Signalfire

They are everywhere.

In schools, hospitals, grocery stores, churches, car washes and highways. Surveillance cameras have become as much a part of the American landscape as apple pie and lawsuits.

“If you are in a public place you can just about assume you’re on camera,” said John Knox, owner of Knox Integrated Systems, a company that installs security systems.

Consider the numbers:
The Tennessee Department of Transportation has 357 SmartWay cameras along highways, mainly through the state’s major cities, including 50 in Knox County,

More than 595 cameras are deployed in just dormitories at the University of Tennessee. How many are on the entire campus not even UT knows, but the number is certainly well over a thousand.

More than 200 Public Building Authority cameras operate in and on various city and county properties.

More than 1,500 are in and around Knox County Schools – 90 in Hardin Valley Academy alone.

The Knoxville Police Department has 354 vehicles, each with a camera on board. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has roughly 125 cruisers equipped with cameras.

Red-light camera systems click away at 15 intersections around Knoxville.

Steven Wyatt, federal spokesman at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, says security cameras there “number in the hundreds.” Exactly how many cameras are there and how far they reach is not disclosed.

Businesses in general tend to keep quiet about the number of cameras they deploy. West Town Mall, Pilot Travel Centers and Weigel’s, for example, turned down requests to talk about security issues. But, the smoky domes and little, white boxes are so prevalent in and around such businesses that nobody gives them much thought.

Two reasons are behind the camera boom.

The first is money.

“Cost-effectiveness is a huge part of it,” said Dale Smith, executive director of the Knoxville Public Building Authority. He points out that securing World’s Fair Park would take seven or eight guards working around the clock, but with the nine cameras there, he needs only one or two guards – who aren’t working all of the time.

“To have a security presence is cost-prohibitive, and technology has made it a lot less costly,” he says. “The cameras don’t sleep, and they don’t eat doughnuts.”

Knox, who got into security systems in the early 1980s when surveillance cameras amounted to less than 5 percent of the business, is vice president of the national Electronic Security Association and often represents the industry in Washington.

“The boom is still going on,” he said. “The last five years, when it (cameras) went from analog to digital, the price went way down because so many people started buying them. The cameras now are so much cheaper and so much better. And, they are available at many price levels.

“It used to cost $5,000 for one camera and now those are down to $1,000. You can get them as cheap as $100.”

Reason No. 2? The cameras work.

“We used to have bomb threats called in about once a day,” says Lt. Mac Doss, supervisor of safety and services with the Public Building Authority, which began installing its cameras seven years ago. “We have had two in the past six years.”

“When we took over management of the security at the health department we heard that a prostitution ring was being run in their parking lot and the department’s employees were complaining of feeling threatened,” PBA’s Smith says. “We put up a fence, then we put up cameras and signage that said there were surveillance cameras on site, and that basically stopped it cold.”

“When we took over management of city garages, one had a real history of automobile theft and vandalism. We put cameras in there and it became a nonissue.”

Now, city garages average about 10 cameras each.

Lt. Robert Hubbs of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office Crime Analysis Unit tells of a rape case at a Laundromat in South Knoxville.

“The investigating officer asked to check out the (nearby) red-light camera video thinking he might see the car go through,” Hubbs said. “We did better than that. The guy ran a red light at Moody (Avenue) and Chapman (Highway). We had him.”

“They (cameras) do serve as a deterrent,” says Lt. Keith Lambert, who oversees the University of Tennessee Police Department’s surveillance program, “Criminals love the dark, but they are less likely to do things when they know there is at least the potential that somebody is seeing what they are doing.”

A section of 16th Street from the Panhellenic Building toward the UT campus is considered a potential problem area. To combat that situation, 13 cameras are installed there, and they are monitored continuously.

“We have had some success with seeing people who are committing a crime,” Lambert says. “There isn’t really an accurate way to measure (how many crimes it has prevented). It does give people who frequent these areas a sense of security.”

At schools

Amid the ruins of what was once Rule High School on Maryland Avenue is an unassuming metal building. Inside has the feel of a tidy workshop with a row of cell phones recharging, a couple of desks and a handful of people with badges coming and going. On one wall are three large television screens. The screens run 24-7, almost always with at least one person on hand to observe. They look deceptively underwhelming considering the job they do. On each can be viewed the goings-on before 1,500-plus surveillance cameras at schools, maintenance and other structures in the Knox County system.

