Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington.

By using a credit card to book a flight, passengers face having other transactions on the card inspected by the American authorities. Providing an email address to an airline could also lead to scrutiny of other messages sent or received on that account.

The extent of the demands were disclosed in “undertakings” given by the US Department of Homeland Security to the European Union and published by the Department for Transport after a Freedom of Information request.

About four million Britons travel to America each year and the released document shows that the US has demanded access to far more data than previously realised.

Not only will such material be available when combating terrorism but the Americans have asserted the right to the same information when dealing with other serious crimes. (more…)

Powers allowing police forces to keep the DNA of people accused of sexual or violent offences have come into force.

The measure will allow the police to store such information on a database, even if there is no conviction.

Currently, DNA must be destroyed if it belongs to an accused of sexual or violent crimes if there is no conviction obtained.

The changes are contained in the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.

They will allow police to retain DNA samples for up to three years and apply for an extension if deemed necessary. (more…)

In 2007, we should demand that MPs of all parties fight to restore the liberties which have been stolen by this government

An article in the New Scientist has reported that a rhesus monkey named Murph and a bottlenose dolphin called Natua, which lives in a harbour in Florida, have both exhibited a fascinating ability when doing reward-based tests. As well as being able to understand when they answered right or wrong, they learned to signal when they didn’t know something and so avoid the disappointment of being wrong. Like Mastermind contestants, they elected to ‘pass’.

Knowing what you don’t know is a type of abstract thought process called metacognition. A pigeon doesn’t know what it doesn’t know, but Murph and Natua do and that means they are both very intelligent and have a basic requirement for consciousness.

It occurred to me that during 2006, most of us have been exhibiting precisely the opposite to Murph and Natua’s talent. We don’t know what we know. Or, rather, we chose not to know the incontestable and unequivocal truth about the character of this government. Certainly, we know about the sale of peerages, the scandal over the manipulation of legal advice and intelligence before the Iraq war, the constant move to centralise power and authority at the expense of ordinary people and the associated contempt for parliamentary scrutiny. (more…)

‘Fusion’ Facilities Raise Privacy Worries As Wide Range of Information Is Collected

Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.

The new “fusion centers” are now operating in 37 states, including Virginia and Maryland, and another covers the Washington area, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The centers, which have received $380 million in federal support since the 2001 terrorist attacks, pool and analyze information from local, state and federal law enforcement officials.

The emerging “network of networks” marks a new era of opportunity for law enforcement, according to U.S. officials and homeland security experts. Police are hungry for federal intelligence in an age of homegrown terrorism and more sophisticated crime. For their part, federal law enforcement officials could benefit from a potential army of tipsters — the 700,000 local and state police officers across the country, as well as private security guards and others being courted by the centers. (more…)

Cameras may soon make it easier for police to catch drivers running red lights. The city is signing a contract with Redflex Traffic Systems, of Arizona, to install the technology. But, as “Big Brother” snaps shots of drivers… some question if the cameras violate basic rights under the law.

You’ll soon think twice about running a red light in Sioux City. Cameras will snap shots of cars going through red lights. The images will then be sent to the police department, where an officer will decide whether to write out a ticket. Police say the technology will put a dent in the number of travelers breaking the law and endangering public safety.

Captain Melvin Williams, Sioux City Police Department, says “We don’t have the staff to monitor all the intersections in the city, so this is a way to be a force multiplier and handle the concerns of the public that’s been brought forward to us.” (more…)

Children as young as four are being filmed in school toilets across Barking and Dagenham.

The Recorder has discovered a number of CCTV cameras have been installed in primary and secondary schools.

Officials at Barking and Dagenham Council claim there is no secrecy around the cameras, but have refused to disclose which schools are involved in the controversial scheme.

Council bosses have in the past vigorously defended pupils’ identities and have even refused to name youngsters pictured in Recorder articles - yet questions are sure to be raised about the privacy and rights of pupils being caught on camera.

Despite contacting every school in the borough, the Recorder received no responses. We have therefore been forced to submit an application for the details under the Freedom of Information Act - the response to which will be due on Tuesday, January 23.

The revelations may panic parents worried about the tapes falling into the wrong hands. (more…)

Detectives investigating the murder of Alexander Litvin-enko are trying to trace a Russian businessman who flew to Britain at the same time as a consignment of deadly polonium-210 was allegedly smuggled into London.

The man was spotted on a flight from Hamburg sitting beside Dimtri Kovtun, another Russian whom German police are investigating for trafficking the radioactive material used to poison the former KGB spy.

Officers have studied CCTV footage from airports at Hamburg and London and are understood to believe that the two men were travelling together. However, the mystery figure disappeared after leaving Heathrow with Mr Kovtun. The name he used on the flight and the passport presented to immigration officials does not show up on any hotel register in the capital. It is believed that he met up again with Mr Kovtun in London on November 1, the day Litvinenko fell ill.

