e-nsecure.net blog - Comments on IT security and Privacy or the lack thereof.
Rat's Blog -The Reverend Rat writes about London street life and technology
Duncan Drury - wired adventures in Tanzania & London
Dr. K's blog - Hacker, Author, Musician, Philosopher
David Mery - falsely arrested on the London Tube - you could be next.
James Hammerton
White Rose - a thorn in the side of Big Brother
Big Blunkett
Into The Machine - formerly "David Blunkett is an Arse" by Charlie Williams and Scribe
infinite ideas machine - Phil Booth
Louise Ferguson - City of Bits
Chris Lightfoot
Oblomovka - Danny O'Brien
Liberty Central
dropsafe - Alec Muffett
The Identity Corner - Stefan Brands
Kim Cameron - Microsoft's Identity Architect
Schneier on Security - Bruce Schneier
Politics of Privacy Blog - Andreas Busch
solarider blog
Richard Allan - former Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam
Boris Johnson Conservative MP for Henley
Craig Murray - former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, "outsourced torture" whistleblower
Howard Rheingold - SmartMobs
Global Guerrillas - John Robb
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
Vmyths - debunking computer security hype
Nick Leaton - Random Ramblings
The Periscope - Companion weblog to Euro-correspondent.com journalist network.
The Practical Nomad Blog Edward Hasbrouck on Privacy and Travel
Policeman's Blog
World Weary Detective
Martin Stabe
Longrider
B2fxxx - Ray Corrigan
Matt Sellers
Grits for Breakfast - Scott Henson in Texas
The Green Ribbon - Tom Griffin
Guido Fawkes blog - Parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy.
The Last Ditch - Tom Paine
Murky.org
The (e)State of Tim - Tim Hicks
Ilkley Against CCTV
Tim Worstall
Bill's Comment Page - Bill Cameron
The Society of Qualified Archivists
The Streeb-Greebling Diaries - Bob Mottram
Your Right To Know - Heather Brooke - Freedom off Information campaigning journalist
Ministry of Truth _ Unity's V for Vendetta styled blog.
Bloggerheads - Tim Ireland
W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security et al.
EUrophobia - Nosemonkey
Blogzilla - Ian Brown
BlairWatch - Chronicling the demise of the New Labour Project
dreamfish - Robert Longstaff
Informaticopia - Rod Ward
War-on-Freedom
The Musings of Harry
Chicken Yoghurt - Justin McKeating
The Red Tape Chronicles - Bob Sullivan MSNBC
Campaign Against the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Stop the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Rob Wilton's esoterica
panGloss - Innovation, Technology and the Law
Arch Rights - Action on Rights for Children blog
Database Masterclass - frequently asked questions and answers about the several centralised national databases of children in the UK.
Shaphan
Moving On
Steve Moxon blog - former Home Office whistleblower and author.
Al-Muhajabah's Sundries - anglophile blog
Architectures of Control in Design - Dan Lockton
rabenhorst - Kai Billen
(mostly in German)
Nearly Perfect Privacy - Tiffany and Morpheus
Iain Dale's Diary - a popular Conservative political blog
Brit Watch - Public Surveillance in the UK - Web - Email - Databases - CCTV - Telephony - RFID - Banking - DNA
BLOGDIAL
MySecured.com - smart mobile phone forensics, information security, computer security and digital forensics by a couple of Australian researchers
Ralph Bendrath
Financial Cryptography - Ian Grigg et al.
UK Liberty - A blog on issues relating to liberty in the UK
Big Brother State - "a small act of resistance" to the "sustained and systematic attack on our personal freedom, privacy and legal system"
HosReport - "Crisis. Conspiraciones. Enigmas. Conflictos. Espionaje." - Carlos Eduardo Hos (in Spanish)
"Give 'em hell Pike!" - Frank Fisher
Corruption-free Anguilla - Good Governance and Corruption in Public Office Issues in the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla in the West Indies - Don Mitchell CBE QC
geeklawyer - intellectual property, civil liberties and the legal system
PJC Journal - I am not a number, I am a free Man - The Prisoner
Charlie's Diary - Charlie Stross
The Caucus House - blog of the Chicago International Model United Nations
Famous for 15 Megapixels
Postman Patel
The 4th Bomb: Tavistock Sq Daniel's 7:7 Revelations - Daniel Obachike
OurKingdom - part of OpenDemocracy - " will discuss Britain’s nations, institutions, constitution, administration, liberties, justice, peoples and media and their principles, identity and character"
Beau Bo D'Or blog by an increasingly famous digital political cartoonist.
Between Both Worlds - "Thoughts & Ideas that Reflect the Concerns of Our Conscious Evolution" - Kingsley Dennis
Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair - the rich Uzbek businessman and his shyster lawyers Schillings really made a huge counterproductive error in trying to censor the blogs of Tim Ireland, of all people.
Matt Wardman political blog analysis
Henry Porter on Liberty - a leading mainstream media commentator and opinion former who is doing more than most to help preserve our freedom and liberty.
HMRC is shite - "dedicated to the taxpayers of Britain, and the employees of the HMRC, who have to endure the monumental shambles that is Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC)."
Head of Legal - Carl Gardner a former legal advisor to the Government
The Landed Underclass - Voice of the Banana Republic of Great Britain
Henrik Alexandersson - Swedish blogger threatened with censorship by the Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA), the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishement, their equivalent of the UK GCHQ or the US NSA.
World's First Fascist Democracy - blog with link to a Google map - "This map is an attempt to take a UK wide, geographical view, of both the public and the personal effect of State sponsored fear and distrust as seen through the twisted technological lens of petty officials and would be bureaucrats nationwide."
Blogoir - Charles Crawford - former UK Ambassodor to Poland etc.
