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About this blog
This United Kingdom based blog attempts to draw public attention to, and comments on, some of the current trends in ever cheaper and more widespread surveillance technology being deployed to satisfy the rapacious demand by state and corporate bureaucracies and criminals for your private details, and the technological ignorance of our politicians and civil servants who frame our legal systems.
The hope is that you the readers, will help to insist that strong safeguards for the privacy of the individual are implemented, especially in these times of increased alert over possible terrorist or criminal activity. If the systems which should help to protect us can be easily abused to supress our freedoms, then the terrorists will have won.
We know that there are decent, honest, trustworthy individual politicians, civil servants, law enforcement, intelligence agency personnel and broadcast, print and internet journalists etc., who often feel powerless or trapped in the system. They need the assistance of external, detailed, informed, public scrutiny to help them to resist deliberate or unthinking policies, which erode our freedoms and liberties.
Email Contact
Please feel free to email your views about this blog, or news about the issues it tries to comment on.
Our PGP public encryption key is available for those correspondents who wish to send us news or information in confidence, and also for those of you who value your privacy, even if you have got nothing to hide.
You can download a free copy of the PGP encryption software from www.pgpi.org
(available for most of the common computer operating systems, and also in various Open Source versions like GPG)
We look forward to the day when UK Government Legislation, Press Releases and Emails etc. are Digitally Signed under the HMG PKI Root Certificate hierarchy so that we can be assured that they are not fakes. Trusting that the digitally signed content makes any sense, is another matter entirely.
Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents
Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk
BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging
Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual, by Irish NGO Frontline Defenders.
Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide (.pdf - 31 pages), by the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto.
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - March 2008 version - (2.2 Mb - 80 pages .pdf) by Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics by Human Rights Watch.
A Practical Security Handbook for Activists and Campaigns (v 2.6) (.doc - 62 pages), by experienced UK direct action political activists
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor - useful step by step guide with software configuration screenshots by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices Advocacy. (updated March 10th 2009 with the latest Tor / Vidalia bundle details)
House of Lords Constitution Committee - Surveillance: Citizens and the State
House of Lords Constitution Committee 2008-2009 session - Second Report: Surveillance: Citizens and the State
Links
Our UK Freedom of Information Act request tracking blog
WikiLeak.org - ethical and technical discussion about the WikiLeaks.org project for anonymous mass leaking of documents etc.
Privacy and Security
Privacy International
Privacy and Human Rights Survey 2004
Cryptome - censored or leaked government documents etc.
Identity Project report by the London School of Economics
Surveillance & Society the fully peer-reviewed transdisciplinary online surveillance studies journal
Statewatch - monitoring the state and civil liberties in the European Union
The Policy Laundering Project - attempts by Governments to pretend their repressive surveillance systems, have to be introduced to comply with international agreements, which they themselves have pushed for in the first place
International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance
ARCH Action Rights for Children in Education - worried about the planned Children's Bill Database, Connexions Card, fingerprinting of children, CCTV spy cameras in schools etc.
Foundation for Information Policy Research
UK Crypto - UK Cryptography Policy Discussion Group email list
Technical Advisory Board on internet and telecomms interception under RIPA
Open Rights Group - a UK version of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a clearinghouse to raise digital rights and civil liberties issues with the media and to influence Governments.
Digital Rights Ireland - legal case against mandatory EU Comms Data Retention etc.
Blindside - "What’s going to go wrong in our e-enabled world? " blog and wiki and Quarterly Report will supposedly be read by the Cabinet Office Central Sponsor for Information Assurance. Whether the rest of the Government bureaucracy and the Politicians actually listen to the CSIA, is another matter.
Biometrics in schools - 'A concerned parent who doesn't want her children to live in "1984" type society.'
Human Rights
Liberty Human Rights campaigners
British Institute of Human Rights
Amnesty International
Justice
Prevent Genocide International
asboconcern - campaign for reform of Anti-Social Behavior Orders
Front Line Defenders - Irish charity - Defenders of Human Rights Defenders
Internet Censorship
OpenNet Initiative - researches and measures the extent of actual state level censorship of the internet. Features a blocked web URL checker and censorship map.
Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."
Reporters without Borders internet section - news of internet related censorship and repression of journalists, bloggers and dissidents etc.
Judicial Links
British and Irish Legal Information Institute - publishes the full text of major case Judgments
Her Majesty's Courts Service - publishes forthcoming High Court etc. cases (but only in the next few days !)
House of Lords - The Law Lords are currently the supreme court in the UK - will be moved to the new Supreme Court in October 2009.
Information Tribunal - deals with appeals under FOIA, DPA both for and against the Information Commissioner
Investigatory Powers Tribunal - deals with complaints about interception and snooping under RIPA - has almost never ruled in favour of a complainant.
Parliamentary Opposition
Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."
UK Government
Home Office - "Not fit for purpose. It is inadequate in terms of its scope, it is inadequate in terms of its information technology, leadership, management systems and processes" - Home Secretary John Reid. 23rd May 2006. Not quite the fount of all evil legislation in the UK, but close.
No. 10 Downing Street Prime Minister's Official Spindoctors
Public Bills before Parliament
United Kingdom Parliament
Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.
House of Commons "Question Book"
UK Statute Law Database - is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online, but it is not yet up to date.
FaxYourMP - identify and then fax your Member of Parliament
WriteToThem - identify and then contact your Local Councillors, members of devolved assemblies, Member of Parliament, Members of the European Parliament etc.
They Work For You - House of Commons Hansard made more accessible ?
UK Members of the European Parliament
Read The Bills Act - USA proposal to force politicians to actually read the legislation that they are voting for, something which is badly needed in the UK Parliament.
Bichard Inquiry delving into criminal records and "soft intelligence" policies highlighted by the Soham murders. (taken offline by the Home Office)
ACPO - Association of Chief Police Officers - England, Wales and Northern Ireland
ACPOS Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland
Online Media
Need To Know [now defunct]
NewsNow Encryption and Security aggregate news feed
KableNet - UK Government IT project news
PublicTechnology.net - UK eGovernment and public sector IT news
eGov Monitor
Ideal Government - debate about UK eGovernment
NIR and ID cards
Stand - email and fax campaign on ID Cards etc. [Now defunct]. The people who supported stand.org.uk have gone on to set up other online tools like WriteToThem.com. The Government's contemptuous dismissal of over 5,000 individual responses via the stand.org website to the Home Office public consultation on Entitlement Cards is one of the factors which later led directly to the formation of the the NO2ID Campaign who have been marshalling cross party opposition to Labour's dreadful National Identity Register compulsory centralised national biometric database and ID Card plans, at the expense of simpler, cheaper, less repressive, more effective, nore secure and more privacy friendly alternative identity schemes.
NO2ID - opposition to the Home Office's Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID bulletin board discussion forum
Home Office Identity Cards website
No compulsory national Identity Cards (ID Cards) BBC iCan campaign site
UK ID Cards blog
NO2ID press clippings blog
CASNIC - Campaign to STOP the National Identity Card.
Defy-ID active meetings and protests in Glasgow
www.idcards-uk.info - New Alliance's ID Cards page
irefuse.org - total rejection of any UK ID Card
International Civil Aviation Organisation - Machine Readable Travel Documents standards for Biometric Passports etc.
Anti National ID Japan - controversial and insecure Jukinet National ID registry in Japan
UK Biometrics Working Group run by CESG/GCHQ experts etc. the UK Government on Biometrics issues feasability
Citizen Information Project feasability study population register plans by the Treasury and Office of National Statistics
CommentOnThis.com - comments and links to each paragraph of the Home Office's "Strategic Action Plan for the National Identity Scheme".
De-Materialised ID - "The voluntary alternative to material ID cards, A Proposal by David Moss of Business Consultancy Services Ltd (BCSL)" - well researched analysis of the current Home Office scheme, and a potentially viable alternative.
Surveillance Infrastructures
National Roads Telecommunications Services project - infrastruture for various mass surveillance systems, CCTV, ANPR, PMMR imaging etc.
CameraWatch - independent UK CCTV industry lobby group - like us, they also want more regulation of CCTV surveillance systems.
