Travel tracking and E-borders

I had intended to comment on the government's suggestion that the travel plans and patterns of all citizens of this nation should be stored on a database for up to ten years. Given the way the government works that should be considered to be a minimum of ten years but however long this period is, it will be an intrusion into privacy and personal rights.

My statement that it was a suggestion has to be amended now that it looks as though the system is about to be initialised and some ferry, rail and air companies will start to introduce the data collection over the Easter [2009] holidays. Private pilots, owners of light aircraft will also be brought into the scheme and their flight plans will be recorded in the database.

Even weekend sailors and sea-fishermen will face criminal prosecution if they step one foot on foreign soil.

A further twist, one which to me is the greatest joke, has cross-channel swimmers and their support teams also having to file their 'travel plans' for recording in the database.

Probably the most disturbing thing about all of this is the fact that the government will want to know;

Who you are,
Where you live,
How you paid,
Your phone number,
Your e-mail address,
Where you are going,
Who is with you,
Where you will be staying,
When you will be back,

And in most cases all this information will have to be provided at least 24 hours in advance, so no spontaneous holidays should be considered - just in case.

The information for this blog post was gathered from the No2ID pages http://www.no2id.net/newsblog/?p=1095 and http://www.no2id.net/newsblog/?p=1096

Image via Wikipedia

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I had intended to add a picture or two but I didn't think that the material should have any image to distract from the seriousness of what the government is trying to do to us.

It cannot be said that any of this is really going to tackle the issues of terrorism and in my opinion is just going to make '1984' a prophesy rather than a warning.

Sad, really.

Ainsley

Surveillance State - What next?

The first of the latest warnings about threats to personal liberty and freedom came on Friday 6 Feb 09 with the 'Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data' information from the House of Lords. Civil liberties campaign group Liberty have said that abuses of power have meant that "even the innocent have a lot to fear" and that the proposed database to store e-mails and phone calls is giving the government. Said database has been put on hold after these were branded 'Orwellian' but there have been further thoughts about how to initiate it in the near future. For further information on this see the BBC News page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7872425.stm

A lot of the complaint comes from the misuse of CCTV data just to convict people who allow their dogs to foul the pavement (sidewalk, for the American readers) or littering - rather than for crime fighting. We, in the UK, have the highest density of CCTV cameras in Europe with an estimated four million cameras.

Image via Wikipedia

The latest (08 Feb 09) joke comes from the fact that the government is compiling a database 'to track and store the international travel details of millions of Britons'. "Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years." To read more on this see the BBC News page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7877182.stm

This information will include names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of travellers. It will probably also include details of who you are travelling with and where your eventual destination is located.

While I understand the perceived need for screening passengers and checking these against criminal lists, I do wonder why the government wants to set up a database of travellers and keep these records for ten, or more, years and at what financial cost to the country and what personal cost to the individual.

Orwell had it right - Big Brother really is watching you, pass my bottle of gin please.

I called this a joke but there really isn't that much to laugh about.

Take care and try to avoid the cameras.

Love to all, Ainsley

There is a call for speed-limiting cars

A short time ago I posted a segment on Geo-location and the possible use for tracking speeders. I didn't think that this could actually be taken further by the government.

They are planning to make a digital map of the road system in the UK and link that to a (voluntary - at present) device which could be installed in vehicles so that the car is forced to obey the speed limit for the road being travelled. The brakes would be applied by the computer system automatically without the driver having to actually do anything.

Using this system would really allow the authorities to know where you are and whether you a breaking any traffic regulations. What I thought would be only linked to mobile phones - and thus could be circumvented (leave your phone at home) quite easily - would now be fully integrated into your car and be able to track you wherever and at whatever speed you are going.

While this might be considered a life-saving device it has to be considered that there are times when being able to accelerate out of danger. and thus officially break the speed limit, would be useful and necessary.

It has been said that several, if not most, of the motoring groups would reject this idea because they consider that the government is placing too much emphasis on speed as the prime cause of accidents. I suspect that the freedom of choice people would have something to say about this too.

I extracted this information from the BBC News page at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7803997.stm and a few more bits of information and some background links can be found there.

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I had intended to add to this blog on a personal level but this will have to wait for a few more days, look for something on or before 08 Jan 09.

Love and peace to all for the New Year
Ainsley