ELECTRONIC POLICE STORY

[defrog]

ITEM: Internet security consultancy Cryptohippie releases its first report on the “Electronic Police State” – which is to say, "State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens".

The audit focuses on 17 factors, ranging from requirement to produce documents on demand, through to the extent to which states force ISPs 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.

The study rates 52 countries. Here are the top ten.

TOP TEN ELECTRONIC POLICE STATES

1. China
2. North Korea
3. Belarus
4. Russia
5. United Kingdom: England & Wales
6. United States of America
7. Singapore
8. Israel
9. France
10.Germany

Source: Cryptohippie

See anyone you recognize?

Here’s why this matters (from the report [PDF]):

In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every  email you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time. Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it – the evidence is already in their database.

Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman?

That’s probably a little paranoid for some tastes. But it’s also true. People like Bruce Schneier (who I quote regularly) has been saying this for some time. But he’s also said that it’s not too late to do something about it – yet.

“We must, all of us together, start discussing this major societal change and what it means. And we must work out a way to create a future that our grandchildren will be proud of.”

Watch this space,

This is dF

Comments

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

In the late 80s the government here tried to institute this by introducing an Australia Card; an ID card that provides a unique key to all of your activity across every database.

It was voted down, but... every resident of Australia already has a unique key that can be used for exactly that: a Tax File Number. (In the States, a Social security Number). If that's not used, a driver's license, which of course can be linked back to a Tax File Number (or a passport) at a 1:1 relationship.

The data is there and of course it can all be linked up, otherwise the (IT) system is broken. It's too late to worry about that; what we need to worry about are who has access to that super-database and what kind of searches they are allowed to do.

-- JF

[speedingslug.livejournal.com]

The amount of cameras in the UK is unreal, if it's in a built up area there on somewhere.