Every Step You Take a documentary about CCTV surveillance in the Uk by Austrian film maker Nino Leitner.
Transport for London an attempt at a technological panopticon - London Congestion Charge, London Low-Emission Zone, Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, tens of thousands of CCTV cameras on buses, thousands of CCTV cameras on London Underground, realtime road traffic CCTV, Iyster smart cards - all handed over to the Metropolitan Police for "national security" purposes, in real time, in bulk, without any public accountibility, for secret data mining, exempt from even the usual weak protections of the Data Protection Act 1998.
RFID Links
RFID tag privacy concerns - our own original article updated with photos
NoTags - campaign against individual item RFID tags
Position Statement on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products has been endorsed by a large number of privacy and human rights organisations.
RFID Privacy Happenings at MIT
Surpriv: RFID Surveillance and Privacy
RFID Scanner blog
RFID Gazette
The Sorting Door Project
RFIDBuzz.com blog - where we sometimes crosspost RFID articles
Genetic Links
DNA Profiles - analysis by Paul Nutteing
GeneWatch UK monitors genetic privacy and other issues
Postnote February 2006 Number 258 - National DNA Database (.pdf) - Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
The National DNA Database Annual Report 2004/5 (.pdf) - published by the NDNAD Board and ACPO.
Eeclaim Your DNA from Britain's National DNA Database - model letters and advice on how to have your DNA samples and profiles removed from the National DNA Database,in spite of all of the nureacratic obstacles which try to prevent this, even if you are innocent.
Miscellanous Links
Michael Field - Pacific Island news - no longer a paradise
freetotravel.org - John Gilmore versus USA internal flight passports and passenger profiling etc.
The BUPA Seven - whistleblowers badly let down by the system.
Tax Credit Overpayment - the near suicidal despair inflicted on poor, vulnerable people by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown's disasterous Inland Revenue IT system.
Fassit UK - resources and help for those abused by the Social Services Childrens Care bureaucracy
Former Spies
MI6 v Tomlinson - Richard Tomlinson - still being harassed by his former employer MI6
Martin Ingram, Welcome To The Dark Side - former British Army Intelligence operative in Northern Ireland.
Operation Billiards - Mitrokhin or Oshchenko ? Michael John Smith - seeking to overturn his Official Secrets Act conviction in the GEC case.
The Dirty Secrets of MI5 & MI6 - Tony Holland, Michael John Smith and John Symond - stories and chronologies.
Naked Spygirl - Olivia Frank
Blog Links
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
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
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
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.
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
MySecured.com - smart mobile phone forensics, information security, computer security and digital forensics by a couple of Australian researchers
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
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
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.
Other Links
Spam Huntress - The Norwegian Spam Huntress - Ann Elisabeth
Fuel Crisis Blog - Petrol over £1 per litre ! Protest !
Mayor of London Blog
London Olympics 2012 - NO !!!!
Free Gary McKinnon - UK citizen facing extradition to the USA for "hacking" over 90 US Military computer systems.
Parliament Protest - information and discussion on peaceful resistance to the arbitrary curtailment of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, in the excessive Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 Designated Area around Parliament Square in London.
Brian Burnell's British / US nuclear weapons history at http://nuclear-weapons.info
RIPA Consultations
RIPA Part III consultation blog - Government access to Encrypted Information and Encryption Keys.
RIPA Part I Chapter II consultation blog - Government access and disclosure of Communications Traffic Data
Counter Terrorism Bills
Counter Terrorism Bill blog - our sub-Blog which analyses and discusses the latest controversial Counter Terrorism legislation being proposed by the repressive and unpopular labour Government.
Asst. Met Commissioner Andy Hayman's letter trying to justify 90 days detention without charge
Follow Spy Blog on Twitter
For those of you who find it convenient, there is now a Twitter feed to alert you to new Spy Blog postings.
Please bear in mind the many recent, serious security vulnerabilities which have compromised the Twitter infrastructure and many user accounts, and Twitter's inevitable plans to make money out of you somehow, probably by selling your Communications Traffic Data to commercial and government interests.
