|
Date |
Subject |
Publication/Source |
Extract |
URL |
14/1/96 |
Smart “Chip” Cards |
LA Times |
Millions of Europeans will be using smart cards instead of cash by the end of 1996. Doctors' offices, transit authorities, hospitals and motor vehicle agencies are likely to adopt the technology on a large scale. |
link. |
|
30/1/98 |
Encryption |
BBC News Online |
Davies cites preserving our identity as another defence for allowing strong encryption. In the Middle Ages, when much of the population was illiterate, a person owned their identity...their face. Today, with commercial organizations trading personal information about our incomes and lifestyles, gleaned from a variety of databases and from supermarket 'loyalty' cards, our identity is literally what we consume: a prospect Davies finds alarming. |
link
|
|
24/10/98 |
Data Protection Act 1998 |
BBC News Online |
Legislation aimed at giving Europeans greater control over the electronic storage of their personal details takes effect this weekend.
The European Data Protection Directive is being welcomed by individuals and civil liberties groups.
But businesses face massive problems meeting its requirements and the United States is concerned at the consequences of its own inability to match the standards.
The directive was adopted in 1995 and gave the 15 member states of the European Union three years to bring their own legislation into line. |
link
|
|
27/10/98 |
First Big Brother Awards |
BBC News Online |
The first annual awards defending the individual's right to privacy have been made at a ceremony in London.
The 1998 UK Big Brother Awards were held on the 50th anniversary of the writing of George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The pressure group Privacy International announced winners it judged to be the modern-day equivalents of Big Brother in the novel, as well as individuals who had fought to protect privacy, awarding them Winstons, the name of the book's hero. |
link
|
|
1/11/98 |
Biometrics in US |
Connecticut Department Of Social Services |
In this issue, privacy issues get put on the front burner. Gary Roethenbaugh interviews Simon Davies of Privacy International and gets his viewpoint on PI's aggressive action plan as they chart a course to protect individual rights |
link |
|
5/3/99 |
Internet Snooping |
BBC News Online |
The British government is set to back down over giving Big Brother powers to law enforcement agencies to snoop on personal and business data sent over the Internet.
The British government is set to back down over giving Big Brother powers to law enforcement agencies to snoop on personal and business data sent over the Internet. |
link
|
|
5/3/99 |
Cyber Crimes |
BBC News Online |
The UK Government has given the IT industry until the end of the month to come up with a solution to criminals exploiting a boom in the use of the Internet.
In exchange, it has dropped, for now, controversial plans to give law enforcement agencies easier access to the keys to unlock coded data sent over the Net.
Key escrow, as it is known, is omitted from a consultation document published on Friday for a forthcoming Electronic Commerce Bill. |
link
|
|
4/5/99 |
Surveillance Cameras |
BBC News Online |
Whatever your feelings about privacy, no one cannot afford to be camera shy in modern-day Britain.
Per capita there are more surveillance cameras in the UK than any other country in the world - more than a million according to one recent estimate.
The average city dweller can expect to be captured on film every five minutes. Almost 500,000 low budget CCTV kits have been bought in the last three years.
At this rate, by 2015 there will be no such thing as a secret place in our city centres, according to Simon Davies, of the pressure group Privacy International. |
link
|
|
13/6/99 |
General Privacy (US) |
LA Times |
Fifty years ago, a bizarre and terrifying novel went on sale in bookshops across the world. George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" caught the imagination of millions, and in the process catapulted Big Brother into the international vocabulary. The phrase soon became shorthand to represent the power of the state, and helped entire generations to express their fear of intrusion by authority. |
link. |
|
4/8/99 |
Electronic Eavesdropping |
LA Times |
The NSA is in the business of eavesdropping on the world's communications networks for the benefit of the United States. In doing so, it has built a vast spying operation that reaches into the telephone systems of nearly every country. Its operations are so secret that this activity, outside the U.S., occurs without any democratic oversight and without any legal basis. |
link. |
|
16/8/99 |
Internet Snooping |
LA Times |
The revelation last year about the collaborative electronic eavesdropping system developed by the U.S. National Security Agency and British intelligence agencies, a system known as Echelon, has become a huge topic of discussion in Europe. |
link |
|
23/10/99 |
Email Snooping |
LA Times |
Defying an ultra-secret spy network believed to be scanning overseas e-mails for subversive messages, Internet protesters tried to overwhelm U.S. government eavesdroppers by flooding the system with fabricated messages about terrorist plots and bombs.
Organizers urged Internet users on dozens of Web sites and in discussion groups to send millions of e-mails with subversive- sounding language. "Give the [NSA] their keywords!" one person wrote. |
link. |
|
19/10/00 |
General Surveillance/Privacy |
The Telegraph |
SUPREMELY dangerous or supremely fragile? This was the question considered from conflicting viewpoints at the London School of Economics on September 22, when Privacy International convened a day-long conference to discuss the state of global surveillance. |
link |
|
24/10/00 |
eMonitoring at Work |
BBC News Online |
New regulations giving employers sweeping powers to monitor their workers' e-mails and internet activity come into force in the UK on Tuesday [1 November 2000].
But campaigners say the rules, under the new Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, are an assault on personal privacy.
Under the regulations, employers can legally monitor staff phone calls, e-mails and internet activity without consent, for a wide range of reasons. |
link
|
|
11/6/01 |
Cybercrime Treaty |
BBC News Online |
Changes to a controversial treaty on cybercrime have done nothing to improve it, say civil liberty campaigners.
Next week, the Council of Europe will vote on the treaty, which has been redrafted 26 times before reaching its final version late in May.
The most recent changes were made to take into account the fears of civil liberty and privacy campaigners. But cyber-rights groups say the latest changes are purely cosmetic and have not diluted what they describe as its most pernicious sections. |
link
|
|
16/7/01 |
General Privacy |
The Telegraph |
The Government is at present acquiring and storing DNA samples at a rate of more than one million a year. "The Government's aim is clear," says Simon Davies of Privacy International, a lobbying group. "Within a generation, it wants the entire population's DNA stored in a database." |
link |
|
19/8/01 |
CCTV and Visual Surveillance |
Channel 4 Online Discussion |
Director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, chatted about the issues of CCTV |
link |
|
1/9/01 |
Data Protection Breaches |
BBC News Online |
Avon and Somerset Police are investigating how confidential files containing the identities of alleged paedophiles and their victims were found on a second-hand computer bought from Bristol University.