A click of the laptop computer can call up a camera to monitor a hallway at Halls Elementary or help determine who vandalized the Bearden football field, as happened in October.

The cameras all record around the clock. They all have motion detectors and can all be called up on Maryland Avenue with the push of a couple buttons.

“Camera location is based upon the footprint of the school, the size and dimensions,” explains Mike Walker of Professional Security Consultants and Design, the company that has been installing the cameras in schools for nine years. “We involve the maintenance and security staffs at the schools (when installing a system), and we meet with the principal and talk about areas of concern and the threat-level issues.”

They decide on the number of cameras needed. West High School, which in terms of square footage is the largest school in Knox County, has around 64 cameras.

Walker said the cameras have helped with everything from noncustodial parents snatching their children from school to wayward graffiti artists to school shootings such as the August 2008 one at Central High School. For big problems, Walker says he gets a call.

“Usually if they involve me it’s major,” he said. “It likely means it’s something that could go to court.”

Court is where Walker is called upon to explain the surveillance system to defense attorneys looking to poke legal holes in their operation.

“We have been very successful,” Walker says.

At UT

Walker is also heavily involved in much of the security around the University of Tennessee – one large structure in particular.

The Knoxville surveillance community speaks in awe of the system in and around Neyland Stadium. Walker, who dealt with the installation, says only that he worked with the federal Department of Homeland Security on the project and he is not allowed to talk about it.

With 100,000-plus gathered at Neyland on a football Saturday, Homeland Security considered the stadium a potential target for terrorists.

“We don’t discuss anything about the cameras at the stadium or (Thompson-Boling) arena,” said UT’s Lambert. “We stay away from (disclosing) what we see and how many cameras there are. I can say there are a significant number of cameras. Not only can we monitor the stadium, but we are more concerned with the area around the stadium than inside. Our focus is on the outside.”

Lambert says the surveillance stretches a good distance from Neyland’s gates. In fact, a fringe benefit has been funding for monitoring the parking garages around the stadium. The cameras there can be used year-round, not just on football weekends.

The vast number of cameras at the UT campus in general – certainly well over 1,000 – has become a concern. There are so many different systems operating, conducted by so many agencies and programs, that in truth no one – not even the UT police department – knows how many there are.

“We started working earlier this year trying to work with the departments on campus to identify who has cameras,” Lambert said. “All of these schools and colleges are set up into individual departments. If you are a department and you want a camera and you have the bandwidth and everything in place to put one up, you put one up. A lot of places on campus have put these things in on their own. There is no point or centralized control. There are different systems. We have been trying to coordinate where they are and who is in control.”

In public

Lt. Doss of the Public Building Authority stands in a room just inside the entrance to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in the basement of the City County Building. It’s call the COMM room. Before him are at least 25 television screens. The screens can call up more than 200 cameras in almost all county and city offices as well as parking garages and other areas.

The push of a button gets him a view of Volunteer Landing; another shows him an escalator in the Knoxville Convention Center. One more button and the first floor of the Market Square Garage is on the screen.

“We have cameras in any building we manage and any property we have,” Doss says. “When we started in ’03 we had six monitors. Now they run all the way across (the room) and we even had to extend the office at one time to put in extra monitors.”

The World’s Fair Park cameras can each swivel and zoom in on just about any part of the park. The ninth was recently added on an elevator where mischievous riders jumping up and down had brought on a series of $1,000 visits from the repair company. The new Knoxville Station Transit Center has at least eight cameras and a linked-in public address system that could call out an offender in the act – perhaps someone shaking a vending machine to get his dollar back.

Jayne Burritt of the PBA says the security system has become so popular that various public entities are coming to the authority now requesting that cameras be added. She mentioned that Knoxville greenways and KAT stops have been among the places suggested for additions. Powering the cameras from spots with no electricity is a challenge.

At hospitals

Hospitals are usually extremely competitive in the area of patient care, battling intensely for bragging rights over who has the latest equipment, best health care ratings, etc. In at least one area, they work together.

“One of the things we try to do from time to time is meet with other area hospitals (about security),” says Harry Watson, vice president of facility operations at University of Tennessee Medical Center. “We compare notes – ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ We went to the Vanderbilt Medical Center to see how they do things.”

Watson says UT Medical Center has dozens of cameras; some record, some only look out on areas. A security center monitors the cameras inside the hospital and on the parking lots.