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Recent Entries
- Sign the ORG petition against the revival of the Labour "zombie policy" of the "Interception Modernisation Programme" by the Coalition Government
- "Identity fraud costs UK £2.7billion every year" - unsubstantiated propaganda from the "National Fraud Authority" quango
- Project Champion Review - CCTV and ANPR mass surveillance ghettos in Birmingham
- MI5 Security Service Director General's speech - terrorist risk aversion attitude blamed on imported US media, still seems to argue for Control Orders, mentions Cyber-Espionage
- NO2ID - "one of the most successful pressure groups in history" - Damian Green during the Commons Third Reading of the abolition of the ID Card Act 2006
- Proposed Intelligence and Security Committee appointments - do *not* let Hazel Blears anywhere near the ISC !
- Why is there such a sentencing disparity between Official Secrets Act spying cases of Daniel James and Daniel Houghton ?
- Mail on Sunday - MI5, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones and Ukrainian billionaire anonymous allegations and denials
- Holiday reading for Spy Blog readers - reviews of a couple of books on GCHQ and NSA
- RIPA: Annual report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2009-2010
Categories
- Anonymous intelligence briefings (1)
- Anonymous political briefings
- Automatic Number Plate Recognition (35)
- Biometrics (2)
- British Passport (1)
- CCTV surveillance cameras (89)
- CHIS - Covert Human Intelligence Sources (5)
- Census Saturday March 27th 2011 (1)
- Civil Liberties (2)
- Collateral Damage (3)
- Communications Data Bill (11)
- Communications Data Privacy (132)
- Communities and Local Government data breach (1)
- Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition (1)
- Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 (13)
- Data Offenders Register (3)
- David Davis by-election (4)
- Diplomacy (1)
- Domestic Extremism (1)
- EU plans for internet censorship (12)
- Encryption (4)
- European Arrest Warrant (16)
- European Union (1)
- Event Horizon Scanning (1)
- Financial data snooping (2)
- Forensics (3)
- Freedom to Travel in Private (1)
- Genetics (1)
- HM Treasury data breach (1)
- HMRC privacy & security breach (21)
- Harassment of Photographers (19)
- Hints and tips for whistleblowers (4)
- Home Office data security and privacy breach (1)
- ID Cards database (12)
- Identity Documents Bill (4)
- Identity Fraud hype (1)
- Identityu Documents Bill
- Intelligence (16)
- Intelligence and Security Committee (9)
- Internet Censorship (4)
- JIC security breach (2)
- London Surveillance (15)
- MI5 website and email subscriptions (8)
- Media spin and manipulation
- MoD security and privacy breach (11)
- Mobile Phones in Prisons (8)
- National Identity Scheme (9)
- Passive Millimetre Wave Radar or other "see under your clothes" imaging (25)
- Police National Computer (1)
- Police and Justice Bill 2006 (11)
- Police data security and privacy breaches (1)
- Protests and Demonstrations (9)
- Protint - protected information data mining (3)
- RIPA Commissioners (50)
- RIPA Part III encryption (6)
- Security through obscurity (1)
- Surveillance Reviews
- Terrorism Act 2000 s44 stop and search without reasonable cause (1)
- Terrorist Finance (3)
- Top Secret history (1)
- Treasury snooping (18)
- Wannabe Spies (6)
- Whistleblowers (43)
- Wilson Doctrine (60)
- Yet Another National Database (2)
Monthly Archives
- November 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (2)
- September 2010 (4)
- August 2010 (2)
- July 2010 (9)
- June 2010 (4)
- May 2010 (8)
- April 2010 (8)
- March 2010 (8)
- February 2010 (10)
- January 2010 (9)
- December 2009 (8)
- November 2009 (6)
- October 2009 (12)
- September 2009 (11)
- August 2009 (7)
- July 2009 (16)
- June 2009 (18)
- May 2009 (15)
- April 2009 (8)
- March 2009 (14)
- February 2009 (20)
- January 2009 (15)
- December 2008 (11)
- November 2008 (9)
- October 2008 (16)
- September 2008 (13)
- August 2008 (12)
- July 2008 (27)
- June 2008 (26)
- May 2008 (18)
- April 2008 (9)
- March 2008 (16)
- February 2008 (16)
- January 2008 (19)
- December 2007 (13)
- November 2007 (16)
- October 2007 (8)
- September 2007 (14)
- August 2007 (9)
- July 2007 (11)
- June 2007 (16)
- May 2007 (18)
- April 2007 (20)
- March 2007 (14)
- February 2007 (17)
- January 2007 (24)
- December 2006 (28)
- November 2006 (19)
- October 2006 (30)
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- August 2006 (18)
- July 2006 (21)
- June 2006 (19)
- May 2006 (23)
- April 2006 (18)
- March 2006 (34)
- February 2006 (31)
- January 2006 (33)
- December 2005 (20)
- November 2005 (33)
- October 2005 (23)