The computer was bought two years ago and contained data from a research project for the Home Office into how child abuse cases were dealt with.
The files were given to the university's law department by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. |
link
|
|
21/9/01 |
Civil Liberties (US) |
LA Times |
In Colombia, the government is at war with both leftist guerrillas and powerful drug barons. To carry a cellular phone--favored by both groups--Colombians agree to be fingerprinted and to carry a photo ID proving ownership. More draconian measures are taken by the Turkish state, which has long cited its war against Kurdish separatists and Islamic radicals as justification for assuming wide-ranging powers that infringe on ... |
link. |
|
29/9/01 |
UK ID Cards |
The Telegraph |
THE Government has embarked on its most reckless policy to date in pursuing the idea of national identity cards. The initiative will fundamentally change the nature of government and the character of the nation. |
link |
|
19/10/01 |
General Privacy |
Spiked Online |
The right to privacy is implicit in the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures', and in the Fifth Amendment, which protects against 'private property' being 'taken for public use'. |
link
|
|
24/10/01 |
US ID Card |
LA Times |
Calls for a national system of identification cards sparked by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have gained little traction, failing to win endorsements from the Bush administration or congressional leaders. |
link
|
|
24/10/01 |
US Response to Terror |
LA Times |
After a series of interviews touting the plan, [Larry Ellison] continued to push his idea in meetings with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and others, including the database giant's first customer, the CIA. Ellison said last week that future White House meetings were planned. |
link |
|
25/1/02 |
General Privacy |
The Telegraph |
SINCE Simon Davies of Privacy International raised the issue of unannounced changes to the annual schools census, readers have been in touch expressing their alarm.
Previously, the annual census was anonymous, allowing the education authorities to gain general information about regional trends. But with no fanfare, the rules have been radically revised. |
link |
|
4/3/02 |
Big Brother Awards |
BBC News Online |
UK Government plans to archive all internet traffic and e-mail has been singled out for a controversial award at this year's Big Brother Award ceremony.
The awards - established in 1998 by Human Rights watchdog Privacy International - are designed to expose the state erosions of privacy as well as honouring those that made an outstanding contribution to preserving privacy. |
link
|
|
5/3/02 |
Big Brother Awards |
The Telegraph |
The Big Brother and Winston awards - the names are taken from George Orwell's novel 1984 - are organised by Privacy International with the support of the London School of Economics.
Before an audience of 350 civil rights campaigners, the Telegraph was praised by judges for launching the Free Country campaign last summer and sticking with it after the September 11 attacks made the political climate hostile to individual liberties. |
link |
|
24/3/02 |
Chips to fight Kidnapping |
BBC News Online |
An US company is considering producing electronic implants that could be used to keep tabs on kidnap victims via satellite.
Originally Applied Digital Solutions had intended to market its VeriChip to patients who wanted to keep their medical records under their skin.
Once the technology has been developed it will not be easy to stop it being used for surveillance purposes believes Ian Pearson, BT's futurologist. |
link |
|
12/4/02 |
UK ID Card |
The Telegraph |
Civil liberties campaigners reacted angrily. "This paves the way for the gravest threat to privacy we have ever seen in this country," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. |
link |
|
18/4/02 |
Surveillance in Mobile phones/Future of Money |
Radio 4 Current Affairs Programme |
The new generation of mobile phones has surveillance and tracking capability built into the core requirements of the system. That’s backed by legislation passed by many western governments through the OECD and the Council of Europe requiring companies to have a tracking mechanism in their telephones.
Now the same then applies to financial systems. Audit trails are required by law. So privacy is fundamentally engineered into extinction at the design phase. That’s the problem we face. |
link
|
|
27/5/02 |
Microsoft’s .NET Passport Service |
BBC News Online |
Privacy groups have welcomed the European Commission's decision to investigate whether Microsoft's system of collecting personal information from internet users breaks privacy laws. |
link
|
|
11/06/02 |
Communication records/RIP |
The Guardian |
Ministers were last night accused of conducting a systematic campaign to undermine the right to privacy as it emerged that a host of government departments, local councils and quangos are to be given the power to demand the communications records of every British telephone and internet user. |
link
|
|
4/7/02 |
Technology of ID Cards |
BBC News Online |
It could take years to develop the kind of smart ID cards the UK Government is keen to introduce and they are likely to compound the problems of illegal immigration, fraud and identity theft, say experts.
Home Secretary David Blunkett has indicated he favours introducing such cards, called entitlement cards, and has launched a six-month consultation.
Civil liberties groups have vehemently opposed the idea, stating that it will turn citizens into suspects. |
link
link (cached) |
|
23/7/02 |
Fingerpringting in Schools |
The Times |
IT PROMISED to be the high-tech saviour of the embattled primary-school librarian, an ingenious device that guaranteed no more lost library cards and fewer missing books. Privacy International called for the banning of the library-management software, sold by a Stockport company called Micro Librarian Systems. “This is unethical and disproportionate,” Simon Davies, Privacy International’s director, said. |
link |
|
23/7/02 |
Fingerprinting In Schools |
BBC News Online |
Tens of thousands of children are being fingerprinted in school - often without the consent of their parents, a human rights group has complained.
Prints are taken for a library lending system which the makers say makes lending more efficient and less vulnerable to abuse.
But the pressure group Privacy International says the practice is illegal and breaches the human right to privacy. |
link
|
|
5/9/02 |
Anti-Terrorism Law |
The Times |
INDIVIDUAL privacy is being eroded in Britain to a far greater extent than in other developed countries, according to an international study of state surveillance in the year since September 11. |
link
|
|
6/9/02 |
Anti-Terrorism Law/Internet snooping |
BBC News Online |
The UK is one of the worst places in the world for privacy with the internet playing a huge part in the erosion of rights, a report has found.