“I have worked here since the mid-1980s and we had them when I came to work here,” he says. “The big growth has been in infant and pediatrics. There are a lot of concerns in how we manage and protect those infants. In that area, it goes beyond cameras.”

Communication is vital.

“We do a security review,” Watson says. “We bring in our nursing staff and we talk about what their concerns are. We bring them in based on the type of security calls we get from a specific area. Based on their concerns and what we see, then a decision is made on what cameras are needed.”

On patrol

Detective Aaron Yarnell of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office sees himself as a puzzle master.

“Every case is a puzzle,” he says. “I take each piece and try to formulate the totality of it. Cell phones, videos, witness statements … I put them all together.”

Hubbs says Yarnell, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 13 years, “thinks outside the box.”

For example, a huge problem with the quick and continued evolution of surveillance cameras is the variation in sophistication that has emerged in the cameras used by businesses and other entities. Some aren’t compatible with any system the Sheriff’s Office has. Hubbs says the investigation of a robbery at one fastfood restaurant was slowed because the restaurant had no way to get the image off its camera.

“People don’t have the same formats (on the surveillance systems), and they don’t know how to use them,” Hubbs said.

Yarnell found a simple but huge workaround for most cases. He uses his BlackBerry to take a snapshot of images off the video screen onsite and e-mails the image directly to a network of law enforcement agencies throughout the area.

“He took a picture off the video after a robbery at the CVS (pharmacy) on Maynardville Highway and within 10 minutes the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office called to say they recognized the guy,” Hubbs said. “We had him in the next day.”

Hubbs said in the not-so-old days the information likely would not even have been distributed until the next day.

“When I came on as a cop in 1979 we didn’t have any of this stuff, but now it’s just like that,” says Hubbs, snapping his fingers.

All 144 CTA rapid transit stations will be equipped with surveillance cameras by the end of this month, expanding the Big Brother reach of the nation’s most extensive and integrated camera network.

By the end of this year, CTA buses and rail stations will have nearly 3,000 high-definition surveillance cameras — up from 1,800 currently. Initially, cameras will be positioned at station entrances.

Ultimately, each station will have a “full complement” of 20 cameras. And later this year, the CTA will launch a pilot program so see “whether it’s feasible to retrofit” older CTA rail cars with cameras. New 5000-series cars come equipped with cameras.

The cameras are being bankrolled, in part, by the $22.6 million in federal Homeland Security funds the CTA has received since 2006. The CTA is investing $19 million.

“If there’s something that needs a closer look, we’re able to zoom in and get a better view. The high-definition cameras help us get a very clear picture,” said CTA President Richard Rodriguez.

“As more cameras are added. You’ll be able to go through a number of different camera views from any given station …Video images provided help first-responders to assess situations and act accordingly, whether it’s a service disruption, a medical or a police emergency.”

At a news conference at the Brown Line’s Paulina Station called to mark the security “milestone,” Mayor Daley acknowledged that CTA cameras are not routinely monitored and are mostly used to identify crime suspects after-the-fact. They can also be used to assist in evacuations after major service disruptions.

But, they are sometimes used pre-emptively.

“When schools are getting out at certain locations and a large group of students from different schools are there on CTA platforms, we will use the cameras for that purpose — to make sure all the young people are safe going to and from dealing with the CTA,” the mayor said.

Daley said there is no doubt that surveillance cameras help solve crimes.

“Say someone commits a robbery, runs to the CTA trying to get on the CTA. They come through here. When they have cameras, we’ll get their pictures coming in,” he said.

“If it’s an armed robbery, a home invasion or a burglary — whatever it is. If they’re in a car driving down, a camera will pick ‘em up.”

Daley proudly proclaimed Chicago’s vast network of public and private surveillance cameras the “largest in the United States.”

Asked for a specific number, he said, “I couldn’t give you that.”

Annapolis police will soon have extra eyes on downtown streets, thanks to a federal grant to supply 20 additional surveillance cameras, The Baltimore Sun reports.

The new cameras will make a total of 30 surveillance cameras downtown, and they will be installed early this summer, said Beth Hart, special projects director for the Police Department.

She said the surveillance cameras provide an alternative to “sending an officer out.” The department has about 130 officers to cover the city of about 39,000 residents.

