India is to embark on a plan to provide each of its 1.1 billion-plus citizens with a national identity card. It will be the largest citizens' database in a democracy. Only China has a larger scheme.

The government claims that the scheme, to be finalised over three years, will help in the delivery of vital social services to the poorest in society who often lack – or are at least told they lack – sufficient identification papers. The government has long complained that most of the money set aside for the neediest is diverted as a result of corruption, and it believes the cards could help to tackle identity theft and fraud.

At a time of increased concern over the threat of militant violence, the government also hopes that the creation of the scheme will boost national security and help police and law and order officials. The creation of the ID or Unique Identification Number (UID) was a major plank of the manifesto of the ruling Congress Party during the recent election.

UK Phone companies are developing a system to allow 999 operators to pinpoint the location of internet callers, supposedly to assist police, paramedics and fire crews to attend emergencies promptly.

They that the technology could be in place in some ISPs next year, according to the chairman of the industry group leading the work.

The vast majority of calls to 999 are currently made via traditional landlines and mobile phones. BT has seen a tenfold increase in the volume of VoIP calls to its emergency contact centres in the last 18 months, however. The ability to locate emergency calls is vital as callers may be under duress, too ill to speak or may simply not know where they are.

While traditional landlines can be found by what amounts to a reverse directory lookup, using the line identity number and mobile phone coordinates approximated by triangulation, solving VoIP location is a more complex problem.

The group tasked with developing the system has been working under the auspices of the NICC - a UK network industry interoperabilty body - for about three years and is chaired by John Medland, BT's policy manager for 999 services.

At first glance the solution is simple. When a VoIP user makes a 999 call, their provider knows the IP address they are calling from. So to trace the call, the VoIP firm could forward the IP address to a central 999 authority, which would look up which ISP serves that range. The central authority would then contact that ISP for a line identity number, which would allow a reverse directory lookup to retrieve the address of the caller, as with a traditional call. All this would happen automatically in a matter of milliseconds.

The major stumbling block is that many ISPs frontend systems are not connected to their backend database, so they cannot quickly match an IP address to a line identity. Under the forthcoming NICC proposals, ISPs would be asked to install a Location Information Server in their network to bridge the gap and serve the 999 authorities' data requests.

Equipment and maintenance costs mean some ISPs are likely to be resistant to the proposals, however. But Ofcom, which regulates 999 services, has indicated to ISPs that even if they are not the VoIP provider, they are bound by law to make location data available to emergency services.

Canada is considering forcing ISPs to reveal subscriber data without a warrant.

Twenty-first century technology calls for 21st-century tools, Injustice Minister Rob Nicholson said in announcing two new bills.

The Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act and the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act would require ISPs to install intercept-capable equipment on networks and provide authorities with timely access to subscriber personal data.

The new law wouldn’t provide authorities with additional intercept powers. Police would still require warrants for communication interception, the government said.

Specifically, the law would:

• Allow authorities to get access to information on any Internet subscriber, including name, home address or email, all without a warrant.
• Force ISPs to keep a copy of the data generated by people under investigation on their company hard drives to prevent suspects from deleting anything incriminating or of evidence.
• Make all telecom companies invest in technology that allows for the interception of Internet communications.
• Let authorities remotely activate tracking devices that may already be embedded in your cellphone or car without your knowledge.
• Allow law enforcement to get data on where your communications over the web are coming from and who they're going to.
• Make it against the law to arrange the sexual exploitation of a child with a second person over the web. 

The government said it would subsidize some of the ISPs' costs for the program.

Researchers from the Policy Engagement Network, based in the London School of Economics Information Systems and Innovation Group, have produced a 57 page report, which is essential reading for anyone worried about the Home Office's EU Directive based mandatory Communications Traffic Data Retention laws, and their vague plans for extending this even further the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the review of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) codes of practice and legislation.

Abstract

In this briefing we aim to provide some depth of understanding of the nature of the Home Office's latest proposals on communications surveillance. We are sympathetic with the needs of the law enforcement community and we agree with the Home Office that the communications environment is changing. However we question whether the Home Office fully understands the extent to which the way in which surveillance activities are authorised would change were its wishes granted, in turn leading to a tipping of the balance in favour of state power and away from the individual.

We are also concerned that there is a significant under-estimate of the burdens being placed on Communication Service Providers at a time where elsewhere in government there is a demand for universal broadband internet provision which industry is supposed to fund. This report was not drafted to respond to the Home Office's Consultation document, but rather we are adding more expertise to the public deliberation on this policy. The report is the result of research we conducted with key experts across the UK and internationally.

...Read the Briefing on the Interception Modernisation Programme [pdf]

LBC's Nottingham newsroom has received video footage which appears to show a police officer punching a suspect in Nottingham city centre three times.