A 400-page study compiled by Privacy International and the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center paints a grim picture of the state of privacy in a post-11 September world.
|
link
|
|
4/10/02 |
Belgian ID Card |
BBC News Online |
Head of Privacy International Simon Davies believes that the advantages will be outweighed by the same privacy issues that have haunted the introduction of photo ID cards.
"It is an ancient privacy principle that integration of data damages the integrity and rights of users,"he said. |
link
|
|
8/12/02 |
UK ID Cards |
BBC News Online |
There is likely to be a big public backlash to government plans to introduce compulsory ID cards in the UK, say experts.
There is growing unease about the need for a national ID card, said Simon Davies of the civil liberties group Privacy International. |
link |
|
14/1/03 |
UK ID Cards |
BBC News Online |
Mounting opposition to the idea of compulsory ID cards in the UK has dealt a blow to government conviction that the public supported the idea. A consultation into the issue, launched in July and due to conclude at the end of January, had shown that a 2-1 majority of citizens favoured the idea of compulsory ID cards.
But these government figures, drawn from the 1,500 responses it has so far received from the public, have been brought into serious question by alternative figures from campaign groups Privacy International and Stand.org.uk. |
link
|
|
22/1/03 |
Yahoo Japan’s Name and Shame Policy |
BBC News Online |
The head of Yahoo in Japan has defended the internet firm's practice of publishing the names of suspected fraudulent users of its online auction service.
Privacy campaigners have condemned Yahoo Japan's decision to use the name and shame tactic.
Simon Davies of Privacy International called the policy reprehensible and unwarranted. Firms should pursue clients who breached agreements through the courts or arbitration panels, he told the BBC's World Business Report. |
link
|
|
24/1/03 |
UK ID Card |
BBC News Online |
The UK Government could abandon proposals for a national identity card scheme.
Speaking at a conference on the future of ID cards organised by tech industry body Intellect, Home Office Minister Lord Falconer told delegates that the scheme may never come to fruition.
Privacy International in conjunction with lobby group Stand.org.uk has recently submitted over 7,000 responses to the consultation process.
The overwhelming majority are against the idea. But the Home Office says it has only received 2,000 responses with around two to one in favour of such a scheme.
"What an absolute fabrication," said head of Privacy International Simon Davies. |
link
|
|
12/2/03 |
UK ID Cards |
BBC News Online |
Privacy International has been heading the campaign against the introduction of ID card.
Director Simon Davies told BBC News Online that the same arguments apply to smart cards as to ID cards - that a centralised database of information is neither workable nor desirable.
"All government departments are under pressure to find new ways of handling data but the question is whether it is desirable or necessary to have health information joined up with financial information," he said. |
link
|
|
4/3/03 |
Creation of Mega-Databases of Personal Information |
BBC News Online |
BT has launched an ID verification scheme that it hopes will become the universal system for government and businesses wanting to check identities on the net.
URU (You Are You) is designed to make identity mix-ups such as the recent arrest of pensioner Derek Bond in South Africa as one of the FBI's most wanted men far less common, say the developers of the system.
Businesses or governments needing to check identities need to enter the details of the person into the database.
The system then trawls through databases such as the Electoral Roll, the Death Register and the Post Office Address File. |
link
|
|
11/3/03 |
Internet/Phone snooping |
BBC News Online |
Following a summer of discontent and lobbying from privacy and human rights groups, the government backed down on proposals to allow a multiplicity of public bodies access to personal data. |
link
link (cached) |
|
12/3/03 |
‘Snoopers Charter’ |
The Telegraph |
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: "They have tinkered at the edges and made a few cosmetic changes but there is nothing substantially different from what was on offer before. It is still a snooper's charter." |
link |
|
25/3/03 |
Big Brother Awards |
BBC News Online |
London mayor Ken Livingstone has won the Worst Public Servant category at this year's Big Brother Awards for his surveillance of transport systems.
He was a surprise winner, nominated for a series of travel and transport surveillance systems around the capital to help enforce the congestion charge.
The awards - organised by lobby group Privacy International - are designed to expose threats to privacy from governments and companies and are held annually in 15 countries around the globe. |
link
link (cached) |
|
26/3/03 |
Big Brother Awards 2003 |
The Guardian |
Privacy International last night held a party to mark its fifth annual Big Brother awards, given to people and organisations it judges to have invaded privacy.
A representative of the Home Office attended the event, but did not take the special award for David Blunkett: a (fake) dog poo on a stick. The home secretary has been a long-time target for privacy campaigners, as a result of his support for schemes such as entitlement cards.
|
link
|
|
10/4/03 |
Post September 11 Policies |
BBC News Online |
Airport security guards who mistook a bottle of perfume for a chemical weapon have become one of the winners of a competition to find the world's most stupid security measure.
The informal competition was run by civil liberties group Privacy International which wanted to find the daftest security measure introduced in the wake of the September 11 attack. |
link
|
|
16/5/03 |
Communications snooping |
BBC News Online |
Officials in the UK are routinely demanding huge quantities of information about what people do online and who they call, say privacy experts.
Police and other officials are making around a million requests for access to data held by net and telephone companies each year, according to figures compiled from the government, legal experts and the internet industry. |
link |
|
18/5/03 |
Surveillance |
The Telegraph |
Mr Davies said that under powers given in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Government departments and the police asked to see records detailing more than 100 million phone calls.
The Government wants to extend the number of public bodies authorised to have access to data. |
link |
|
19/5/03 |
Joined Up Government vs Data Protection Act |
BBC News Online |
Joined-up government has long been an ambition of Prime Minister Tony Blair. In conjunction with putting services online, it is seen as an opportunity to revamp and modernise the way citizens interact with government.
Privacy advocates are less keen on the idea of joined-up government and are concerned that e-government schemes will increase the amount of data shared between departments.