The money comes from a Department of Homeland Security grant to provide extra security to the state’s capital. Six cameras were installed more than two years ago and have helped solve crimes, Hart said. She said the cameras have been particularly helpful by monitoring bar crowds.

BERLIN — Google came under increased pressure in Europe on Tuesday over its collection of private data from unsecured home wireless networks, as a German regulator threatened legal action if the company did not surrender a hard drive for inspection.

The German demand underscored the seriousness of the quandary Google now faced following its admission last Friday that it had stored the snippets of Web sites and personal e-mail messages from people around the world while compiling its Street View photo archive.

Johannes Caspar, the data protection supervisor for the city-state of Hamburg, where Google’s German headquarters are located, said Tuesday that he had given Google until May 26 to hand over one of the hard drives that it had used to collect and store information in Germany, where Street View is not yet available.

Through a spokesman, Google reiterated its offer to destroy the WLAN data in conjunction with regulators, but stopped short of saying it would hand over a hard drive, which would allow regulators to see for the first time what kind of data had been collected.

Viviane Reding, the European justice commissioner, criticized Google for not cooperating with German privacy officials.

“It is not acceptable that a company operating in the E.U. does not respect E.U. rules,” she said in a statement released by her office.

Mr. Caspar, who is leading the government’s discussions with Google, said during an interview that “Up until now, all we have to go on at this point is what Google has told us that they have collected. But until we can inspect one of the hard drives ourselves, we will not know to what extent what kinds of data have actually been stored.”

Prodded by Mr. Caspar and other officials in Germany, Google last week said it had collected 600 gigabytes of data from unsecured wireless area networks, or WLANS, from around the world as its roving cars compiled a photo archive for Street View.

The admission was sharply criticized in Germany, and came less than two weeks after Google had assured officials that it had stored only two pieces of WLAN data: the unique I.D. number of the device, called a MAC address, and its assigned name.

Google apologized for collecting what it described as fragments of information from unsecured WLANs, saying its actions were inadvertent and the result of a programming error.

A Google spokesman in Hamburg, Kay Oberbeck, said the company had no response to the Hamburg regulator’s request beyond its standing offer to destroy the data collected in Germany in conjunction with regulators. Google said it had destroyed WLAN data during the weekend that had been improperly collected in Ireland, at the request of the regulator.

“We are in contact with the Hamburg regulator, Mr. Caspar,”Mr. Oberbeck said. “Naturally we are interested in destroying the data, in conjunction with the relevant regulators, as soon as possible.”

In a blog posting late Monday, Alan Eustace, a Google senior vice president for engineering and research, wrote that a San Francisco company, Isec Partners, had overseen destruction of the Irish data. In his blog Mr. Eustace included a link to a report from Alex Stamos, the Isec Partners employee who witnessed destruction of the Irish data from the larger batch of WLAN data improperly collected around the world.

In his letter to Google, Mr. Stamos described the WLAN data in question as being contained on four hard drives, organized by individual country. Mr. Stamos said he created volumes on two new encrypted hard drives and copied over all of the data except for Ireland. The original four hard drives were then destroyed, Mr. Stamos wrote.

Google has said its WLAN catalogue was designed to enhance its mobile advertising service, which can alert mobile phone users to nearby businesses and other attractions by often pinpointing their locations through WLANs.

Mr. Caspar said he had not yet received a response from Google. “I would think it would be in their interests too to clarify the matter as quickly as possible,” he said.

Should Google defy the regulator’s request, Mr. Caspar said he had the power to fine the company, and could ask the state prosecutor in Hamburg to evaluate whether to bring charges against Google for improper collection of private data. Mr. Caspar said Hamburg’s data protection law gave him the power to assess fines of up to €300,000, or $369,000.

To ease privacy concerns in Germany, Google has agreed to give property owners the right remove their property from Street View before the service goes live, which was planned for later this year. It is the first time that Google is giving consumers the right to opt out in advance. Current procedures let users request that their property be removed after the service goes live.

In a related development, a law student from western Germany said Tuesday that he had filed a formal complaint with the Hamburg state prosecutor’s office alleging that Google’s WLAN data collection violated German law. Jens Ferner of Alsdorf said he faxed his complaint to the prosecutor’s office on Monday seeking to clarify the legal situation regarding use of open WLANs.

The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve security for ordinary citizens, civil rights activists are warning of a “new level” of censorship and surveillance.

