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CCDP : What we know


After another day of confusion around the Government's plans for increased surveillance powers, it now appears there is some back-tracking and the bill will only be a 'draft'. Here's an update of some key points, while Privacy International have highlighted some serious issues with a briefing given to Liberal Democrat MPs. Key issues: The Coalition Agreement pledged: “We will end the storage of

Nine in ten people haven't read Google's new privacy policy


Research published today by Big Brother Watch highlights how only 12% of Google service users have read Google’s new privacy policy. The study, undertaken with YouGov, found while 92% of people online use a Google service on a regular basis, 65% of people were not aware the change comes into effect this week and 47% of people did not know any change was being proposed. This follows the Article 29 Working

The price of privacy : Councils spend half a billion pounds on CCTV in four years


Our latest report highlights the cost to local authorities of their CCTV operations - £515m in the past four years. There are now at least 51,600 CCTV cameras controlled by local authorities, with five councils now operating more than 1,000 cameras. In comparison, £515m would put an extra 4,121 police constables on the streets – the equivalent of Northumbria police’s entire force. The picture varies

Local authority data loss exposed


Big Brother Watch has published a report into the worrying scale of data loss across local authorities. We have uncovered more than 1000 incidents across 132 local authorities, including at least 35 councils who have lost information about children and those in care. Highly confidential information has been treated without the proper care and respect it deserves. At least 244 laptops and portable computers

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Praise where it’s due

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV | 2 Comments

Back from conference and will be posting more regularly from now on.Pangbourne pole

Given the way that civil liberties and surveillance are going in this country, it's all too easy to focus on the negative.  Big Brother Watch is keen to highlight good developments in the to and fro of the surveillance state struggle, too.

So – praise be to Pangbourne, where West Berkshire Council stuck up a whopping CCTV mast in the middle of a little village, listened to the urging of residents and realised that it was entirely inappropriate, and promptly took it back down again. Instead, that highly complex bit of kit, a light, will be there to provide a little more security.

It's a useful little demonstration of the fact that there are alternatives (often cheaper, often more effective) to the CCTV upon which our law enforcement has become so reliant.

By Alex Deane

David Cameron’s Speech: An End to Big Government

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | Leave a comment

David Cameron has just made his latest pitch for Number 10 and, as expected, gone down a storm with the delegates here. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the country responds, particularly given that the polls this morning suggested Labour was narrowing the gap.

There were a number of key announcements but the main theme of the Conservative Leader's speech was putting an end to big government. Summed up neatly in the following passage:

We are not going to solve our problems with bigger government. We are going to solve our problems with a stronger society. Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger country. All by rebuilding responsibility.

This is encouraging and I for one hope that part of putting an end to big government and rebuilding responsibility also heralds an end to government by fear instead of trust.

Cameron strayed, albeit temporarily, into the field of civil liberties in the final third of his speech with the following passage:

To be British is to be sceptical of authority and the powers-that-be. That’s why ID cards, 42 days and Labour’s surveillance state are so utterly unacceptable and why we will sweep the whole rotten edifice away.

All very good and we agree heartily, but it is hard to get completely behind the sentiment when it was given such a poor billing in his speech. Yet again, we are left wanting a little more from the Conservatives on this issue and we will continue to push these themes in the run-up to the general election to ensure that they are not lost in the noise of spending cuts and defence.

We will write a more extensive round-up from Conservative Party Conference 2009 tomorrow.

By Dylan Sharpe 

The right of the law abiding majority must be considered

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | Leave a comment

This morning has brought the announcement from Manchester that the Conservatives are set to give the police more power to alert communities to dangerous criminals in their midst.

Dominic Grieve told Sky News this morning that, "there should be a presumption in favour of public protection over privacy…generally speaking it ought to be possible for such people to be named if it is in the public interest that they should be."

Big Brother Watch has considered this policy announcement and its implications for individual liberty and, while the dangers of this policy are obvious, the right of the law abiding majority not to be victims of crime must be considered in the civil liberties debate.
 
Those who will be affected most by this legislation are likely to have been convicted on multiple occasions and it is therefore wrong to describe this policy as outrageous or unjustified.
 
There have been many unjust incursions into our civil liberties in recent times, but this certainly isn't one of them.

By Alex Deane

An end to speed cameras…?

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | 1 Comment

Once again, blogging is reduced today as Big Brother Watch circulates around Conservative Party Conference, but I wanted to put up a quick post on Theresa Villiers' announcement this morning that the Conservatives are to stop funding speed cameras.

For those who missed the details, the shadow transport secretary told the conference hall

"If local authorities want new cameras they'll have to prove nothing else works better and they'll have to find the money themselves…Electing a Conservative government would signal the end of the relentless expansion of fixed speed cameras."  

Needless to say, Big Brother Watch is in full support of this announcement and, alongside the recent Conservative policy document 'Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State', gives us hope that the party that looks increasingly likely to be our next government is moving in the right direction.

We do not advocate speeding and Big Brother Watch understands that far too many are injured or killed on Britain's roads, but speed cameras do little to prevent speeding and much to penalise drivers.

They are also a powerful tool of surveillance, tracking car number plates and logging your movements. There are more effective and less punitive and surveillance-based measures that exist to drive down speed. Hopefully we will now see these explored in further detail. 

By Dylan Sharpe

Civil Liberties Vs Security Fringe Meeting

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Admin | 1 Comment

First of all, our humblest apologies for the lack of blogging today, we have been in various fringe events throughout the morning at Conservative Party Conference (more on these later) before the Director of Big Brother Watch, Alex Deane, took to the stage at the Freedom Zone in conversation with Douglas Murrary on the topic 'civil liberties Vs security: are they compatible?'

