BEWARE
THE WAR
ON YOUR PRIVACY!!

By Linda S. Heard

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety.” (Benjamin Franklin)

It’s insidious. It’s intrusive. In a world where most people only have time to digest a series of sound bites you may not even realize it is happening. But unless government surveillance and interference in personal liberties is curtailed future generations will accept their Big Brother states as the norm. Before it’s too late ask yourself this question.

Just how much Orwellian intrusion into your privacy are you willing to accept in the name of security? But first take into account CDC statistics, which suggest Americans have a one in 88,000 chance of dying from a terrorist attack, a one in 55,928 chance of death by lightning and a one in 6,842 chance of dying due to a rail accident.

I’ll begin with a gruesome analogy. Did you know that a frog can be boiled alive if the water is heated slowly enough? When a frog is placed into boiling water he will sensibly jump out. But if the water is cold to begin with the creature will stay put until the bitter end. It’s a philosophy that has been put to good effect by governments of the so-called free world since September 11, 2001 – the day the world changed in more ways than one.

Novelist and polemicist Henry Porter says it’s time we woke up to reality. Speaking to a literary gathering in Cheltenham, England last October, Porter said “the relationship between the state and individual is really at the heart of any discussion about democracy and rights.

“Individual liberty is not just the precondition for civilization, not just morally right, not just the only way people can reach their full potential, live responsibly and have fun; it is also a necessity for the health of government.”

Porter believes his own government – the British government – has in recent times “ignored the rule of law, reduced rights and has steadily moved to increase the centralized power of the state at the expense of the individual”. He maintains we cannot give up our freedoms in order to be free. Is he right?

Firstly, did you know that Britain is the most monitored country on the planet with the exception of North Korea? Hard to believe isn’t it. But take a look at the facts.

SPIES IN THE SKY
According to the Christian Science Monitor as many as four million government CC-TV cameras – one for every 14 people – observe all aspects of life, from town centres to transport systems, office towers to banks, commercial zones to residential centres, restaurants, bars and even places of worship.

The average Briton is, in fact, caught on camera as many as 300 times during any given day. Some cameras are programmed for facial recognition. New imaging software is being developed that will alert surveillance-camera operators to suspect situations by analyzing patterns of motion, such as loitering or individuals walking against the direction of a crowd.

It’s interesting that while most Europeans rebel against such technology, the majority of Britons are all for being monitored in the belief they are being cared for.

The problem is since the advent of such cameras there is no proof that crime has lessened. A government study found that while security cameras were effective when tackling vehicular crimes they had little or no effect on solving other crimes or deterring would-be criminals.

Indeed, Britain’s jails are overflowing to the extent the Home Office is set to house criminals in police stations and on designated prison ships.

IDENTITY CARDS
In the belief that identity cards will save them from terrorist attacks, most Britons accept they will soon be forced to carry such hi-tech cards containing their biometric data and 49 items of personal information.

In the initial stages, they will be compulsory for anyone renewing his passport of driving license after 2008. Critics point out that besides being horrendously expensive the cards will give a false sense of security since those who attacked Britain’s transport system on July 7, 2005 were British citizens.

With the exception of a few years during WW2 and shortly afterwards Britons have never been obliged to carry I.D. cards and until September 11 it is doubtful whether the bill would have garnered enough votes to pass through Parliament.

A people known to fervently believe that “an Englishman’s home is his castle” and who are famed for their cherishing of individualism – sometimes to the point of eccentricity – have caved under pressure. Soon only mad dogs will go out in the Midday sun, while his English owner will first ask permission from the nanny state.

In time, the National Identity Register – open to access by 500,000 civil servants - will build up a complete picture of people’s lives, as each time the card is checked information contained within the card will be logged along with the date, time and purpose of each check.

A startling reminder of this new accepting mindset appeared in a video produced by investigative journalists and film-maker Alex Jones, whose interviewers went to see the mood of market vendors outside one of the affected London underground stations.

One such vendor was asked about the new assaults on personal freedoms and responded that she was prepared to give up liberty for freedom. The flabbergasted interviewer asked her whether she meant what she said and she repeated the same words, seemingly oblivious to the fact that liberty and freedom have the same meaning. Remember the boiled frogs?

Last year, the US Senate voted to create a national I.D. card and, according to Britain’s Independent, the US government would like access to the British I.D. card data base as well.

DNA BANKS
An article in Britain’s Daily Mail last January was titled “Big Brother Britain has World’s Biggest DNA database”. More people in Britain have had their DNA stored by the police than any country in the world, reads the article that warns by “2008 the state will have access to the genetic data of 4.25 million people – or one citizen in 14”.

Disturbingly, hundreds of thousands of those whose DNA has been filched have never been charged with a crime. Many others have had their DNA taken after having been criminalized under new laws for dropping litter, driving in a bus lane or not wearing a seatbelt. Worse, Tony Blair has indicated that he would like to extend the scheme to include the DNA of every single Briton.

The Observer’s investigations editor has made some alarming revelations in an article titled “Police DNA database is spiralling out of control”. A firm used by the police to analyze DNA samples and supply the police with relevant information has allegedly kept copies of their reports, which include “personal demographic details of individuals including their names, ages, skin colour and address.”

Evidence has also come to light that the Home Office has given permission for DNA samples held by the police to be used by biologists involved in a genetic study on ethnicity and skin colour. Dr. Josef Mengele, dubbed Auschwitz’ Angel of Death would be proud.

RADIO FREQUENCY TAGS
A reader commenting on the Daily Mail article Nigel Robson said this. “Not long before we all end up chipped like dogs…and then we’ll all be catalogued and managed in ways that Stalin couldn’t begin to dream of. Wake up! You’ve lost your freedom.”