- September 2005 (22)
- August 2005 (10)
- July 2005 (24)
- June 2005 (34)
- May 2005 (23)
- April 2005 (27)
- March 2005 (30)
- February 2005 (28)
- January 2005 (31)
- December 2004 (22)
- November 2004 (30)
- October 2004 (18)
- September 2004 (19)
- August 2004 (19)
- July 2004 (32)
- June 2004 (23)
- May 2004 (25)
- April 2004 (17)
- March 2004 (30)
- February 2004 (21)
- January 2004 (30)
- December 2003 (16)
- November 2003 (21)
- October 2003 (13)
- September 2003 (12)
- July 2003 (2)
- June 2003 (1)
November 2010
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UK Legislation
The United Kingdom suffers from tens of thousands of pages of complicated criminal laws, and thousands of new, often unenforceable criminal offences, which have been created as a "Pretend to be Seen to Be Doing Something" response to tabloid media hype and hysteria, and political social engineering dogmas. These overbroad, catch-all laws, which remove the scope for any judicial appeals process, have been rubber stamped, often without being read, let alone properly understood, by Members of Parliament.
The text of many of these Acts of Parliament are now online, but it is still too difficult for most people, including the police and criminal justice system, to work out the cumulative effect of all the amendments, even for the most serious offences involving national security or terrorism or serious crime.
Many MPs do not seem to bother to even to actually read the details of the legislation which they vote to inflict on us.
UK Statute Law Database - is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online, but it is not yet up to date.
UK Commissioners
UK Commissioners some of whom are meant to protect your privacy and investigate abuses by the bureaucrats.
UK Intelligence Agencies
Intelligence.gov.uk - Cabinet Office hosted portal website to various UK Intelligence Agencies and UK Government intelligence committees and Commissioners etc.
Anti-terrorism hotline - links removed in protestClimate of Fear propaganda posters
MI5 Security Service - links to encrypted reporting form removed in protest at the Climate of Fear propaganda posters
Secure Your Fertiliser - advice on ammonium nitrate and urea fertiliser security
Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure - "CPNI provides expert advice to the critical national infrastructure on physical, personnel and information security, to protect against terrorism and other threats."
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) recruitment.
Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ
Serious Organised Crime Agency - have cut themselves off from direct contact with the public and businesses - no phone - no email
Defence Advisory (DA) Notice system - voluntary self censorship by the established UK press and broadcast media regarding defence and intelligence topics via the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee.
National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit - keeps a watch on animal extremists, genetically modified crop protesters, peace protesters etc.
(some people think that the word salad of acronyms means that NETCU is a spoof website)
Campaign Button Links
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.
Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain
Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.
Data Retention is No Solution - Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.
Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.
Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).
Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign
BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging
NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools
Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."
Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.
Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."
Icelanders are NOT terrorists ! - despite Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling's use of anti-terrorism legislation to seize the assets of Icelandic banks.
No CCTV - The Campaign Against CCTV
I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist !
Power 2010 cross party, political reform campaign
Cracking the Black Box - "aims to expose technology that is being used in inappropriate ways. We hope to bring together the insights of experts and whistleblowers to shine a light into the dark recesses of systems that are responsible for causing many of the privacy problems faced by millions of people."
Open Rights Group - Petition against the renewal of the Interception Modernisation Programme
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