BBW Fringe For those who didn't attend, it was a vigorous and interesting hour that threw up a number of key questions on the topic.

I don't have much time to go into all the finer details, which I will leave for Alex to explore later this week, but I want to outline the two most intriguing compromises the two speakers came to during the discussion:

1. Douglas made the very good argument that at some point we have to reconcile the fact that 'bad' legislation is often applied alongside political correctness, thus creating the most heinous abuses of individual freedom – a point Alex agreed upon.

2. Alex argued that it is often in the aftermath of a catastrophic event that some of the worst legislation is pushed through – more as a reaction without sufficient forethought. Douglas agreed and suggested a 6 month period be applied after an event, such as a terrorist attack, in which no laws can be passed.

As I said earlier, I can't go into all the finer points now, but please do comment below on your own opinions. And please do follow @bbw1984 on twitter as we visit more fringe meetings throughout the day.

By Dylan Sharpe

A little light Sunday reading

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Admin, Media coverage | Leave a comment

Listed below is a selection of articles we've picked out we think you might find interesting.Newspapers

Press and Journal – Broch’s new CCTV comes under fire

North Scotland's most widely read weekly newspaper follows up the blogpost Alex wrote last week on Fraserburgh's all-encompassing new CCTV network.

…A north-east town’s new CCTV network has been criticised by a national pressure group, just days after the cameras were installed. Campaign group Big Brother Watch, which was launched in London last month, has condemned the long-awaited security scheme at Fraserburgh…

Daily Telegraph – EU embryonic Home Office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty

The morning after the Irish no vote on the Lisbon Treaty is overturned, the Daily Telegraph reveals plans for an embryonic EU "Home Office" to organise intelligence sharing were agreed in secret talks last week.

…Under the plans, the scope of information available to law enforcement agencies and "public security organisations" would be extended from the sharing of DNA and fingerprint databases, kept and stored for new digital generation ID cards, to include CCTV footage and material gathered from internet surveillance…

The Observer – Civil liberties row as English and Welsh workers pay for chance of a job

The Observer reveal that half a million people in England and Wales a year are having to pay £23 each for basic criminal record checks before wary employers consider offering them a job.

…Although the government introduced legislation in 1997 that established the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and allowed employers to carry out standard or enhanced checks on those applying to work with children, it never implemented legislation that would allow people to request basic disclosures…

By The Big Brother Watch team

Big Brother Watch at Conservative Party Conference

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Admin, Events | Leave a comment

Big Brother Watch is off to Conservative Party Conference and over the course of the event we intend to be in all the key debates and meetings, providing up-to-the-minute details of what is being said and relaying them to you all through our Twitter feed. Twitter_logo1

For all those who use the social media tool 'Twitter', please follow Big Brother Watch at @bbw1984.

Big Brother Watch will also form part of the TaxPayers' Alliance Conference Stand, which will be located in The Westminster Village Fête in the Freedom Zone, which can be found in The Bridgwater Hall, Choir Circle Foyer (1st floor).

As we previewed last week, Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, will be speaking at an event in The Freedom Zone, kindly provided by our friends The Freedom Association.

Alex will be in conversation with Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion discussing the question, "Civil liberties and security – are they compatible?"

Freedom zone The event will be at 1.00 p.m. on Monday 5th October in the Barbirolli Room, Bridgewater Hall.
 
Once again, we hope to see you all there.
 
We also recommend you come along to the events being hosted by the TaxPayers' Alliance, which are available to view here.

We will still be blogging as well as twittering, so do continue to visit www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk for all the latest news.

By Dylan Sharpe

Ludicrous authoritarian outburst of the day

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | 1 Comment

In what promises to be a rolling award on this blog, the first "ludicrous authoritarian outburst of the day" award goes to…

John Cowan

Over at Labour List, the Labour PPC makes his proposal of "drinkers licences":

"One possible solution could be an entitlement card that people would carry and swipe when every time they buy Alcohol or Tobacco and record their usage."Trophy

Erm… "well done" John… 

Hat tip: Christian May

By Alex Deane

Automatic Number Plate Recognition

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV | Leave a comment

Prompted by Dylan's post about monitoring through store cards earlier today, here's a variation on the theme. It's worth being reminded that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, in operation in various parts of the UK, records information about drivers going about their daily business – taking and logging the registration and also capturing and retaining an image of the vehicle.Anpr

This information is shared not only amongst UK law enforcement organisations.  Moreover though, on the pretext of potentially assisting "terrorism" investigations, this data is also shared with the authorities in the USA.

So not only are law-abiding people monitored by the state in this country – you are also watched from abroad.

Not a new story – but worth thinking about, isn't it..?

By Alex Deane

Sureveillance state creeps into the supermarket

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Databases, Privacy | 2 Comments

Buried away in an article on the Nintendo WII today in the Daily Telegraph, is the disturbing news that the Police are now able to monitor our activities through our usage of store loyalty cards like the Tesco Clubcard.

Tesco_clubcard According to a senior officer quoted in Police Review magazine, officers are being told that it is legitimate to search a suspect's movements via transactions on their Tesco clubcards.

Detective Superintendent Paul Downing, deputy head of investigative and intelligence training at the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), said,

"A Tesco clubcard can tell investigators where a person has been and what they have been buying. If we seize it from a suspect, we can ask Tesco for information that can be pertinent to the inquiry."

When I use a store loyalty card I usually expect it to provide me with discounts and special offers; what I don't expect is that it will store up my buying habits, movements and general details, which can then be handed over to the police at their behest.

This is just the latest evidence that the lines between data held by private companies and that which can be used by the police are becoming increasingly blurred. 

By Dylan Sharpe

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