Posts Tagged ‘surveillance’

Good ol’ fashioned values …

Here’s how ReadWriteWeb promoted the awareness campaigns of StopWatching.Us and Restore The Fourth … Yeah. Nice. Read all about it. – P

John Key’s resignation? Pretty bold prediction, John.

In violation of the inverted pyramid model of news writing (most important factoids & points at the top) NZ Herald political writer John Armstrong buried his strongest line in the third-to-last paragraph of his narrative of Kim Dotcom’s appearance at the NZ Parliament’s Intelligence and Security committee last night: Outside the hearing, Dotcom accused Key […]

Dystopia and unease about the Surveillance State

How topical. New Zealand’s National government is currently pushing through (under urgency) law changes to expand the powers of our state eavesdroppers and spies (including the Government Communications Security Bureau, GCSB). NSA Whistle-blower Edward Snowden this week highlighted the ongoing operation by the US and its allies (including New Zealand, Australia, Britain, Canada, ‘Five eyes’) […]

This hoovering up of ‘meta data’ is getting downright creepy

Remember this map from my 2011 post?: Despite that, your honour, I wasn’t ACTUALLY there. 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 […]

So, what would get you marching in the streets?

Political activism is carried out for all sorts of reasons, by all sorts of people, in a variety of guises. The 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour divided families, households, workplaces … and the nation. Our current Prime Minister John Key “can’t even remember” whether he was for or against the tour, or the anti-Apartheid civil disobedience […]

Sue Bradford on recent developments in the area of protest and state surveillance

Left wing activist and former Green politician Sue Bradford posted an article at Pundit which I’ve just seen. She shares several valuable insights. I recommend you read it. A bad week for left activist paranoia by Sue Bradford writing at pundit.co.nz Army to gain new powers over protesters; GCSB spies on New Zealanders; new single […]

Evoking the spectre of external threat to justify spying on your citizens

The NZ prime minister has evoked ‘Reds under the bed’ style threats to national security to justify extending the already broad powers of the nation’s spy agencies, and aiding co-operation between them. Read the paragraph below and tell me it’s not redolent of the vacuous and deceitful ‘sexed-up dossier’ that Tony Blair used to justify […]

Laura Norder a surprise election issue?

The Supreme Court’s decision last Friday to declare covert police surveillance videos unlawful unless properly authorized by a court had big implications. Under this country’s Bill of Rights Act, citizens have a right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by the forces of the state. It seems some aspects of the police’s search […]