Big Brother

In a press release, Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union, warned of a bill currently under consideration which would permanently legalize the wiretapping legislation - granting the President the ability to monitor international communications - which was enacted by Congress this past August.
“The Administration bill basically writes […]

If you pay any attention to the news you’ve certainly noticed that the issue of privacy and our rights have been a hot topic lately. Are the U.S. Government and the Department of Defense spying on U.S. citizens? Some civil liberties groups believe so and are suing to find out.

I don’t think anyone out there would disagree that the mobile phone has invaded our daily lives. They are literally everywhere, it doesn’t matter what country you live in. I’m always amazed at how some people are literally glued to them. I’ve seen groups of teenagers in London walking around together and every one of […]

To chip or not to chip - that seems to be the direction where we, as a society, are heading. We are already doing it with pets and livestock.
When I moved to the UK, my dog had to have one implanted. In some places, like military installations, it’s going to become mandatory for all […]

…and, if you are really lucky, a full body cavity search.
#180 is ready for his civic commitment. Today I showed up at the courthouse to report for jury duty and, of course, had to wait in line to go through the metal detector - and this got me thinking. We desperately need to improve our […]

If you wander about the Internet long enough, connections appear, sometimes answers to questions. Last fall I wondered about what Google is going to do with all the databases and information it collects on all the users of its various businesses. Also noted was addition of a sort of ‘zine to Google’s social […]

Ever since the Columbine shootings, kids in many schools have had to wear ID badges while on campus. What good it actually does is debatable, but now there is a new twist on this issue. This article at Wired goes into detail of what I see (unfortunately) in store for all of us.

Some of my many joys of the Internet are making friends around the world and learning about different cultures. A particular focus of my activities in this area is to learn from Muslim friends in the Middle East. I met these people on Google’s Orkut social networking service, and some of them read […]

Having just left the UK I remember reading and seeing in the news the debate going on about national identity cards. In a country where CCTV cameras are everywhere it seems that the ID card debate is almost a moot point. A person in the UK is having their movements tracked by camera everywhere they […]

Do we netizens actually want to support the creation of fake identities? Helping the homeless get the welfare services they need is well and good, but enabling the bad guys to cross borders meant to keep them out–well, Daddy, that’s just wrong. In this era of people being other than what they appear […]

Ordinary readers (those who aren’t professional news hounds, online writers, or bloggers-with-purpose) may be unaware of the “deep links” battle raging among low and high profile electronic news purveyors. You can bone up on this controversy with Mark Glaser’s roundup posted on the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. It’s no wonder the […]

Sometimes creepy results come up when I do a vanity search. What? Of course I run a search on my own name, and if you were honest, you’d admit that you do it, too. Who’d have thought it might, just might, some day save your life? John Martinkus, an Australian reporter, […]

Google announces they are going to offer a search service for your hard drive. Human DNA is mapped and more details are discovered every day. The FDA approves implanting a microchip to contain your health records. It’s news, but is it good news?

Evidence is beginning to mount that the authorities of at least four countries (Switzerland, Italy, U.K. and U.S.A.) are involved in last week’s seizure of two of Indymedia’s servers that brought down more than 20 of the Indymedia network’s Web sites and several Internet radio streams. Indymedia has yet to receive any official statement or […]

“Big Brother” sounds cliche, but evidence says it’s true…
The Associated Press reported today that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the agency that controls America’s spy satellites and other aerial surveillance equipment, is keeping a close eye on matters at home. This spy work skirts a fine line between protecting the public and “performing illegal government spying […]

Amazon.com’s entry into the search engine wars is finally out of beta and launched today. Why do we need another search engine? The folks at Amazon probably anticipated this question, so they decided to focus on “what else can we do with our service to make people come?” Their response: “We provide […]

The UK Parliament is just about to make a final debate on a bill that may threaten to greatly limit personal freedom and individual liberties.
The bill may be enforced even under the presumption or mere expectation that some emergency may be pending on the nation.
Though hard to believe this is truly happening in Great Britain. […]

Senator Kennedy flagged as suspected terrorist.

A fascinating NewsWeek article on the government’s efforts to gain control over this dangerous new frontier called the World Wide Web.

“The Department of Homeland Security has taken aggressive measures to protect critical infrastructure across the country,” said a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman. “We discourage Web posting of detailed information about critical infrastructure. This information is not helpful to our ongoing efforts to protect the American people and our nation’s infrastructure.”