Simon Davies, head of lobby group Privacy International, has little sympathy for public organisations struggling under the weight of the government's own legislation. |
link
|
|
29/5/03 |
Centralisation of Data by Governament Agencies |
BBC News Online |
The UK's latest move in the fight against terrorism is a secret project to bring together intelligence data from the UK's security agencies, say reports.
The project, called Scope, is intended to share information between nine government departments, MI5 and MI6 and cost millions of pounds, according to Computing magazine.
Technology suppliers have been given initial briefings on the project after signing a secrecy agreement, it said.
It is one of several schemes introduced by the government following the September 11 terror attacks in the US. |
link
|
|
30/5/03 |
UK ID Card |
BBC News Online |
Net activists are pressing the UK Government to explain what has happened to thousands of public responses that expressed doubts about the merits of ID cards.
The responses were passed on by groups such as Stand and Privacy International when the government was seeking public comment on its ID card proposals. |
link
|
|
5/6/03 |
Government Consultation on National ID Cards for UK |
BBC News Online |
Officials have been accused of refusing to say what has happened to thousands of public responses.
Net activists have been left baffled as 6,000 responses, mostly in opposition to the proposed ID scheme, have apparently gone missing. |
link
|
|
19/6/03 |
UK ID Card |
BBC News Online |
In response to a parliamentary question from MP Anne McIntosh, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes has confirmed that over 5,000 of the 7,000 responses to a public consultation on the issue were against the scheme. |
link
|
|
22/6/03 |
Police using NHS Records |
The Telegraph |
Simon Davies, director of the pressure group Privacy International, said: "This is an extraordinary exercise and it sounds like a dangerous precedent to me. This would appear to be a violation of article 8 of the Human Rights Act, which protects privacy." |
link |
|
7/7/03 |
UK ID Card |
The Telegraph |
Privacy International, the civil rights watchdog, will mount a campaign against the plans this week. Simon Davies, its director, said: "This is without doubt the most threatening issue for civil rights and freedoms since the Second World War." |
link |
|
17/7/03 |
National ID Card |
The Telegraph |
Home Office estimates of the cost of the scheme range from £1.6 to £3.14 billion but Simon Davies, of Privacy International, says the true cost will be very much higher.
"We know from industry estimates that a 'smart' card with biometric information such as the one proposed will cost well over £100 per head, so the final cost will be more like £5.5 billion," he said. Mr Davies led a campaign against an Australian ID card in the 1980s. Initially the plan was popular but opposition grew strongly when the scheme was finally unveiled and the government was forced to abandon it. |
link |
|
24/7/03 |
Phone Tapping |
BBC News Online |
Every day thousands of telephone conversations are listened in on, e-mails intercepted and rooms bugged.
The eavesdroppers include police officers, MI5 agents, private investigators, suspicious spouses and stalkers.
But bugs and phone taps can also threaten the human rights of innocent people. |
link
|
|
28/7/03 |
Bugs and Taps |
BBC News Online |
Telephone tapping without a valid warrant is illegal under both the 1998 Wireless Telegraphy Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
The law relating to intrusive surveillance devices - bugs - is less clear.
But it is legal to trade in taps, bugs and covert cameras, which explains the myriad websites, mail order businesses and spy shops. |
|
|
13/8/03 |
UK ID Card |
The Independent Online |
Whether you're travelling, shopping or on the way to work, your movements can be monitored. New technology is boosting biometric surveillance, says Wendy Grossman, and privacy may vanish for ever |
link |
|
6/9/03 |
General Privacy |
The Telegraph |
This week, three international human rights reports single out Britain over its record on abusing rights and freedoms. First, Amnesty International accused Britain of violating human rights under the new Anti-Terrorism Act. Then the French-based group Reporters sans Frontières condemned Britain for its efforts to curb free speech on the internet. And, finally, Privacy International and the American-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre point to Britain as a leader in the assault on individual privacy. |
link |
|
10/9/03 |
Blood samples from 500,000 British |
BBC News Online |
About 100,000 people in Scotland are to be asked to donate blood samples for a study which could lead to the creation of a national DNA data bank.
The £45m UK Biobank study, which is due to start next year, aims to collect blood samples and lifestyle details from 500,000 people across Britain.
Simon Davies, director of the civil rights group Privacy International, said:… "There is no such thing as anonymity. In the future we may find our [health] insurance subject to discrimination, we may see trouble with employment - we could find the information leaking like a sieve at every stage in our lives." |
link
|
|
14/9/03 |
Car Black Boxes |
The Telegraph |
Simon Davies, the director of the civil liberties group Privacy International, was also critical. "All companies have to do is talk about vulnerable kids and their products are seen in a benign light. Parents would be far better giving their children defensive driving lessons. This is another device to manipulate our fears." |
link |
|
10/2003 |
Internet User’s Movements tracking by Government |
New Media Age |
How much do you trust the government? Not just the current Government, but the machinery of the state in all its forms? |
link |
|
15/10/03 |
Internet Surveillance |
BBC News Online |
A draft European directive on keeping communications data, which could be used to strengthen the current voluntary code of practice in the UK, breeches human rights laws, says international law firm Covington & Burling.
Two test cases may be taken to the European courts by lobby group Privacy International to show UK attempts to widen internet surveillance would be unlawful.
|
link
|
|
4/11/03 |
Data Retention Laws |
ZD Net UK |
Human rights group Privacy International (PI) is concerned that several pieces of legislation currently being considered by Parliament will allow law enforcement units from across Europe and beyond to inspect the phone and Internet usage of the entire UK population |
link |
|
5/11/03 |
RIP Act |
ZD Net UK |
At the moment, the government is trying to get Parliament to approve changes to RIPA that will allow more government agencies to get access to details of individuals' telephone and Internet usage, and will also force service providers to retain this data.