Mr Kovtun was one of the last people to see Litvinenko before he collapsed. Scotland Yard will not say if it regards Mr Kovtun as a victim, a witness or a suspect. (more…)

Money talks - and in the very near future it will be talking through your mobile phone.

Fumbling for coins in your pocket will be a thing of the past as the latest technology lets you load up your phone with credit and pay by simply pointing it at the till.

It’s further proof that new technology is killing off hard cash.

In the coming year, even the smallest purchases will be paid for electronically after credit card giants Visa and Barclaycard struck a deal to create the next generation of “wave and pay” cards for purchases of less than £10.

Users will simply wave the card across a scanner to pay for small items for which they would normally use coins, such as their Daily Mirror or a pint of beer.

But the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona has taken the technology one step further by having tiny data chips implanted surgically under customers’ skin. (more…)

GALVESTON — Technology developed to keep track of prisoners by scanning their irises became available Thursday to identify missing children or elderly people afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease in Galveston County.

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Department is the first sheriff’s department in Texas and the 47th nationwide to join the Children’s Identification Database, or CHILD Project.

The addition of Galveston County is part of an effort to image the irises of 5 million children into a nationwide database over the next few years, said Robert Melley, vice president and CEO of Biometric Intelligence & Identification.

“We have 1,800 sheriff’s departments representing 46 states who have committed to participating,” Melley said. (more…)

Los Gatos High School plans to join a growing number of high schools that perform random breath alcohol tests on students at dances and other events.

Principal Doug Ramezane said he would institute the new policy after winter break because several students were found to be under the influence of alcohol at football games, the school’s Coronation Ball and even during class this year.

“It isn’t OK that any of these kids are doing it,” Ramezane said. “It probably isn’t going to eliminate the problem completely, but we want to minimize alcohol and drug use.”

Although Los Gatos High has had a Breathalyzer alcohol detector available at school dances for several years, campus officials have only used it when they suspected a particular student was drunk. In the future, students will be tested at random, he said. (more…)

Today President Bush signed the H.R. 6407, the “Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. In doing so he added a few signing statements. One of them is particularly alarming.

The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

This says the Bush can now search our mail without a warrant. There is no arguing that this is exactly what it says. A signing statement does not outweigh our Constitution. (more…)

The town of Eagleville, Tenn., is not the only small town seeking to install a sophisticated video surveillance system. Since Sept. 11, communities nationwide have increasingly turned to video surveillance cameras as anti-terrorism and crime-fighting tools.

Many communities have established systems with the latest high-technology features, creating powerful and intelligent networks of cameras. Residents generally believe the cameras will make communities safer, and they seldom seem concerned about potential intrusions on their privacy rights or civil liberties. Most of us seem to believe that individuals have no legitimate “expectation of privacy” once they leave their homes and step into the public streets.

But even if you were not doing anything illegal, would you be completely comfortable with having your every movement recorded and available for later review? What if you were filmed entering an infertility clinic, an Alcoholics Anonymous gathering, or the meeting of a controversial political group? What if your movements were stored in a digital database readily searchable by the government? What if organizations or individuals outside the government had access to the film? When you think about it, wouldn’t you like to set some limits on what the government can film and on what may be done with the footage? (more…)

All secondary pupils in Scotland should be given ID cards in an effort to stamp out bullying, according to a teaching union.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) says many schools already have card systems in place for school lunches and libraries.

It believes adding a picture would stop pupils missing meals because they have been bullied into handing over cards.

However, the Green Party described the proposal as “deeply troubling”. (more…)

A draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme. Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury.

People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative’s ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at least £30 for a new card if they want to use their married name, risking a £1,000 fine if they do not comply.

The revelations will fuel debate over ID cards in the countdown to their nationwide introduction, which the Government claims will boost security, tackle identity fraud and prevent illegal working. But costs are soaring and the technology has failed in tests. (more…)

Defense lawyers who had hoped that the public disclosure a year ago of the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program would yield information favorable to their clients are being rebuffed by the federal judiciary, which in a series of unusually consistent rulings has rejected efforts by terrorism suspects to access the records.

In at least 17 criminal cases, federal district judges nominated to the federal bench by presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush have ruled against requests to force the government to tell defendants, most accused of terrorism-related crimes, whether the NSA eavesdropped on them without a court warrant.

The rulings indicate that even as public support for the war in Iraq has eroded in polls and as the NSA program has come under criticism from congressional Democrats, and even some Republicans, federal judges may be a bulwark that the Bush administration can rely on to defer to at least some aspects of its wartime policies. (more…)