No CCTV - The Campaign against CCTV
Barcode Nation - keeping two eyes on the database state.
Lords of the Blog - group blog by half a dozen or so Peers sitting in the House of Lords.
notes from the ubiquitous surveillance society - blog by Dr. David Murakami Wood, editor of the online academic journal Surveillance and Society
Justin Wylie's political blog
Panopticon blog - by Timothy Pitt-Payne and Anya Proops. Timothy Pitt-Payne is probably the leading legal expert on the UK's Freedom of Information Act law, often appearing on behlaf of the Information Commissioner's Office at the Information Tribunal.
Armed and Dangerous - Sex, software, politics, and firearms. Life’s simple pleasures… - by Open Source Software advocate Eric S. Raymond.
Georgetown Security Law Brief - group blog by the Georgetown Law Center on National Security and the Law , at Georgtown University, Washington D.C, USA.
Big Brother Watch - well connected with the mainstream media, this is a campaign blog by the TaxPayersAlliance, which thankfully does not seem to have spawned Yet Another Campaign Organisation as many Civil Liberties groups had feared.
Spy on Moseley - "Sparkbrook, Springfield, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green. An MI5 Intelligence-gathering operation to spy on Muslim communities in Birmingham is taking liberties in every sense" - about 150 ANPR CCTV cameras funded by Home Office via the secretive Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) section of ACPO.
FitWatch blog - keeps an eye on the activities of some of the controversial Police Forward Intelligence Teams, who supposedly only target "known troublemakers" for photo and video surveillance, at otherwise legal, peaceful protests and demonstrations.
I was under the impression that the trial of the x-ray machine at Heathrow Terminal 4 was voluntary. In fact, it must be. You cannot, as yet, be compelled to submit to an x-ray in Britain - unless anyone knows different. I expect that adequate signs are in place to advise those singled out for the trial that they can refuse.
I travelled through terminal 4 recently but unfortunately I was not selected for the x-ray bombardment. I would have relished the opportunity to go berserk with the operators of the machine, after I'd interrogated them as to the precise nature of the additional checks: that is what everyone should do!
Awaiting a reply from Heathrow Terminal 4 management and the Department for Transport Security section TRANSEC.
I guess that they will claim that it is not "official policy", but , given the BBC undercover programme broadcast yesterday about what a minority of the ex Group 4 / Global Solutions "private security staff" who abuse Immigrants and Asylum seekers, what actually happens in practice, may well be another matter.
I wonder if the CCTV surveillance camera footage covering the alleged incident will magically disapear or get overwritten.
I am white, 60 years of age. I passed through LHR terminal 4, outbound on 23/3/2005. I was asked to 'step this way' by a young man when approaching security. I was led to the left, my family of two sons and my dear wife had to continue straight on. My wife did notice my being led to the left, hesitated, but was told to continue forward. This took about 2-3 seconds!!
In a few steps I found myself in a small curtained room, all in grey, with a big grey box just ahead. This box was covered in the same grey carpet as was on the floor. I was then told, 'Would I like to volunteer for a body scan'?. No explaination was made at all. I had no time to think - all I knew was that there was an implied threat that if I did not comply, then what was to happen???? If I had started to question this request how would I be treated??
Not a nice experience I can tell you. I would VERY much liken it to films I have seen of the Jews being 'processed' by the Nazi thugs.
There were NO signs to advise anything about my 'rights' as far as I could see.
Correction to my posting. The date of travel outbound was 24/3/2005.
AT Terminal 4 in March 2005 I too was recently ASKED TO GO THROUGH A BODY SCANNER .
I REFUSED AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE.
I was only told afterwards that if refused I could have a rub down search instead.
I think it against civil liberties and I was quite frankly shocked at being singled out.
I am a white male.
The operator was polite but I saw no sign advising people of their rights.
Excellent comments made by all, but telling each other will not solve the problem. Please write about your experience(as I have) to:
Mr Mike Clasper CBE
Chief Executive Officer
British Airport Authority plc
130 Wilton Rd.
London, SW1V 1LQ
United Kingdom
On no website can I find people saying "I approved of the experience, it's a good thing", all the statements are in the negative. So write and complain, otherwise our civil liberties will be continually erroded until we have none left!
Oh for heaven's sakes people - get a grip. I was asked, very nicely, if I would like to volunteer for this as I passed through Heathrow late in 2006. I am a white woman, middle aged, and when I asked why I was picked the security agent told me it was because I seemed personable and perhaps apt to try it. At no time did I feel intimidated or threatened, nor did I think my civil rights were being imposed upon. I felt very comfortable that I had the option to say no - which I did not because I thought it might be a quicker way through security - which it was.
@ Lois - that is no way to conduct a scientific trial of the equipment or the security processes !
For any such trial to be valid, they should have been picking people at random, not based on the colour of their skin, sex or age !
Were you told what the data retention policy of your "naked" images was during this trial ?
How would you feel if your children or grandchildren were pressured or enticed to go through the machine, and have the resultant "child porn" images ogled by the operators on the spot, or by any number of faceless technicians or security bureaucrats afterwards, when reviewing the days stored images ?
As you have pointed out, it is actually possible to "jump the queue" by getting yourself checked by hand - the extra delay is still usually less than having to queue up with the majority of people.
I was leaving LHR in May 2005 and was selected for one of these scans. After the scan, I was directed to walk through another metal detector, which still sounded an alarm. They completely patted me down from knee to ankle. I can truly understand why some people would object to it; however, if you cause a scene about it and pull "the racial card", you are only making a fool of yourself. I am white, and was 25 at the time. I am very European looking. When you go through airport security, your request for boarding privledges/entrance is your consent.
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It's very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.