Please login to continue
Big Brother
BBC News
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27 EST
© BBC
Vanessa Kelly said the ducks were eating the bread as fast as she threw it
A mother out feeding the ducks with her young son was given an on-the-spot fine by a park warden.
Vanessa Kelly was in Smethwick Hall Park, in Smethwick, West Midlands, when she was approached by the warden and given a £75 fine for littering.
The warden then told Ms Kelly her son could continue to feed the ducks as he was too young to be fined.
Sandwell Council defended the fine, saying Ms Kelly was not in a designated feeding area.
Jacqui Cheng
Arts Technica
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:44 EST
Google's Street View has pushed Switzerland's privacy commissioner over the edge. His organization plans to take Google to court over what it considers to be egregious privacy violations on behalf of Swiss citizens after months of trying to negotiate with the company.
Loved by many, Google's Street View feature remains controversial among users and consumer groups who are concerned about privacy. The latest uproar comes from Switzerland's Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), which claims Google hasn't taken sufficient measures to protect citizens' privacy and is now threatening to take the company to federal court.
The Swiss Privacy Commissioner, Hanspeter Thür, has
been on Google's back over Street View since August of this year (when the feature began to be implemented there). At that time, he demanded that Google withdraw Street View in Switzerland, and said that it would only be allowed if certain "negotiated conditions" were met. Meanwhile, Thür's office offered instructions for citizens on how to get their faces blurred if they show up in a snapshot.
Jaikumar Vijayan
Computer World
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:52 EST
A decision by lawmakers to
slash funding for the unpopular Real ID national driver's license program has put an already struggling initiative on life support.
The U.S. Senate recently approved a $43 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the federal government's 2010 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The appropriation called for substantial increases in DHS spending in several key technology areas but slashed Real ID funding by 40%, from $100 million to $60 million.
The budget cut suggests that Real ID is going nowhere, said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. But Congress' hesitation to kill Real ID entirely highlights the touchy political nature of the program, he said.
"There isn't any love for Real ID on Capitol Hill," Harper said, but many lawmakers are reluctant to openly reject it for fear of being seen as too soft on national security.
Jared Yee
Tech Central
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:46 EST
Collecting biometric information could put civil liberties and privacy at risk, despite considerable benefits, says the Irish Council for Bioethics (ICB)
In its report, "Biometrics: Enhancing Security or Invading Privacy?", the ICB explores privacy concerns stemming from the growing use of biometric technologies to counter identity theft.
The technologies reviewed in the report include the familiar ones of fingerprint, palmprint, facial, vein pattern and voice recognition, plus newer technologies like gait (style of walking), keystroke dynamics and DNA. These are a "a more robust confirmation of a person's identity" than PIN numbers and ID cards.
However, these also put privacy at risk because electronic data can be collected, compiled and connected with rapidly increasing ease. The ICB stated that individual civil liberties could be implicated, especially if personal information enters the public sphere. Individuals could be categorised with biologically-derived labels such as 'disabled', 'criminal', 'suspect' or 'immigrant', potentially leading to discrimination.
"The ubiquity of biometrics begs the question whether any of us can lead truly private lives anymore," said Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan.
Chris Williams
The Register
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:40 EST
Simon says....
Forthcoming laws to reduce the level of peer-to-peer copyright infringement with threats of disconnection will affect "hardly anybody, other than the most serious and egregious recidivistic offenders", according to culture minister Sion Simon.
The Digital Economy Bill, to be announced in the Queen's Speech next week, will mandate a regime of notifications warning against illegal filesharing, followed by restrictions on bandwidth and possible suspension of the broadband accounts of those who do not stop.
The plans have attracted claims by consumer groups and ISPs that innocent people could lose internet access, an increasingly vital service. Mistakes are inevitable given many poorly secured Wi-Fi networks and flawed infringement detection procedures, they argue.
In Commons questions on Monday, Simon dismissed such concerns. "People who have done nothing wrong should not be in any danger of having their internet interfered with at all," he said.
"Nobody will have their bandwidth squeezed or their account suspended until they have had repeated letters, been given a healthy notice period and then had a right of appeal - indeed, two rights of appeal."
Tom Burghardt
Global Research
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:59 EDT
That social networking sites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter and their competitors can facilitate communication and information sharing amongst diverse groups and individuals is by now a cliché.