I wonder whether Mr. Robson knows that there are people walking around today with radio frequency identification chips under their skin. A small group of Canadian nerds have voluntarily opted for the chip so they can open their home and car doors and start the computer with a wave of the arm. While in the US, some hospitals are advocating patients get chipped so that their medical data will be accessible to doctors even when they’re unconscious.

The Guardian recently exposed a plan to electronically tag air travellers inside airports using wrist bands or boarding passes embedded with computer chips linked to CC-TV cameras.

Some might call this the slippery slope to human Cyborgs. After all, what’s to stop governments from chipping new born babies or harvesting their DNA in future?

BIOMETRICS
Biometric passports and identity cards are already here but as Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Minister Gordon Brown recently told an audience at Chatham House, the private sector is getting in on the act.

“Where once we used signatures, birth certificates and now PIN codes to pay for products in supermarkets, enter buildings, access their phone, email, computer and bank accounts, we will soon be able to efficiently and conveniently use both digital scanning of fingerprints and digital scanning of the unique patterns in the iris of an eye,” said Brown.

“Computer companies are already developing the most sophisticated fingerprint technology to control access to computers,” he said with zeal. “In California, supermarket shoppers are paying with a finger-scan at the check out. Now an American company has developed a safe that can be installed in the home that is opened using your fingerprint. And this month a new library is due to open in Japan using palm-vein technology for book check-outs.”

Fingerprint technology is already being used by librarians in the Californian suburb of Naperville. Scanners verify the identity of the Library’s computer users preventing people borrowing library cards and passing on log-in codes to family or friends.

The move has been condemned by a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We take people’s fingerprints because we think they might be guilty of something, not because they want to use the library,” said Ed Yohnka.

American libraries have been monitored since the Patriot Act passed during the aftermath of September 11 allowed security services to enquire about members’ reading habits without the members themselves being informed.

TRACKING YOUR MONEY
As a moneyman, Brown stressed the importance of tracking and freezing the funds of suspected terrorists. “In 2005 alone our requirements to report suspicious activity saw banks and other businesses report over 2,000 suspicious potential terrorist transactions with 650 leading to detailed investigations resulting in not just the seizure of cash thought to be destined for terrorism in Iraq but the tracking down of individuals wanted for terrorist charges…”.

Sounds good except for the fact both the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks were extremely low budget and, in any case, the committed terrorist and his accomplices could easily circumvent banks by using the virtually untraceable hawala system.

Brown is further pushing a new terrorism order through Parliament that will give the Treasury the power to freeze the funds of anyone suspected of being involved with terror on the basis of “classified” or “closed source” intelligence”.

In the US, bank data is already being sifted in secret, according to an expose by the New York Times published in June this year. “Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the September 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States…” revealed the article.

The database belonged to the Belgian-based Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication or SWIFT, which has “allowed officials from the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies to examine tens of thousands of financial transactions without getting permission from either customer banks or their clients. The Belgian government later confirmed SWIFT had violated the privacy laws of its host country.

But SWIFT isn’t the only unauthorized spiller of your financial secrets. Many other companies have provided the US with access to ATM transactions, details of credit card purchases and Western Union wire payments.

NSA WIRETAPS
The American President George W. Bush was outraged that his covert snooping had been thrust into public view just as he was when the National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping scandal was brought to light by the media.

Under the program termed “The Terrorist Surveillance Program” the NSA listened in to phone calls between parties in the United States and overseas without obtaining a court order to do so, required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The President said he had executive power to authorize such spying on citizens under the Patriot Act but a Federal court ruled that the program violated not only the First Amendment but also the Fourth Amendment and FISA. The controversy led to a slew of court challenges.

SPYING ON DISSENTERS
While the NSA eavesdrops on private phone calls, the Pentagon spies on dissenters from government policy. Documents released earlier this year by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - obtained by court order under the Freedom of Information Act - reveal Defence Department surveillance of American anti-war activists. Included are student groups and Quakers. Information on such individuals was collected and stored in a military anti-terrorism database dubbed TALON.

“Spying on citizens for merely executing their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful assembly is chilling and marks a troubling trend,” said Joyce Miller, the American Friends Service Committee’s Secretary for Justice and Human Rights.

AVIATION WATCH LISTS
ACLU has further called for the US government to shut down its “fatally flawed” aviation watch list and “instead focus on known threats to aviation”. The call was in response to a “60 Minutes” program aired on CBS that focused on a copy of the list that had found its way into the hands of CBS producers. Apparently the list included numerous names of people who were either dead or in prison as well as international dignitaries.

Many of the names on the list are common to millions, such as Jim Smith or Robert Johnson, which means large numbers of innocent people are pulled aside and interrogated each time they pass through an airport. Often the names of real terrorist subjects do not appear on such lists as intelligence agencies refuse to share them with anyone outside government.

Last May, the European Court of Justice ruled that the US had no right to access passenger data held by European airlines, required under post 9-11 US law. This threatened the loss of landing rights in the US for Europe’s carriers but after lengthy negotiations a new deal was struck.

Under the new deal, the US will no longer be able to “pull” data from airlines, which will instead “push” 34 pieces of selected passenger data – including passport and credit card details, telephone numbers and meal preferences - to relevant American authorities.

Although the FBI and other agencies will no longer be able to enjoy direct access to such data, the Department of Homeland Security will have the right to distribute such data as it thinks fit. Put simply, the end result indicates the process has been little more than a grand exercise in obfuscation.

If you’re willing to be monitored, recorded, tracked, tagged, chipped and spied upon in the hope of escaping a terrorist bomb then so be it. But be careful. As Henry Porter rightly says, “the truth of the matter is that relinquishing our rights in exchange for illusory security harms each one of us, and our children and grandchildren. Because once gone, these rights hardly ever return.”

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