For members of the French administration, it is a law against digital crime. For civil rights activists and politicians from opposition parties, it is a plan for censorship that excites fear and loathing — and even conjures up the specter of Big Brother and the surveillance state.

The lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly, passed the first draft of the bill, known as “Loppsi 2,” on Tuesday. It will now go on for a second reading in the Senate, where it seems likely to pass, thanks to the government’s majority. If the Senate approves the bill, the new law could come into force as early as this summer. The legislation could have far-reaching consequences: Loppsi 2 contains rules that would make France the European country where the Internet is subject to the most censorship, regulation, control and surveillance.

The new legislation could in the future force Internet service providers (ISPs) to shut off access to criminal sites, should they be officially instructed to do so. According to the draft legislation, the law “makes it the responsibility of each Internet service provider to ensure that users don’t have access to unsuitable content.”

French Government to Employ Malware

The list of banned Web sites would be provided by the Interior Ministry. The approach is very similar to a proposed German Internet law aimed at fighting child pornography, which also foresaw limiting access to certain sites. That legislation was signed into law by German President Horst Köhler on Wednesday — even though the German government had recently decided it no longer wanted to apply the law in its existing form, after massive protests by Internet users.

Under the new French legislation, police and security forces would be able to use clandestinely installed software, known in the jargon as a “Trojan horse,” to spy on private computers. Remote access to private computers would be made possible under the supervision of a judge.

The draft law indicates that President Nicolas Sarkozy is sticking to his hard line on Internet issues. Last year his administration pushed through the HADOPI law which gives ISPs the power to block or restrict Internet access to users of illegal file-sharing sites who refuse to desist under a “three strikes” system. The new legislation is simply the next step in regulating Internet use in France.

Political Motivations

The French government’s hard line should not surprise anyone. In a few weeks’ time, regional elections will take place in France. In the 2004 regional elections, Sarkozy’s UMP party did particularly badly. By showing himself to be a tough leader, Sarkozy hopes to avoid history repeating itself and shore up support for his policies. Polls indicate there is disappointment with his leadership and his government has low approval ratings. That is the reason why, in the face of a rampant economic crisis, growing unemployment, a devastatingly large budget deficit and various political scandals, Sarkozy is pulling out a presidential trump card. He is hoping that fear of criminals will convince voters to come to the polling booths.

In that respect, there is no more suitable issue than child pornography on the Internet and the hunt for pedophile criminals whose only desire is to seduce innocents via their home computers. According to that argument, it is necessary to impose controls on the digital world and introduce state surveillance, so that a pro-active Big Brother can fight the cyber world’s sexual deviants who are, in all likelihood, lurking on Facebook or Twitter.

More Than Just Controlling Cyberspace

In fact, Internet controls are only part of the bundle of legislation that is included in Loppsi 2. The various articles include a colorful batch of security measures developed by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, a close ally of Sarkozy’s, who pushed through the first version of the security laws in 2002.

The new package has been in the works since October 2007 and has, according to Hortefeux, been beefed up by 13 provisions “like in bodybuilding.” It is a hodgepodge of different measures, governing issues as disparate as courtroom procedures, traffic laws, defense, sport, integration and even questions regarding burial ordnances in the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The French daily Le Monde wrote of a “chest with many drawers.”

In addition to law enforcement tools for municipal police and private security companies, there is also a provision calling for a tripling of surveillance cameras in France — from 20,000 to 60,000 — by 2011. The provision has been described harmlessly as “video protection.”

The package also contains harsher penalties for break-ins, assault and drunk driving. Curfews for minors are also to be allowed.

‘Serious Threat’ to Internet Neutrality

Civil rights activists are outraged, as is the opposition. “We are seeing a whole series of lapses and rights limitations,” says Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of the French League of Human Rights. Sandrine Béllier, a member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, says the bill represents “a serious threat” to the neutrality of the Internet.

“The filtering and blocking of the Web has become a standard weapon in the legislative arsenal of a government which has been shameless in its handling of personal freedoms,” Béllier said in an interview with the online edition of the magazine Marianne. She complained that policing responsibility was being handed to Web providers, despite the lack of a legal basis for doing so. Indeed, it is precisely for this reason that the similar draft law in Germany will likely never come into force.

“Loppsi has brought us to a new level,” Béllier says, adding that “when it comes to restrictions, this text is preparing us for hell.”

