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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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Technology

What’s in an IP address?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Civil Liberties, Online privacy, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology | 6 Comments

943716_10153007365440107_483278094_nWhile the Communications Data Bill has scrapped, the one issue that remains live is the ‘resolution of IP addresses’ – particularly where mobile phone operators may have millions of customers using just a few hundred IP addresses. Deputy Director Emma Carr appeared on the Daily Politics yesterday to discuss the issue.

An IP address is (put simply) the address you access the internet through (although ways of masking this are nothing new nor particularly technically challenging). We think it reasonable that the issue is investigated so that where the police have an IP address from a service provider, they are able to trace that back to the person using the service. It may be possible to address this through small, technical changes to existing legislation, rather than a new Bill. Indeed, the draft Communications Data Bill went far, far beyond being a focused attempt to solve this problem.

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The snoopers charter is dead

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Communications Data Bill, Databases, Featured, Information Commissioner, Surveillance, Technology | 8 Comments

i paperMore 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 the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to support the bill, demonstrated alternatives were available – and that was before the technology companies tore into the proposals.

Big Brother Watch Draft Communications Data Bill committee press conferenceWhen the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill published our report, we hosted a press conference that included David Davis MP, Jimmy Wales, Sir Chris Fox and Lord MacDonald.

Last week, we published 15 reasons why the Bill was the wrong approach.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has just announced that the Communications Data Bill is dead. He said on LBC : “What people dub the snoopers’ charter, that’s not going to happen – certainly with Lib Dems in government.”

(Governments by convention never comment directly on the content of the Queen’s speech so it is impossible for it to be explicitly ruled out, however “not going to happen” is a fairly clear signal.)

Nick Clegg has made the right decision for our economy, for internet security and for our freedom.

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The taxman wants to HMRC who you’ve been calling

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Civil Liberties, Communications Data Bill, Internet freedom, Surveillance, Technology | 2 Comments

photo-590x400Under the (brilliant) headline ‘We’re Under Atax’ the Sun exclusively reveals today reveals the extent of the taxman’s snooping.

As our Freedom of Information request shows, Between 2009 and 2011, HRMC made 41,351 snooping requests for details of phone calls and mobile texts. The only police forces to make more requests in the same period were the Metropolitan police and Merseyside police.

Given how often these powers are being used by HMRC, it’s strange that nobody has mentioned the Government’s Snoopers’ charter will give the taxman access to who you email or chat online with and what websites you visit.

Indeed, this is before the Communications Data Bill comes in, the taxman is making more than 1,000 snooping requests every month – and clearly if it does ever become law, that number will explode.

The taxman doesn’t need to know if you’ve been reading the Sun online, nor does any other part of Government. But if the data is collected it’ll be a stampede for people to have a look, from the Health and Safety Executive to parking wardens.

Communications data, North Korea style

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Communications Data Bill, International, Internet freedom, Online privacy, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology | 9 Comments

KJUmemeOne of the Prime Minister’s closest advisors has warned that the Home Office’s Communications Data plans to monitor email and web use could be “disastrous” and compared it to North Korea.

As reported by the Telegraph, Ben Hammersley, a Number 10 adviser to the Tech City project, the told magazine Tank:

“As a society, it would be stupid to build the infrastructure that could be used to oppress us. It just never works out well, because even if you’re using it for good stuff now, the fact that we don’t know who is going to be in charge in ten years’ time means that we shouldn’t give them free toys to play with.”

This follows remarks he made last year, when Mr Hammersley said the plans were ‘hilarious’ because of their technical naivety:

“The idea that the internet is like the postal service or like the copper line phone network in that it can be monitored in such a way is hilarious, because it can’t be technologically speaking, unless you become North Korea. Unless you become massively draconian you can’t either monitor propery or censor completely the internet.”

We previously highlighted the number of public organisations given access to the data – covering who you email, which websites you browse and the social media messages you send – is inevitably going to increase, with more than 30 already asking for the data before the bill has even been presented to parliament. This ‘function creep’ was also identified by Hammersley, who warned :

“I don’t trust future governments. The successors of the politicians who put this in place might not be trustworthy.

 

The social media shaped hole in surveillance law

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Emma Carr Posted in Online privacy, Police, Privacy, RIPA, Social Networking, Surveillance, Technology | 2 Comments

facebook_logo-300x99Over the last decade there has been an increasing change in the nature of surveillance – particularly the ability to search online, through social networks and through semi-public sources of information, reinforcing the need for the law to be reformed to protect the public from unwarranted surveillance.

What needs to be made very clear is that just because information is on the internet, it does not necessarily follow that the police should collect and analyse it. It is essential that it the gathering of information is proportionate, necessary, balanced against the need of police to do their job, allows for a free and open internet and meets the public’s expectations of privacy.

Our recent report on the use of private investigators by public authorities highlighted how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) is in fundamental need of reform to protect against unauthorised surveillance; whether that be acquiring data through social media websites or the use of private investigators undertaking surveillance without appropriate supervision and authorisation. As the Joint Committee on the draft Communications  Data Bill Warned, the “language of RIPA is out of date and should not be used as the basis on new legislation.”