It should come as no surprise then, that the secret state and the capitalist grifters whom they serve, have zeroed-in on the explosive growth of these technologies. One can be certain however, securocrats aren't tweeting their restaurant preferences or finalizing plans for after work drinks.
No, researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are busy as proverbial bees building a "total information" surveillance system, one that will, so they hope, provide police and security agencies with what they euphemistically call "actionable intelligence."
Build the Perfect Panopticon, Win Fabulous Prizes!
In this context, the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks published a remarkable document October 4 by the INDECT Consortium, the Intelligence Information System Supporting Observation, Searching and Detection for Security of Citizens in Urban Environment.
Hardly a catchy acronym, but simply put INDECT is working to put a human face on the billions of emails, text messages, tweets and blog posts that transit cyberspace every day; perhaps your face.
According to Wikileaks, INDECT's "Work package 4" is designed "to comb web blogs, chat sites, news reports, and social-networking sites in order to build up automatic dossiers on individuals, organizations and their relationships." Ponder that phrase again: "automatic dossiers."
This isn't the first time that European academics have applied their "knowledge skill sets" to keep the public "safe"--from a meaningful exercise of free speech and the right to assemble, that is.
Simon Davies
The Guardian
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:10 EST
Labour is right to think plans to snoop on our internet use will harm its election chances - but have they really been shelved?
The government is playing a two-handed game over its
plan to snoop on all our communication and internet activity. On the one hand, officials have put it about that the
scheme has been indefinitely shelved because of concerns raised in the public consultation on the proposals. On the other, Home Office insiders assure me that the government has no intention of putting the scheme on hold. Any statements to the contrary are designed to mitigate the risk of a negative campaign in the run-up to the general election.
The government quite rightly perceives an election risk because of its surveillance plans. It is, after all, proposing to reach deep into the private life of everyone in the nation. From your phone records and emails to your activity on social networking sites such as Facebook, the government wants to know everything you do.
Sarah Stricker and Anat Shalev
Ynet
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:51 EST
Ilan Pappe
Anti-Zionist historian Prof. Ilan Pappe, one of the most important "New Historians", was scheduled to speak last weekend at the Pedagogical Institute of Munich. But a letter received from the "Israeli-German association of Munich", claiming that Pappe's lecture would turn into "an anti-Israeli propaganda show," led the Munich Municipality to reconsider the event.
The municipality eventually did not let Pappe use the room, claiming its decision was prompted by fears of violent clashes breaking out in the area. The Munich police insisted that there was no danger of fear for the security of those attending the lecture.
The Munich mayor refused to comment on the issue despite appeals from German media outlets. Pappe's associates eventually organized a room not owned by the authorities and the lecture took place as planned.
Kevin Grasher
Lancing State Journal
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:47 EST
A police officer who Tasered a man after the man had been handcuffed and subdued was suspended without pay for two weeks for violating department policies and procedures, officials said Thursday.
Lansing Police Chief Mark Alley said the incident began early Aug. 16 after police responded to a call of a dispute between Rocky Allred, 43, and a former girlfriend.
Alley said there was a scuffle between Allred and Officer Ryan Smith, a two-year veteran, and that Allred head-butted Smith while Smith tried to handcuff him.
Two other officers subdued and handcuffed Allred, Alley said, and Smith then used his Taser on Allred, causing him to fall to the ground.
Breitbart
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:42 EST
The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.
"Each vehicle will be equipped with a GPS device that tracks how many kilometres are driven and when and where. This data will be then be sent to a collection agency that will send out the bill," the transport ministry said in a statement.
Ownership and sales taxes, about a quarter of the cost of a new car, will be scrapped and replaced by the "price per kilometre" system aimed at cutting the Netherlands' carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent.
Comment: Faulty science used to tag, tax and monitor every road user.
154,467 people have viewed this page since Wed, 13 Dec 2006
Emails sent to Signs of the Times, Ark, Laura, or Cassiopaea become the property of Quantum Future Group, Inc and may be republished without notice.
Some icons appearing on this site were taken from KDE-look.org, Afterglow, Mayosoft, Everaldo, IconDrawer, VisualPharm, IconFactory, Klukeart, Icons-land, TpdkDesign.net, and IconShock.com.
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: 
Original content © 2009 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times. See: Fair Use Policy
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
