Posted by del.icio.us bot at October 19th, 2008

  • Proposals for a central database of all mobile phone and internet traffic–

    "Our ability to intercept communications and obtain communications data is vital to fighting terrorism and combating serious crime, including child sex abuse, murder and drugs trafficking.

  • “The policy implications of the Crown's position are profound,” lawyers Jonathan Lisus and Alexi Wood said in a Canadian Civil Liberties Association brief. “The state would be free to harvest waste in ‘bad neighbourhoods' to build a database of information it would never otherwise be able to gather.

    “No doubt, ours would be a society superbly equipped to fight crime, but would be one in which privacy no longer had any meaning,” the CCLA lawyers said, adding that it would “shock the conscience of society” were police free to compile a database of peoples' intimate information based on their refuse.

  • Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.