Here’s a compilation of UK news items about the widening use of surveillance technologies. As technologies become available, pressure mounts to use them ever more widely. There’s a trend to target schoolchildren with biometrics. Get them young, get them for life.
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Watching the watchers…
CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police
Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Keep reading →
Owen Bowcott,
The Guardian, May 6, 2008
Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer
Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to improve security and ease congestion, the Guardian can reveal.
From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan passengers’ faces and match the image to the record on the computer chip in their biometric passports. Keep reading →
Owen Bowcott,
The Guardian, April 25, 2008
New anti-terrorism rules ‘allow US to spy on British motorists’
Routine journeys carried out by millions of British motorists can be monitored by authorities in the United States and other enforcement agencies across the world under anti-terrorism rules introduced discreetly by Jacqui Smith. Keep reading →
Toby Helm and Christopher Hope,
The Daily Telegraph, April 21, 2008
MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt
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| Oyster card. | (TfL) |
Millions of commuters could have their private movements around cities secretly monitored under new counter-terrorism powers being sought by the security services.
Records of journeys made by people using smart cards that allow 17 million Britons to travel by underground, bus and train with a single swipe at the ticket barrier are among a welter of private information held by the state to which MI5 and police counter-terrorism officers want access in order to help identify patterns of suspicious behaviour. Keep reading →
Gaby Hinsliff,
The Observer, March 16, 2008
Put young children on DNA list, urge police
Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert. Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five. Keep reading →
Mark Townsend and Anushka Asthana,
The Observer, March 16, 2008
Judge wants everyone in UK on DNA database
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The entire UK population and every visitor to Britain should be put on the national DNA database, a top judge said today.
Lord Justice Sedley, one of England’s most experienced appeal court judges, described the country’s current system as “indefensible”. “We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven’t, it isn’t … that’s broadly the picture,” Sir Stephen Sedley told the BBC. Keep reading →James Orr and agencies,
Guardian, September 5, 2007
School fingerprinting guide due
New guidelines for schools on fingerprinting pupils are to be issued by the government, following MPs and parents’ concerns surrounding privacy. The move comes after it emerged some primaries had stored children’s thumb prints for computerised class registers and libraries without parental consent. Keep reading →
BBC, January 12, 2007
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