A revised version of the Generally Accepted Privacy Principles published by AICPA and Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) in August 2009 and are worth a read. You will find some similarities with those published by the The Chartered Institute of IT Personal Data Guidelines on this side of the Atlantic ocean đ Andrea Simmons writes a little about this on her blog.
Category: U.K.
UK forging ahead in the issue of ID cards
Despite misleading Ministerial claims in the UK that ID cards will be “voluntary”, these plans are still going ahead. In fact if you are a UK resident and need to apply for a passport in the next 10 years you will in any case end up in the ID database. Read more a no2id.
Nothing to hide – CCTV in school toilets!
An excellent article on the use of CCTV, biometrics, databases, etc., in schools in the UK.
Can you imagine that on the uncertainly of whether CCTV should be permissible in toilets, Sayner (managing director of Proxis, a security installation company) reasons that âit depends exactly on what it is looking at,â adding that âIf youâve got nothing to hide, why should you object to that?â I just love this “nothing to hide” argument. For myself I’m not too keen on being the star on some camera footage when I visit the ladies room!
Dubious practices on collection of DNA in UK by law enforcement
Further to a posting I made some time ago on the removal of DNA from one of the law enforcement databases… that is for those of you that are proved innocent. Here is more posting from ARCH Rights on the dubious collection of DNA by Britain’s law enforcement, and a link to resources to help you in getting DNA removed.
Privacy International’s stance on body scanners at airports
Following a previous post on the use of body scans at airports, I have come across the PI statement on proposed deployments of these body scanners in airports.
This is taken from their website….
-
PI feels that the technology raises a number of troubling issues:
First, the scanners produce strikingly graphic images of passengersâ bodies. Those images reveal not only our private body parts, but also intimate medical details such as colostomy bags. That degree of examination amounts to a significant â and for some people humiliating â assault on the essential dignity of passengers that citizens in a free nation should not have to tolerate. Deployment of the technology was recently halted at Manchester Airport in Britain in part because the scanners violated child protection laws by electronically strip searching children and young people. There have also been calls in the European Parliament for a Europe-wide ban on the technology.
Second, Privacy International is skeptical about the privacy safeguards that the US Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is touting. The TSA say that the technology is capable of obscuring faces, but this claimed protection is just a software fix that can be undone as easily as it is applied. And obscuring faces does not hide the fact that rest of the body will be vividly displayed. This is the equivalent of asking passengers to parade their bodies in front of the screeners, but with bags over their heads.
Naked at the airport!
I have been watching with some interest the activity on body scanning at the airports that basically creates images as you pass through of your naked body… all in the name of security. Jack made a posting on this and has linked through a video describing what it is.. also I saw that bbc news have something today.
I guess when it comes to security at airports we are all a little jumpy, wanting safety over everything else, even at the cost of our time and inconvenience. However to know that you will be seen naked at airport barriers …..
Will be interesting to see what rules are created concerning their use. Terri Dowty has something to say here on the potential abuse of these images, i.e. child pornography. These and all images need to be removed as soon as they are deemed as not dangerous to national security… i.e. some minutes or specified time after the scan.
Man arrested for stealing in RuneScape – a virtual world
I just love this, the first known case ever, a man has been arrested for stealing virtual artifacts in a virtual world!
He hacked into accounts to steal virtual characters and their possessions on one of the worldâs biggest multi-player online games RuneScape, a web-based role playing game with more than ten million members.
Become a savvy citizen!
The BCS is running a campaign called Savvy Citizens. ‘Savvy Citizens’ helps people become savvier in how they access, understand and manipulate information in today’s information society. You may find it worth checking out, you will find some useful information and tips there. Especially if you are one of the many in UK who are trying to work out what this information society hype is all about and keen to learn!
My mum and dad are among the curious and keen, and have both purchased laptops and are attending evening classes to become PC/Internet savvy… which is pretty cool. So check out this url mum and dad, a special link for you: my tip to savvy citizens that I contributed on protecting children online using technology đ
Personal data guardianship code
Youth Justice Board anonymised data in UK
Seems that the Youth Justice Board has built a new system (Youth Justice Board Information System, YJBIS) that generates statistical information based on so called anonymous data in the UK. We get back to that old discussion, of “how anonymous is anonymous”? Not very if you strip identifying information but in certain circumstances the data does not lose it’s anonymity. Take a look at what has been posted on ARCH blog for example concerning the YJBIS.