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told Wednesday's meeting that these statutory instruments could cause a "privacy apocalypse" in the UK. He believes they amount to a "snoopers' charter" that may violate the European Convention on Human Rights. |
link |
|
11/11/03 |
Car’s Black Box |
Cape Times |
London: The car of the future will be safer but at a cost, both in terms of hard cash and the privacy of motorists.Within five years cars will have built-in radar which is able to sense other vehicles, children or pets in the blind spots. But privacy advocates object to another innovation being introduced in European cars: "black box" systems that will be able to record what the car - and its driver - did in the moments leading up to a crash.
"It's Orwellian," said Simon Davies, director of the civil liberties group Privacy International.
"If you owned a car with one in, you would have to release the data from a crash or else your insurance company wouldn't pay up. But it's a dangerous jump to take." |
link |
|
11/11/03 |
UK ID Card |
The Scotsman |
Watchdog group Privacy International said David Blunkett’s proposals were “mathematically and technologically” impossible to achieve.
Spokesman Simon Davies, quoting a US General Accounting Office report from November 2002, said the largest iris scanning system currently in use had only 30,000 records.The report warned that it was “unknown” how a system with many millions of records would perform, he added. |
link |
|
12/11/03 |
UK ID Card |
The Telegraph |
Simon Davies, of Privacy International, said technology on the scale required was "not even on the horizon". Mr Blunkett was "living a fantasy" if he thought a foolproof database could be created for 60 million people in that time. |
link |
|
19/11/03 |
UK ID Cards |
The Union Tribune, San Diego |
Simon Davies, an expert in information systems at the London School of Economics, cast doubt on the reliability of biometrics, which uses fingerprints, face, eyes or voice for identity, because it would not stop people obtaining multiple personas |
link |
|
20/11/03 |
UK ID Card |
International Herald Tribune |
In his report, Davies, who is also director of the human rights group Privacy International, which was set up to keep track of surveillance by governments and… |
link |
|
20/11/03 |
Cyber crime and Personal Data Conflicts |
The Register |
White House plans to ratify a Council of Europe Cybercrime treaty will be a disaster for the privacy and security of Americans, Privacy International (PI), the human rights watchdog, claims.
PI warns that if the Senate ratifies the Treaty, "dozens of countries will have 'on demand' access to the personal information and communications records of any American they may wish to investigate". |
link |
|
21/11/03 |
Biometric Cards |
New Scientist |
Simon Davies, an expert in information systems at the London School of Economics and director of Privacy International, says the system would not stop people getting extra cards under different names. If he is correct, it could have far-reaching implications. |
link |
|
11/1/04 |
UK ID Card |
The Independent Online |
The security forces are being given dramatic new powers to fight terrorism, as predicted by 'The Independent on Sunday'. The Government is testing biometric ID cards and building a huge database that will reveal our lives at the touch of a button. |
link |
|
25/2/04 |
Phone Tapping |
BBC News Online |
The home secretary is proposing a change in the law to allow phone tapping evidence to be used in court. BBC News Online asks is this a vital and overdue measure in the fight against terror? Or is it an erosion of our civil liberties? |
link |
|
23/3/04 |
Digital Cameras on Police Cars |
BBC News Online |
CCTV has become ubiquitous on UK high streets and the increasing levels of surveillance has provoked controversy from some quarters.
Civil rights group Privacy International estimates that there are around 2.5 million cameras in public places.
Head of Privacy International Simon Davies is not impressed that there could soon be more.
"It is a scattergun approach to visual surveillance, pointing as many cameras in various directions in the hope that some of the information will be useful to the police," he said. |
link
|
|
28/3/04 |
General Privacy Rights |
San Francisco Chronicle |
Telemarketers are also refreshingly rare. "You do get telemarketing calls in Europe but not to the same extent (as in the United States)," Davies said. "Here, there's a presumption that it's an invasion of privacy and probably breach of the law." |
link |
|
30/3/04 |
Biometric Passports |
BBC News Online |
Civil rights campaigners have voiced concerns over plans to implement a global biometric identity system for air travellers.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is set to agree an international standard for facial recognition on all new passports.
The plans have the backing of the US government and the European Union.
It could create a global database of over a billion people by 2015, warned Privacy International. |
link
link (cached) |
|
5/4/04 |
Gmail |
BBC News Online |
Internet search engine Google's plans for a free email service have come under fire from privacy campaigners. Google is devising Gmail as a rival to Microsoft's Hotmail and to Yahoo!
Privacy campaigners have objected to plans to send users adverts linked to the content of messages, and to the permanent storage of email.
|
link
link (cached) |
|
6/4/04 |
Gmail |
PC Pro |
The organisation Privacy International has filed a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner, according to Reuters. 'This is not just "buyer beware". Consumers should be aware that there's a vast violation of European law occurring here,' it quotes Simon Davies, director of Privacy International.
One of the organisation's objection to Gmail concerns the scanning of an email's content in order for Google to send matching ad-links, in a similar operation to that of its Internet search engine. |
link |
|
7/4/04 |
Gmail |
People Daily (China) |
Some parts of Gmail even could be illegal, said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a watchdog group in London.
Google's current Gmail policy advises potential users that "residual copies of e-mail may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account." |
link |
|
8/4/04 |
Gmail |
Asia Pacific Media Network |
Privacy activists are up-in-arms over Gmail, as Google scans emails to give customer interest information to online advertisers |
link
|
|
15/4/04 |
Gmail |
Computer World |
Gmail two weeks ago, Google Inc. has been forced to defend the planned Web-based e-mail service against accusations that it may violate users' privacy. In the face of the criticism, Google has begun to express a willingness to be flexible about how it offers the service.
"This is one of the hottest issues we've ever dealt with in terms of Internet issues," said Simon Davies, director of the privacy advocate group Privacy International. |
link |
|
17/4/04 |
HIV Testing of US Students |
LA Times |
Privacy advocates say the law infringes on students' privacy and could lead to discrimination against gays. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, called the law "a wild exaggeration" of AIDS fears.
Davies said the circumstances in which a teacher might be infected with HIV from a student's blood are "so exceptional they're almost nonexistent." |
link |
|
19/4/04 |
Gmail |
Forbes |
Privacy International, which has offices in the United States and Europe, said it filed complaints with privacy and data-protection regulators in 17 countries in Europe, Canada and Australia. It had already filed an initial complaint in Britain.
