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Content Type: News & Analysis
In recent years, the use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in the UK has grown to unprecedented levels. Between £150 and £300 million per year is now spent on a system that involves an estimated 200,000 cameras. According to the British Security Industry Association, more than three quarters of these systems have been professionally installed. Most towns and cities are moving to CCTV surveillance of public areas, housing estates, car parks and public facilities. Growth in the market is…
Content Type: News & Analysis
In 1994, in an attempt to discover the problems caused by ID cards, Privacy International compiled a survey containing reports from correspondents in forty countries. Amongst the gravest of problems reported to Privacy International was the over zealous use or misuse of ID cards by police - even where the cards were supposed to be voluntary. One respondent wrote:
On one occasion I was stopped in Switzerland when walking at night near Lake Geneva. I was living in Switzerland at the time and had…
Content Type: Report
The evolution of information technology is likely to result in intimate interdependence between humans and technology. This fusion has been characterized in popular science fiction as chip implantation. It is, however, more likely to take the form of biometric identification using such technologies as fingerprints, hand geometry and retina scanning.
Some applications of biometric identification technology are now cost-effective, reliable, and highly accurate. As a result, biometric systems…
Content Type: Report
The evolution of information technology is likely to result in intimate interdependence between humans and technology. This fusion has been characterized in popular science fiction as chip implantation. It is, however, more likely to take the form of biometric identification using such technologies as fingerprints, hand geometry and retina scanning.
Some applications of biometric identification technology are now cost-effective, reliable, and highly accurate. As a result, biometric systems are…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The French Socialist Party suffered a resounding defeat in parlimentary elections on March 21st and 28th, in part due to a wiretapping scandal that broke a week before the elections. Results showed that they lost over 200 seats in the Parliment and became the minority party. Socialist President Francois Mitterrand will remain in office but is expected to face a tough election in 1994.
The scandal emerged after reports and transcripts were leaked to Paris Daily Liberation, showing that a…
Content Type: Report
Proposals for identity (ID) cards have provoked public outrage and political division in several countries. In this paper Simon Davies analyses the key elements of public opposition to ID Card schemes, and profiles the massive 1987 Australian campaign against a national ID card.
Content Type: Report
Proposals for identity (ID) cards have provoked public outrage and political division in several countries. In this paper Simon Davies analyses the key elements of public opposition to ID Card schemes, and profiles the massive 1987 Australian campaign against a national ID card.
Content Type: Report
This report presents a detailed analysis of the international trade in surveillance technology. Its’ primary concern is the ow of sophisticated computer-based technology from developed countries to developing countries – and particularly to non-democratic regimes. It is in this environment where surveillance technologies become technologies of political control.
Surveillance technologies can be de ned as technologies which can monitor, track and assess the movements, activities and…
Content Type: Report
The explosion of telecommunications services has improved the ability for human rights groups to disseminate information worldwide. New telephone, facsimile and computer communications have created opportunities for human rights groups to improve organizing and to promote human rights faster and at a lower cost than ever before. However, these new technologies can be monitored by governments and other groups seeking to monitor the activities of human rights advocates. For this reason, human…
Content Type: Report
The explosion of telecommunications services has improved the ability for human rights groups to disseminate information worldwide. New telephone, facsimile and computer communications have created opportunities for human rights groups to improve organizing and to promote human rights faster and at a lower cost than ever before. However, these new technologies can be monitored by governments and other groups seeking to monitor the activities of human rights advocates. For this reason, human…
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