Peace is the path to peace.

From the excellent JP Floru:

Yesterday I witnessed the lamentable spectacle of civil rights organisations bending over backwards not to lose their wished for influence over the government’s civil rights agenda.

I attended a Freedom Bill Committee hearing in Parliament.  The witnesses included spokespeople for the human rights organisations Justice and Liberty.  At issue was the CCTV part of the proposed Freedom Bill.

Read the rest of the article via Civil rights organisations capitulate on CCTV reduction – Big Brother Watch.

Via Britain leads world in police state survey • The Register:

A recent survey from internet security consultancy, Cryptohippie, suggests that the UK is setting the pace in at least one area – though being classified as the West’s most repressive regime when it comes to electronic surveillance might not be a title that this government is entirely happy to wear.

This result emerges from Cryptohippie’s recently published Electronic Police State 2008 (pdf). This is the first in what are intended to be a series of annual reports that will audit the “State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens”.

The audit focusses on 17 factors, ranging from requirement to produce documents on demand, through to the extent to which states force ISP’s and phone companies to retain data, the blurring of boundaries between police and intelligence work and ultimately the breakdown of the principles of habeas corpus.

Via Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK’s public databases, says report | The Guardian, we learn that “Britain is now the most invasive surveillance state and the worst at protecting privacy of any western democracy”:

A quarter of all the largest public-sector database projects, including the ID cards register, are fundamentally flawed and clearly breach European data protection and rights laws, according to a report published today.

Claiming to be the most comprehensive map so far of Britain’s “database state”, the report says that 11 of the 46 biggest schemes, including the national DNA database and the Contactpoint index of all children in England, should be given a “red light” and immediately scrapped or redesigned.

The full report is available here. It uses somewhat stronger language:

Of the 46 databases assessed in this report only six are given the green light. That is, only six are found to have a proper legal basis for any privacy intrusions and are proportionate and necessary in a democratic society.

After working around government as a software consultant for several years, I particularly endorse this recommendation:

There should never again be a government IT project – merely projects for business change that may be supported by IT. Computer companies must never again drive policy.

Examining the arguments for the ID Card scheme and the National Identity Register provides a case in point.

Liberty Human Rights maintain a short leaflet, “ID Cards, Fiction and Fact” which explains:

• The ID Card and National Identity Register schemes will cost us privacy and cash.
• The government’s claims about the benefits of the program are fiction.
• ID Cards will not protect us from terrorism.
• ID Cards will not cut crime.
• ID Cards will increase discrimination.
• The Government will not keep our data private.
• The scheme is expensive and of no use.

You can join Liberty here.

The Conservatives go further in their criticism of the scheme here, pledging to abolish it. You can join the Conservatives here.

The Government has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over plans to share vast amounts of private data about individuals.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is to shelve proposals which critics said would have led to patients’ confidential medical records being passed to third parties.

A spokesman for Mr Straw said the “strength of feeling” against the plans had persuaded him to rethink.

The proposals will be dropped entirely from the Coroners and Justice Bill, and a new attempt will be made to reach a consensus on introducing a scaled-back version at an unspecified stage in the future.

via Government abandons data-sharing scheme – Telegraph, but watch the back door…

Toby Stevens, of the Enterprise Privacy Group, believes a shortage of fingerprint scanners could lead to an explosion in “flash and dash” fraud.

And that, he says, could scupper the scheme before it gets off the ground.

The Home Office has said it will set up a hotline for traders concerned about the authenticity of ID cards.

via BBC NEWS | Politics | ID card ‘flash and dash’ warning.