freeways and intersections of today are said to be for our protection. Even if that is true and the intentions of those putting them up are benevolent, if left in abusive hands the ever expanding surveillance blanket covering our cities could be used as a means for creating a self enforcing disciplinary prison society. Of course this is an extreme scenario that we all say we would never stand for but with Big Brother getting bigger under our noses with no regulations in place, are we really so far away?

[peepee001]

Online Privacy

There are some free anonymous Proxy-Servers to protect your online-privacy.
What is an Anonymous Proxy Server? Anonymous proxy server is a routing communications between your computer and the Internet that can hide or mask your unique I.P. address to prevent unauthorized access to your computer over the Internet. An I.P. address is your computer's digital ID while you are online. By masking this, it helps pervent other web sites that can gain access and gather personal information about you through your unique address. Any anonymous proxy server can diquise your online ID by using its own address in place of yours in every outgoing request. Therefore, helping protect your privacy while you are online. The Proxy server will help you get around internet blocks while at school or work. For instance while on campus when you use the internet schools will block sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can use proxies to unblock myspace, as well as any other site.
A very fast anonymous Proxy you can find at

http://www.privacy-surf.com