It shows officers attempting to arrest a man on Upper Parliament Street on Sunday night using a taser gun as he lays on the ground. An officer is also seen pushing a bystander.

A Nottinghamshire Police statement read: Officers were called for assistance by door staff to help deal with an aggressive customer. Police attended and an officer was assaulted, requiring hospital treatment.

While no complaint has been made against any of the officers involved in the incident and no one has been suspended, the footage has been voluntarily referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Police are keen to speak to anyone who witnessed the incident or events leading up to the arrest, or anyone who has footage of events leading up to and during the incident.

"A 40-year-old man been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and has been released on police bail.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Davies, said: We understand that some members of the public may be concerned about this. The public’s trust and confidence is very important for us, which is why we have referred this matter for an objective investigation to the IPCC.

We are proactively looking at other CCTV in the area to ensure we have a clear picture of events leading up to the arrest and I would ask anyone in possession of such evidence, including the person who took the footage that has been published, to come forward as witnesses.

A police operation to stop Stoke City fans legitimately attending a football match in Manchester, first reported here last year, has resulted in a fan being awarded £2,750 after the police were found to be acting unlawfully. About 20 further complaints are outstanding and are expected to result in similar payments.

This is a great victory for the Football Supporters' Federation, which has been campaigning for police restraint in the use of Section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act, which allows police to issue dispersal notices to groups whom they believe may cause trouble.

Greater Manchester police used the act to round up more than 80 Stoke fans who were on their way to watch their club play Manchester United at Old Trafford on 15 November 2008. The fans had stopped at the Railway Inn, Irlam, where they were surrounded by officers of Greater Manchester Police and aggressively ordered to board police buses. There had been no complaint from the landlord of the pub – who has since invited them back.

The fans were not allowed to attend the game and their buses were escorted back to Stoke, even though many of the supporters had not set out from Stoke in the first place. They were effectively deprived of their liberty for four hours during which their buses were not allowed to make lavatory stops.

...Read full article

Sixty years ago today George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, and this evening, as though to mark the anniversary of Orwell's last book, the former head of GCHQ, Sir David Pepper, slips from the shadows to tell the BBC's Who's Watching You programme that it has become necessary for the government to record all data from phone and internet traffic in the fight against terror.

Pepper, who was, incidentally, born as Orwell struggled over his manuscript in the winter of 1948 – the year the author reversed for his title – makes a case for the total surveillance of society in order to catch the increasingly sophisticated targets. "There are plenty of people who will do all they can to make themselves difficult to find," he says. "The thing you worry about most is the attack that you haven't seen coming."

The unknown enemy is cast, very much like the ill-defined threat presented to Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four, as a pervasive, cunning and unseen foe that requires total watchfulness and, it follows, the sacrifice of the essential right of privacy. In the programme, Pepper explains the challenges that face his former colleagues at GCHQ with a diagram that shows how information is carried in discreet packets across the internet, a development which he implies must be met by granting the agency total access to all our communications.

...Read full article

How we should keep an eye on the powers that are watching us

 See article from timesonline.co.uk by Nigel Shadbolt

"Privacy is dead - get over it!” So proclaimed Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, in 2000. It might appear that in an age of increased surveillance, with huge amounts of personal data floating around, he has a point. But privacy is a fundamental human right and we give it up at our peril.

Privacy is essential for the proper functioning of a liberal, democratic society. The right to privacy gives people a space for intimacy, independence of action and freedom of speech. Privacy is a public good and benefits society in the same way that clean air does. It is something we would do well to protect.

The problem is that technology enables the State, companies, all of us to collect and integrate more and more personal information. Every five years this capability increases tenfold. It has put an end to “practical obscurity” - you can no longer lose yourself in the crowd.

..Read full article

The former head of MI6 has hit out at striking and disturbing invasions of privacy by the Big Brother state.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who led the Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, claimed some were an abuse of the law. He attacked the loss of liberties caused by expanding surveillance powers and described some police operations as mind-boggling.

The former spy chief joins a growing number of high-profile critics warning that individual freedom and privacy are being seriously eroded by the Government's disproportionate efforts to guard against terrorism.

Sir Richard was particularly critical of what he claimed were inadequate laws to regulate some surveillance powers. Commenting on the massive surge in police use of stop-and-search powers in London, he highlighted the fact that Scotland Yard officers have carried out more than 150,000 searches since 2007. This compared with fewer than 300 in Manchester. Sir Richard said: That is a mind-boggling statistic. That may well be an abuse of the law. I am a great believer in proportionality and as a citizen I worry about the loss of my liberties.

He questioned the legal constraints on the use of millions of CCTV cameras across Britain, saying: 'We have constructed a society which has great technical competence - and some of that competence isn't particularly regulated: I think the important thing in the UK is that there should be very strict legislation and strict legislative oversight.

...Read full article