Loppsi 2 contains a number of other gifts to French security authorities as well, including improved integration between police files and personal data kept by, for example, banks. The goal, Hortefeux explains innocently, is that of “improving the daily security of French citizens.” He says the laws will help to “maintain the level and quality of service provided by domestic security forces.”

December 19
The Obama administration will abandon a Dec. 31 deadline for states to tighten security requirements for driver’s licenses, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday. Read more…

17 December
BHAVNAGAR: Taking a cue from Vadodara and Surat police who have installed close circuit TV camera surveillance at specific spots of the city to plug the increasing crime rates, Bhavnagar police have decided to follow suit. Read more…

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Read more…

NEW DELHI: Intelligence agencies have asked the government to consider blocking Skype as operators of the popular global VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) engine are refusing to share the encryption code that prevents Indian investigators from intercepting conversations of suspected terrorists.

The Cabinet Committee on Security has accepted the recommendation in principle but has not set a date for initiating action. The urgency to track Skype calls stems from the fact that terrorists — as the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai showed — are increasingly using VoIP services. The shift to VoIP has been prompted by the growing ability of intelligence agencies to intercept mobile and other calls.

Read more…

GUANGZHOU: A new province-wide intelligent video surveillance system comprising 1 million cameras is putting criminals in the frame in Guangdong province. Read more…

PASSENGERS hiring any of the 1000-plus fleet of taxis in Glasgow could soon be caught on closed-circuit television. Read more…

NEW DELHI: A single random number will establish your identity. It will carry no “intelligence” but do away with use of ration cards, passports and driving licences as ID proofs. It could save Rs 20,000 crore by eliminating fake and duplicate identities under various government schemes. Read more…

Two smartly dressed armed robbers stole jewellery worth almost £40m from a Mayfair jewellers in what is believed to be the biggest gem heist in British history, it emerged today. Read more…

The police station in the Township of River Vale, N.J., has been working with an antiquated analog video surveillance system. Now it has a new IP-based network of JVC cameras to enhance and eventually replace the old gear and give police a better view of prisoners who enter the station. Read more…

China Security & Surveillance Technology Inc. has joined an industry consortium developing specifications for the transmission of HDTV-quality signals over conventional CCTV infrastructures. Read more…

AP:BEIJING – China’s police say they have installed 2.75 million surveillance cameras since 2003 and are expanding the system into the largely neglected countryside. Read more…

The Observer, August 9

Almost one in four black children over 10 have had their profiles placed on the police DNA database. The disclosure has sparked claims from the chair of an influential parliamentary committee that the disparity with white children is undermining social integration. Read more…

By Chelsea S. Keefer, Document Specialist, Nlets, Phoenix, Arizona

in the past several years, the justice and public safety communities have been faced with major cases involving individuals on parole or on probation. One example is the murder of Eve Carson, student body president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where two individuals on probation were arrested for the crime.1 Officers need this critical corrections information and images on the street to quickly identify these individuals. In most jurisdictions, officers and investigators have no easy access to any corrections data. Read more…

MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) – As from Tuesday, Russian law enforcement agencies have the right to inspect all private letters, parcels and other personal postal deliveries. Read more…

Greece’s privacy watchdog yesterday slammed an amendment, recently passed in Parliament, which paves the way for authorities to use surveillance cameras without restrictions, saying that it provides no safeguards governing how personal data will be handled. Read more…

January 2008
By Peter McKee

Since 9/11, there have been many civil rights-related questions raised about video surveillance. What has been discussed less frequently is the actual quality of the video displayed and recorded; a simple question might be posed: “Why do even the most basic cell phone cameras capture higher resolution images than the average video surveillance system?” Read more…

26 July

The Metropolitan police paid £1,863,074 in rewards for information about criminals operating in London and across the nation during the last financial year. Read more…

German Internet Security

The Autobahn has SOS phones for motorists in need. Now, police want to launch a similar service for the German Internet. Soon, those who stumble across dubious Web content may be just a click away from the authorities.

Read more…

BRASILIA – Brazil approved on Wednesday an environmental permit for a hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, an official said on Wednesday, advancing a project the government hopes will shore up power supplies but critics call an ecological disaster. Read more…

Your commute = your fingerprint

By Dan Goodin

Anonymized data collected from GPS-enabled devices may not be as anonymous as you think, according to researchers who show that knowing someone’s general home and work locations can be enough to identify an individual uniquely.

Read more…