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Study links Facebook ‘likes’ with personality traits

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Emma Carr Posted in Online privacy, Privacy, Social Networking, Technology | 2 Comments

facebook_logo-300x99Facebook’s ‘likes’ could reveal the sexuality, political leanings and even your intelligence with an accuracy of between 65-95%. The study, created by Cambridge University, should will ring alarm bells for anyone who thinks that privacy settings are the solution to protecting information online.

The study, which used 58,000 volunteers, looked at Facebook “likes” and demographic information alongside provided psychometric testing results which are able to reveal personality traits.

The information was then fed into an algorithm which proved to be 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat. Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases and relationship status and substance abuse was predicted with an accuracy between 65% and 73%. Bizarrely, some strong but random links were found, such as Curly Fries with high IQ.

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Public back privacy law action on Google

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, Europe, Information Commissioner, Online privacy, Privacy, Research and reports, Technology | Leave a comment

2226178289_a6d36a48dd_oNew research published today by Big Brother Watch/ComRes finds that the majority of the British public are concerned about their online privacy (68%) with nearly a quarter (22%) saying that they are very concerned.

People are more likely to say that consumers are being harmed by big companies gathering large amounts of their personal data for internal use (46%) than they are to say that this enhances consumer experiences (18%).

As European data protection regulators prepare to take action against Google one year on from its revised privacy policy coming into force, more than 7 in 10 (71%) of the British public say that privacy and data regulators were right to investigate Google’s privacy policy and how it allows Google to collect and combine data on consumers.

A clear majority (66%) of the British public say that national regulators should be doing more to force Google to comply with existing European Directives on privacy and the protection of personal data

The message from consumers is clear – regulators were right to investigate Google’s new privacy policy and now they need to do more to force the company to comply with the law.

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RFID Taking the Mickey?

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in International, Internet of things, Privacy, Technology | 4 Comments

Today’s Independent reports on the latest front in retail convenience and privacy, with Disney’s plans to utilise RFID technology. 5436253998_eefbd95f25_b

“The latest kerfuffle has resulted from Disney’s plan to introduce an RFID wristband – “the MagicBand” – at its parks during 2013. It would function as a room key, a parking ticket, a pass for certain rides, a payment system and, if you opted in, a personal ID that would, say, allow Disney characters to greet you or your children by name. The online reaction to this plan ranges from “awesome” to “terrifying”.

Disney says that it’s trying to “appeal to customers more efficiently” in a way that’s “transformational” to its business; critics say that it enables the company to “monitor, track and analyse your every activity”. When the plans became public, Congressman Ed Markey complained to Disney about the “surreptitious use of a child’s information”, a claim that was deftly rubbished by the company – but the move still furrows the brows of privacy campaigners, including Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch.”

RFID isn’t a particularly new technology, but as it’s sophistication increases and new demands emerge for data on what consumers are doing off-line to keep up with online tracking, the reality is that it offers yet another way to track us. Particularly in environments designed for children, the broader issue about how we educate young people about privacy is a concern when they are told to accept as normal a degree of tracking in everyday environments.

Yes, it does also offer new convenience for customers so as ever, the critical issue is how companies detail the systems – and if consumers have a real choice between using the technology or not. Consumers need to be aware of what data is being collected, how it is linked to other data and how it will be used. Critically, consumers also need to know if third parties will be using the data and if so, who.

Big Brother Watch joined a campaign in the US against the use of RFID in schools and we are monitoring to see how the technology – and other kinds of physical tracking – are deployed in the UK.

 

 

 

 

Consumers should be in charge of their data

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, Online privacy, Technology | 12 Comments

4249731778_c071fcb365_oThe latest Google privacy debacle comes courtesy of Dan Nolan, an Australian app-developer,who has found he’s being sent personal information – without users ever giving permission for him to have it.

Dan spotted the issue when he logged into his ‘merchant’ section of his Google Play account and saw how for every customer who bought the app on Google play, he knew exactly who. “If you bought the app on Google Play (even if you cancelled the order) I have your email address, your suburb, and in many instances your full name.”

This is a relatively simple situation. You give your personal information to the Google App store, and Google – without explicitly asking you – hands it over to the developer of the app.  There’s no explicit notification, no request to transmit the data.

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Big Brother, Big Data and you

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Civil Liberties, Data Protection, Databases, Internet freedom, Surveillance, Technology | 1 Comment

Data analytics is nothing new, with all kinds of organisations around the world trying to join-the-dots of all the data they hold and the swathes of data available online, much of it being published by individuals with little thought to the full range of people who might be trawling through cyberspace for nuggets of relevant information.get_image.aspx

Yesterday’s Observer and today’s Metro lead with the story about Raytheon, the world’s fifth largest defence contractor, and a product currently being developed that can ‘gather vast amounts of information about people from websites including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.’

As we have warned before, privacy as we know it is being slowly eroded and it’s not just our friends that are looking at what we share.

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