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Patients win choice of sharing medical records


Earlier this year, we led the concern that a new NHS data sharing plan would see every patient's medical records uploaded to a new information system without the right to opt-out. We warned at the time that patient records would be out of patient control. On Friday, the Secretary of State confirmed that this will not be the case. We have worked closely with MedConfidential and Privacy International to ensure

The snoopers charter is dead


More than a year ago, we learned that the Home Office was resurrecting it's plan to monitor every British citizens' internet use. Big Brother Watch led the charge against these plans, giving evidence to Parliament, urging our supporters to write to their MPs and being the central force in the media campaign against the so called Snoopers Charter. We highlighted how the Home Office had misrepresented the work of

Can you support Sgt Danny Nightingale?


Three weeks today, Sergeant Danny Nightingale will report to the Military Court Centre in Bulford, Wiltshire for a preparatory hearing. This is as a result of the Service Prosecuting Authority exercising its right to seek a re-trial of Sgt Nightingale. Like many people, Big Brother Watch has been dismayed at the treatment of Sgt Nightingale. Despite his conviction being quashed at the Court of Appeal,

Boom in private investigators risks avoiding surveillance regulation


Our latest report highlights the growing use of private investigators by local and public authorities, particularly the number of times they are used without RIPA authorisation. The law in the UK, particularly the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, is broadly drawn to allow evidence to be introduced in court that in other jurisdictions would not be deemed admissible. Contrasted with the fruit of the poisonous

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Euphemistic definitions and dangerous databases

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | Leave a comment

An exclusive in the Guardian today informs us that police forces around the country are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.

According to the report, police have termed the people in question "domestic extremists"; seemingly to ensure that they get their hands on a chunk of the £9m terrorism budget currently available to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).  

FivePolicemen The report also states that protesters are being tracked via a nationwide system of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) CCTV cameras, while Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) and Evidence Gatherers record footage and take photographs of campaigners as they enter and leave openly advertised public meetings.

What is more, surveillance officers are provided with "spotter cards" used to identify the faces of target individuals; despite some of them being relatively famous comedians!

Now, while protests can occasionally get out of hand and some protestors are more violent and have admittedly dangerous motives for their actions, the vast majority would not come anywhere close to deserving the euphemistic title of a 'domestic extremist'.

What this report really shows is that in the age of violent extremism, much like the explosion in CCTV and the gregarious use of RIPA by local authorities, the police would rather use the emotional knee-jerk of extremism to make their lives easier – damning plenty of otherwise law-abiding citizens by association. 

People have a right to protest in Britain and not be considered a criminal for doing so.

By Dylan Sharpe

Tougher penalties for privacy invaders..?

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Privacy | Leave a comment

Today the UK government has launched a consultation process on whether to introduce prison sentences for those found guilty of offences related to obtaining, disclosing, or selling personal data.

Specifically, the proposal is to increase the current maximum penalty from a fine to up to two years’ imprisonment.

BBW will be responding, and the thrust of our response will be "spot on".

The consultation paper can be found here.

By Alex Deane

The state peers behind your curtains

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Databases | 2 Comments

On the evening of the 27th March 2011, the Government is sending inspectors around the country to count the British population and create a comprehensive record of who was sleeping where, how old they were, what ethnic background they came from, and what kind of central heating kept them warm that night.

2011 census The 2011 census, or 'snoopers census' as it is being called, is to be the most intrusive survey of the British population ever carried out, according to the Conservatives – who have leaked the details this morning – and will, among its many questions, ask for:

…the number of "rooms designed for use as a bedroom" and the "address, the first name, last name, sex, date of birth, connection to the household or accommodation and usual address or country of usual residence if outside the UK" of every overnight visitor on census night on 27 March 2011…

Not only is this census enormously intrusive, it is also overly long - at a tiresome 32 pages – and anyone who doesn't complete the survey will be threatened with criminal conviction and a £1000 fine.

While Big Brother Watch can see the benefits of a census, the plans as they currently stand are unacceptable both in the level of prying into an individual's personal life and the punitive measures designed to ensure we comply with the lengthy questionnaire.

What's more, this expansion in scope of the census seems to be occuring despite the 2001 survey being roundly criticised for being too intrusive and too expensive (almost £270million).

We can only hope that the Tories' analysis finds some support on the government benches before it is too late.

By Dylan Sharpe   

Tut tut tut

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV | 2 Comments

The Bolton News tells us that there is

Anger as CCTV car caught on yellow lines

It would seem from the story that this wasn't a one-off, either, but a regular thing and something about which the Council are entirely unapologetic.

Irony (1) – the £50,000 machine was purchased by Bolton Council to monitor… unlawful parking. 

Irony (2) – those in charge of the spying machine can hardly deny the charge – the car was photographed in said position.

Those who are entrusted to enforce the law really ought to keep it themselves…

By Alex Deane

Alex Deane in conversation with Talksport presenter Ian Collins

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Media coverage | Leave a comment

Talksport On Tuesday at 10.30pm, Director of Big Brother Watch Alex Deane, spoke live on air with Talksport presenter Ian Collins about the the Court of Appeal judgement allowing the police to keep criminal records on the national crime database for as long as they feel is necessary.

You can now listen to the conversation in full by clicking the link below.

Alex Deane on Talksport

  

The debate on CCTV is moving

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV | 2 Comments

It's really encouraging to see the CCTV debate shifting. Rsjournal

Today's Ross-Shire Journal carries a story about CCTV in Scotland, prompted by the recent splurge on yet more cameras, an issue about which we've written previously. 

