Remember this map from my 2011 post?: Despite that, your honour, I wasn’t ACTUALLY there.
Oh dear. Now everyone can see how much time I spend at Simon Lusk’s place.
Read this and tell me it doesn’t make you just a little antsy …
The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.
The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.
The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.
Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered. … [emphasis added]
Read the rest by Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian – Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily. (Check no-one is watching you read it.)
The GCSB’s Waihopai spy station near Nelson. Is it hoovering up similar meta data on New Zealanders? Who do I ask?
Even though I wasn’t worried in 2011 (nor now) about my iPhone tracking me — let’s get real: as noted in that post it’s ALWAYS been the case that police can get a search warrant/subpoena for cell phone tower data — I am uneasy with the direction the US government/NSA is taking. And aren’t they a stakeholder in the New Zealand-based GCSB spy station? Gulp.
Sucking up citizens’ data holus bolus seems to be reaching a long way into our civil liberties. Especially without ‘reasonable cause’.
WHO is protecting our privacy? (Or is that another Judith Collins human rights appointment we can look forward to?)
– P
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/phone-call-metadata-information-authorities
That whole balance of the public good versus privacy is interesting.
I’m spending some time reviewing whether petrol stations are aiding and abetting a crime by allowing unregistered and warranted cars to fill up. Would be “simple” enough to put number plate readers (as used on toll roads) in the stations. The system would send a small xml file down to a server containing the petrol station code, a timestamp and the rego. It would return a yes/no response and the pumps would be released (or not).
Most people I know are horrified but how much easier would it have been for the police if they knew which blue jeeps had filled up in the Taupo area when they were hunting for the killer of George Taiaroa. In 2009 the same info might have helped them find the driver of the white ute that killed Dr Ian Robinson.
Hmmm. The libertarian in me shudders at the intrusion into privacy of all the NON-criminals (or suspects, I guess) whose whereabouts and transactions would be hoovered up in your surveillance scenario.
I know that my eftpos card (and my Amex) tell a very detailed story of my meanderings and activities. And that’s available by search-warrant.
Anyone who has been to London knows how the place is dense with CCTV cameras, some very good quality (far better than the average surveillance camera at a petrol station) and look at how footage from security cameras was sifted through in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
But locking me out of a petrol bowser because my WOF has expired? Hmmm.
I got irritated a few years back when my wife’s car’s WOF had expired and the Post Office couldn’t renew her registration until it had a new warrant in place … meaning her car was unregistered AND unwarranted for a few days…(I know, she’s an arch-criminal.)
– P
Best of british … its a satisfying thing to review how to make life more and more difficult for the great unwashed …
Its so much delightful fun to play with the lower classes … its just so … well … elegant …
Who needs a motorised dildo when you’ve got the disadvantaged to work with … all to guarantee you can catch a criminal who may only form a small percentage of the populace or the populaces behaviours …
All so very simple … and sort of disturbing …
Privacy is being whittled away by institutions the world over and the sheople just roll over and take it.
The line consistently being sold to the public is the one of “if you behave slave you have nothing to worry about” Its not point I don’t want to have Gas stations checking my records to buy Gas. Its just the very very thin end of wedge. Another view I have on these kind of ideas is it allows the Police to be lazy, hows about doing some Police work. Peter’s point is a fair one I often lapse Rego or Warrants without intent. And of course to implement this kind of system Regos or Gas or some BS link charge will be increased to pay for this “we are keeping the people safer” technology.
By the way most Service Stations have cameras installed on fore courts already for Petrol thiefs. Police often refer to footage like this for investigation purposes.
And this is astonishing over reach no matter how you look at it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data