"Privacy International alleges that the Gmail service violates privacy law, both in Europe and in other countries. The complaint identifies a wide range of possible breaches of European Union law," director Simon Davies told Reuters. |
link |
|
20/4/04 |
Gmail |
Reuters |
Google Inc.'s Gmail came under fresh fire Monday when an international privacy rights group said the soon-to-be-launched free e-mail service violated privacy laws in Europe and elsewhere. |
link
link (cached) |
|
20/4/04 |
Gmail |
LA Times |
The user terms, however, sparked controversy among consumer advocacy groups and some Internet users because [Google] said its computers would scan e-mails for keywords to use in sending Gmail users targeted advertisements. It would also keep copies of e-mails even after consumers had deleted them. |
link |
|
22/4/04 |
US Big Brother Awards |
LA Times |
The Worst Corporate Invader honor went to [Larry Ellison] of Oracle Corp., the world's leading maker of database software, for his advocacy of a centralized, Oracle-run government database that could be used as a national identification system. |
link |
|
22/4/04 |
Big Brother Awards |
PC World |
Privacy International's Big Brother Awards ceremony was the highlight of the day. At the annual event, individuals and corporations declared guilty of grave violations of privacy in the past year are given bronze statuettes of a head with a boot stomping down on it. |
link |
|
26/4/04 |
Gmail |
Washington Post |
Google Inc.'s highly anticipated stock offering -- which could come as early as this week -- is being touted as the hottest thing to happen to the tech sector in years. If the starpower lining up behind the company is any indication, "hot" might be an understatement. |
link
|
|
27/4/04 |
UK ID Card |
The Guardian |
A new report into the likelihood of ID cards being a successful anti-terrorism measure concludes that they would have no effect in the majority of cases. |
link |
|
27/4/04 |
UK ID Cards |
The Telegraph |
Simon Davis, of Privacy International, said that of the 25 countries worst hit by terrorism over the last 20 years, 80 per cent had national ID card schemes and almost two thirds of terrorists operated under their real identities. |
link |
|
5/5/04 |
ID Cards and Terrorism |
European Digital Rights |
EDRi member Privacy International has published an Interim Report on the link between identity cards and the prevention of terrorism. The report, the first of its kind, was initiated following attempts by the UK and Canadian governments to introduce biometric ID cards. |
link |
|
19/5/04 |
UK ID Cards |
BBC News Online |
The government could face a public backlash to its proposals on ID cards a new survey has found.
Up to 5 million people (28%) would demonstrate against ID cards the survey conducted by online research firm YouGov found.
One million would be prepared to go to prison rather than register for a card. |
link
link (cached) |
|
21/5/04 |
UK ID Cards |
Public Technology.net |
The watchdog group Privacy International reacted with disbelief to the publication of the government's draft Bill on identity cards.
Privacy international's Director, Simon Davies, described the draft legislation as "draconian and dangerous". He said the Bill had the potential to permanently change Britain for the worse. |
link
link (cached) |
|
4/7/04 |
Increase in Police Using Snooping Laws |
Scotland On Sunday |
Simon Davies, director of the watchdog group Privacy International, said the rise was "staggering". He told Scotland on Sunday: "I suspect that the UK figure is an aberration, because the trend in state surveillance overall is up. But the rise in Scotland is off the scale."
He added: "If it isn’t terrorism, it’s drugs and organised crime or paedophilia. [The police] always use the most emotive argument to justify their behaviour." |
link |
|
5/7/04 |
Big Brother Awards |
ZD News UK |
Privacy International (PI) has announced the shortlist of candidates for this year's Big Brother awards, its annual naming and shaming of the companies and organisations that it claims pose the greatest threat to privacy and civil liberties in the UK. |
link |
|
28/7/04 |
Big Brother Awards 2004 |
BBC News Online |
Minister for Children Margaret Hodge has won the Worst Public Servant category at pressure group Privacy International's Big Brother awards.
Ms Hodge was nominated for her backing of controversial legislation allowing the authorities to share detailed information on children. |
link
link (cached) |
|
29/7/04 |
Big Brother Awards |
Computer Buyer News |
The Government has won a raft of awards at the glittering 6th Annual Big Brother Awards ceremony, run by Privacy International. Simon Davies, Director of Privacy International, beamed: 'The winning nominations reflect a broad and intensified assault on the right to privacy in the UK. There is a clear hostility within government to privacy and a general antagonism to it from within business. We have seen few instances where privacy has been genuinely respected by large organisations.
|
link
|
|
29/7/04 |
Big Brother Awards |
BBC News Online |
The organisations and individuals doing the most to erode personal privacy in 2004 have been named and shamed.
MP Margaret Hodge, the NHS and the Office of National Statistics have all won prizes in the annual Big Brother awards organised by Privacy International.
|
link
|
|
14/8/04 |
EU Health Cards |
The Independent |
Britons travelling in Europe are to be issued with a new card to give them swift access to the health service when they fall ill. The technology for issuing the cards - which could be a forerunner to more widespread identity cards - is being prepared by the Department of Health, on instructions from the EU Commission, which wants a standard card in use across all 25 EU states. |
link |
|
20/8/04 |
General Privacy |
Accountancy Age |
The amount of personal data being collected and analysed means that more is known about us than ever before. According to the University of Berkeley, California, storage of data is growing annually by a whopping 34%.
Our emails, phone calls, shopping habits, debit and credit card transactions and actions on CCTV are all available for scrutiny. We are monitored to such an extent that campaign group Privacy International estimates that information about the average working adult is stored in about 700 databases. |
link |
|
30/8/04 |
Use of Technology |
FCW |
This proposed use of predictive technology caused TIA to venture into uncharted territory and rankle privacy advocates.