The Journal reports that

Professor Mike Press, who has spent the last decade studying how design can contribute to crime reduction, used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover some eye-popping statistics revealing the rapid expansion in use of closed-circuit cameras in Scotland.

They show that Scotland now has 2,235 public CCTV cameras and mobile cameras compared to 1,269 six years ago…

Prof Press… claims CCTV systems can give residents a false sense of security and has gone so far as to call for a moratorium, arguing that evidence suggests they are of limited value in many cases. He claimed in a recent interview that their use is politically motivated and questioned the impact they have on civil liberties.

With which, we at Big Brother Watch would entirely agree.

The Journal also reports that

The Scottish Government has pledged a review of CCTV.

We will certainly watch this closely and report back on the results.

Finally, the piece also contains a reasoned and thoughtful response from the area's police commander, Chief Inspector Mike Coats:

There's a fine line and cameras clearly do not replace police. Without them, we would need more cops. You have to look at the most effective use of taxpayers' money.

Spot on.

By Alex Deane

BioP@ss: The next stage of ID cards

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Europe, ID cards | 2 Comments

No sooner than the Prime Minister signals a u-turn on the introduction of ID cards in Britain; news has seeped out of the continent that the EU may be next to try and impose a system of biometric cataloguing and identification on its citizens.

Poster According to this report, chip manufacturers are being lined up to participate in a new European research project called BioP@ss, with the intention of developing a 'high-security chip card platform'.

It goes on to say:

..BioP@ss is the biggest chip card research project in the EU. Its goal is to do the technical spadework for the introduction of an electronic ID card in chip card format valid throughout the entire EU.

In addition to its function as an ID card, it will be capable of providing a secure means of authentication for services offered by governments and public authorities..

The BioP@ss research project is apparently due to be completed in 2011 and already has a total budget of €13 million.

Europe From one nightmare scenario – the DNA, fingerprints, vital statistics and personal details of the entire British population available at the click of a button to the government, police, local and other authorities – we now see on the horizon a far more scary prospect: that very same data available at the click of a button to any state official across the entirety of Europe.

My most grateful of acknowledgements to Aaron K Martin for alerting us to this article – it is a topic on which Big Brother Watch will be extremely vigilant in the coming months.

By Dylan Sharpe 

Barbecuing on CS gas

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | Leave a comment

Avon and Somerset Police have got themselves into understandable trouble after crashing into a 16th birthday barbecue celebration and spraying CS gas in the faces of those attending, including that of 10 year-old Abbie Symonds.

CS gas Apparently the motive behind the armed intervention by around 35 police officers in 10 cars and riot vans was the arrest of Abbie's 20 year-old brother, Robert Symonds, for breaching bail conditions. 

According to the report, the police officers: 

…grabbed Mr Symonds, handcuffed him and dragged him to a police car and when other members of the family stepped forward to ask what was happening, they were sprayed in the face.

There is probably more to this story than meets the eye, especially given that another brother, 16-year-old Nigel, and his father, also called Nigel, were arrested for public order offences the following day.

However the fact remains that the use of CS gas in this situation was entirely inappropriate whatever the circumstances, and would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

Police officers should be equipped to deal with any trouble that might come their way. But being granted the right to possess and use that equipment comes with great responsibility. That responsibility was plainly not exercised during this incident.

We all want to be able to teach children to trust the police. It becomes harder to do so when they’re kicking the door down and using CS gas at children’s parties.

By Dylan Sharpe

The worst of all worlds

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in DNA database | Leave a comment

The government's national DNA database has hit the headlines once again this morning with the news that despite more than a million new profiles being added in the past two years, the number of crimes being solved by DNA has fallen by a fifth.

DNA Between 2004/5 and 2006/7, police forces across the UK recorded 81,457 detections compared with 64,949 over the following two years – a fall of 20%.

And yet, between 2007 and 2009, more than 1 million new profiles were added to the database. The presence of duplications means the total number of people with stored DNA records is likely to be about 5 million.

In addition, the cost of running the database has almost doubled to £4.3 million from £2.1 million in under a year.

This data comes as no surprise: criminals are getting wise to DNA technology – or more accurately, to ways around it. Burglars and thieves go prepared to do their work.

As a result of this, and of this government’s policy of taking and keeping DNA samples from anyone who comes into contact with the state, Britain is getting the worst of all worlds – fewer crimes solved by the database, but more innocent people on it.

We need to see a timetable for the removal of innocent people's DNA from the national database sooner rather than later.

By Dylan Sharpe  

Let’s follow the Kiwis please

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV | Leave a comment

The New Zealand government has today released privacy guidelines on the use of CCTV:

Commissioner Marie Shroff said the use of CCTV was proliferating, both in New Zealand and overseas.Kiwi

"It seems that everywhere you look, someone has a camera trained on you.

"This raises questions such as what exactly the images are being used for, how secure they are from misuse or unauthorised viewing, whether the cameras are unnecessarily intrusive, and so on."

Ms Shroff said there was very little advice available to business and government, and the new guidelines would go some way to "filling that gap".

"CCTV has an important role to play in detecting and prosecuting crime, and even deterring some types of crime. But this does not need to be at the expense of privacy."

Spot on.

You can find the guidelines online, here.  It sets out advice on deciding whether CCTV is needed, proper system planning, technology selection and advice on the positioning of cameras, and, crucially, making people aware that CCTV is operating, that the images captured are retained, and giving people access to images of them.

Big Brother Watch has a simple plea for the UK government – let's follow the Kiwi example please.

By Alex Deane

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