"You cannot design an algorithm that will not include some form of political bias," said Gus Hosein, a senior fellow with Privacy International. "And if you do, it is likely to be pretty near to random searching. Also, I think we are forgetting that some of the people we are probably looking for appear to be quite normal and do very normal things. Being able to identify them through some magical process is a dream." |
link |
|
28/9/04 |
US Travel Checks |
Reuters |
London-based rights group Privacy International said in a report on Wednesday that the scheme relied on flawed technology and opaque, error-strewn watch lists ... |
link |
|
29/9/04 |
UK Border Surveillance |
BBC News Online |
The government is spending millions of pounds to keep a record of passengers travelling to and from the UK.
Project Semaphore is another strand in the government's e-borders scheme to create high-tech border controls.
The £15m scheme will see passenger information stored electronically and linked to databases kept by law enforcers.
The government will combine the e-borders scheme with biometric ID cards to track individuals entering the UK. |
link
|
|
29/9/04 |
US Fingerprinting UK travellers |
BBC News Online |
All British travellers arriving in the United States will be fingerprinted and digitally photographed from Thursday.
Until now, the procedure, which checks against databases to verify travellers' papers, applied only to visa holders.
The Association of British Travel Agents said the policy could result in even longer queues at US airports.
And human rights group Privacy International has warned that the project will "devastate" people's privacy and civil rights. |
link
|
|
29/9/04 |
US Travel Checks |
SwissInfo |
London-based rights group Privacy International said in a report on Wednesday that the scheme relied on flawed technology and opaque, error-strewn watchlists on which innocent people could find themselves wrongly identified as security threats.
"There is no end to the uses to which this sensitive information will be put, nor any meaningful borders or boundaries limiting the flow of this data," it said. |
link |
|
29/9/04 |
UK Biometric Passports |
BBC Online |
The UK project is very similar to one being implemented in the US this week.
US-VISIT will collect, assess, process and retain passenger details and biometric information on visitors to the US.
The project has come under fire from privacy and human rights groups.
Head of Privacy International Simon Davies sees great similarities between the two schemes. |
link |
|
29/9/04 |
US Fingerprint Border Checks |
EU Business |
A US official defended Wednesday a new border control system requiring all European travellers to be fingerprinted on arrival in the US, denying that it will treat foreigners like criminals.
Civil liberties watchdog group Privacy International has condemned the new measures.
"The increased surveillance at US borders created by the US-VISIT programme poses significant challenges to civil liberties," it said in a report published this week. |
link |
|
30/9/04 |
US Fingerprint Border Checks |
The Straits Times |
In a report to be released this week, Privacy International, a British watchdog group, says the technology is still fraught with problems. |
link |
|
1/10/04 |
US Border Controls |
InfoWorld |
The United States' new biometric system of border controls violates civil rights without delivering security, the head of the London-based civil liberties watchdog Privacy International warned Friday. The system involves a "wholesale and aggressive violation" of privacy but was also likely to generate errors and eventually collapse under its own weight, Privacy International Director Simon Davies said. |
link |
|
2/10/04 |
Smart Cards in Asia |
Asia Times |
Privacy International, the London-based human-rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations, says America's Patriot Act indirectly squeezes countries into the US security program. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, 2002 entails countries to have machine-readable, tamper-resistant passports to qualify for the visa waiver program. |
link |
|
15/10/04 |
Global Anti-Terror Agreements Threat to Civil Liberties |
IPS News |
The growing use of international treaties to bypass the will of national parliaments, by bodies waging the so-called "war on terrorism," increasingly threatens civil liberties and freedom of the media, warn privacy advocates. |
link |
|
16/10/04 |
Anti-Terror Laws |
The Hindu |
A joint report backed by some 90 privacy advocate groups and 80 companies sent to EU headquarters last month, called collecting such data ``necessarily an invasive act. ... This data is well beyond being simple logs of who we've called and when we called them. Traffic data can now be used to create a map of human associations and more importantly, a map of human activity and intention,'' said the report, written by Privacy International. |
link |
|
17/10/04 |
General Privacy |
Asia Pacific Media Network |
The growing use of international treaties to bypass the will of national parliaments, by bodies waging the so-called "war on terrorism," increasingly threatens civil liberties and freedom of the media, warn privacy advocates. |
link
|
|
18/10/04 |
Gmail |
Out-Law |
The company suffered a privacy backlash when it announced Gmail, its free e-mail service. Privacy International and others complained about the proposed scanning of personal e-mail to deliver targeted adverts. In Google's home state of California, Senator Liz Figueroa went even further, drafting a law that threatened to ban the proposals. At the time, Google acknowledged that it could have done a better job with the first draft of its privacy policy. |
link |
|
19/10/04 |
Data Retention Laws |
Computer Weekly |
The European Union is planning to bring in new legislation that will force telcos to retain traffic data for 12 months, ostensibly in a bid to fight terrorism. Privacy International's report on the proposals show that they require CSPs to store traffic data for 12 months. This goes far beyond simple voice telephone calling records: start time, stop time, caller, destination number, and duration of call. It is the registering of all things that are read, received, searched for, in which places, at which dates, for how long and with varying people. |
link |
|
24/10/04 |
National ID Card |
LA Times |
"A national ID card is one of those third-rail issues of national politics," said David Banisar, a Harvard researcher and deputy director of ID card foe Privacy International. "It tends to die pretty quick." |
link |
|
31/10/04 |
UK ID Cards |
Daily Mail |
The Government's proposed identity card has become a monstrous confidence trick. Anyone listening to the Home Secretary's passionate ramblings about his pet obsession might believe that the scheme has been designed solely for the benefit of the citizen.
If you listen often enough to the Home Office, you might even come to believe that an ID card is nothing more than a benign trinket that, for a mere £35, everyone will want to own. It will make our lives safer. It will set us free. And it's sexy, too.
This fantasy could not be further from the truth. The proposed system will in fact make Britain a less secure and more paranoid society. |
link
|
|
3/11/04 |
Dutch ID Card |
European Digital Rights |
Privacy International has expressed grave concern about new Dutch legislation for extended compulsory identification. From 1 January 2005 every Dutchman (and tourist) 14 years and older will have to wear ID, and can be fined up to 2.250 euro for not immediately showing ID when asked to do so by any police official, or related officials, such as foresters and custom officials. |
link |
|
17/11/04 |
Camera Phones |
BBC News Online |
Use of camera phones should be restricted, a watchdog group has said.
The London-based Privacy International (PI) recommended a default flash be incorporated as standard in camera phones to prevent people taking covert pictures.
|
link
|
|
17/11/04 |
Camera Phones |
Out-Law |
An international standard to counteract the privacy invasions that can be caused by camera phones is needed, human rights watchdog Privacy International warned yesterday, proposing that manufacturers put a default flash into every new phone.
The privacy implications arising from the abuse of camera phones are obvious. Due to their size and ease of use, camera phones can go unnoticed in places where conventional cameras are not allowed, such as locker rooms, courtrooms or art museums. At the same time, indiscreet photographs taken by such phones, without the subject’s knowledge or consent, are easily transferred onto the internet or can be circulated from phone to phone. |
link |
|
19/11/04 |
Loyalty Cards |
BBC News Online |
According to David Blunkett there's no need for us to be scared of his national identity cards as they will be no worse than the loyalty card schemes we sign up to voluntarily.
As he waved a Nectar card around during a speech on Wednesday, the home secretary said it was high time someone looked into the way personal information stored by such schemes. |
link |
|
25/11/04 |
Fingerprinting In Schools |
The Guardian |
The register has been replaced in some schools by fingerprint scanners, saving valuable time. But not everyone is giving it full marks. Ben Hammersley reports |
link
|
|
5/12/04 |
Camera Phones |
The Scotsman |
London-based human rights watchdog Privacy International called for all the advanced new phones to have a flash which cannot be turned off.
The move would make it almost impossible to take a photograph covertly.
The group reported a steep rise in the number of complaints from members of the public about misuse of the technology. |
link |
|
20/12/04 |
UK ID Cards |
The Guardian |
The identity cards bill was outlined in the Queen's speech last month and the new home secretary, Charles Clarke, has thrown his weight behind the scheme pioneered by his predecessor, David Blunkett. |
link
|
|
21/12/04 |
UK ID Card |
Washington Times |
Critics of the bill maintain that the rebellion by MPs, though failed, still has significant consequences.
"A shot has rung out on the whole legislative process," Simon Davies, director of civil liberties groups Privacy International and the No2ID campaign, told United Press International.
"What it demonstrates is that there are more elements, more unruly elements both within the bill itself and within the parties than the government anticipated," he continued. |
link |
|
6/1/05 |
Biometric Passports |
link |
Towards the end of 2004, the European Union (EU) agreed further measures strengthening “fortress Europe”. At a meeting in Luxemburg, ministers from the 25 EU member states established the basis for a common asylum system, an EU border guard, the inclusion of biometric data in passports and visas and the wider sharing of information by national police forces and security services. |
link |
|
25/1/05 |
Camera Phones |
The Age.com |
Privacy International, a London-based human rights watchdog, believes phone camera images taken without consent are causing more and more harm to relationships, and are increasingly being used for blackmail, revenge and harassment. The group is backing calls for all new phone cameras to have a flash, as a defence against covert snapping. |
link |
|
25/1/05 |
Camera Phones |
SMH.com.au |
Human rights group Privacy International believes phone camera images harm relationships, and are increasingly being used for blackmail, revenge and harassment. It is backing calls for them to have a flash, as a defence against covert snapping.
So, will the manufacturers listen to these calls? Maybe given enough pressure. But when an estimated 150 million camera phones were sold worldwide in 2004, there is great incentive not to change anything. And to keep pushing your product as a toy, for kids and adults alike. |
link |
|
14/03/05 |
Identity Theft |
NPR |
Simon Davies comments on this radio show about what data is collected by credit companies in Europe and the US, going on to say how it is easier to steal somebody’s identity with the more data that is collected initially. |
link |
|
31/3/05 |
Hackers warn of Privacy Risk |
Red Herring |
Mr. Davies called on the community of security experts gathered at the annual Black Hat Europe conference to scrutinize corporate precautions against data theft. “If we can’t beat the privacy intrusions that are happening across the world today, there will be far more vicious attacks in the future,” he said. |
link |
|
1/4/05 |
Privacy Issues |
The Register |
Privacy activists need to change tactics to adapt to changing public attitudes, a leading campaigner said Thursday. Simon Davies, a director of Privacy International, said campaigners need to win the argument by force of evidence rather than assuming that people naturally guard their privacy against government encroachment, an assumption he said is no longer valid. |
link |
|
7/4/05 |
Hackers and Privacy |
International Herald Tribune |
"In Europe, data is owned by the person to whom it relates. In the United States, data becomes the property of the company which collects it," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a London-based lobbying group. |
link |
|
7/4/05 |
Big Brother Awards 2005 |
Wired.net |
Simon Davies, Privacy International's director, predicts that this will be an extraordinarily difficult year for selecting a winner, given that there are so many strong candidates.
He said the group received nominations for hundreds of companies, organizations and government agencies. "People have gone out of their way to investigate and come to intelligent conclusions about the balance of public interest and private rights," Davies said. |
link |
|
7/4/05 |
General Privacy |
Washington Times |
"In Europe, data is owned by the person to whom it relates. In the United States, data becomes the property of the company which collects it," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a London-based lobbying group. |
link |
|
8/4/05 |
Anti-Terror Laws |
INQ7.net |
Citing work conducted by Privacy International, the group said wiretapping and monitoring of online environments such as e-mail and websites are "highly intrusive forms of investigation and affect persons and organizations opposing a government." |
link |
|
6/7/05 |
NHS CRS awarded Big Brother Prize |
E-Health-Insider |
The director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, told E-Health Insider why NPfIT had been nominated for the award:
"The approach taken by the NHS claims to be patient-centred. But it's not. It's all innovation-centred. The claim that patients can have an opt-out is discredited; the only way that info will not be put onto the system is that the doctor opts out, and opting out of the system comes at a huge cost." |
link |
