Forensic insights from the world's most experienced privacy advocate.
By Simon Davies The time has come to commemorate those Members of the European Parliament who have worked so tirelessly to erode our privacy rights. The following ten MEPs are inducted into the EP Hall of Shame for their leadership in proposing negative amendments. Much of this data was drawn from an exceptional site – …
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By Simon Davies Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has repeated claims that Google is up to its neck in the machinations of the White House Administration. This claim raises some critically important questions. Speaking this week via video link to the 19th International Symposium on Electronic Art Assange warned “Google wants to ingratiate itself in the …
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By Simon Davies Last summer I received a cross-party request from the European Parliament to conduct a wide-ranging independent assessment of the proposed EU data protection regulation. Nearly a year on, I’ve decided I can’t provide that assessment – and as many people have asked about its progress, here are the reasons why. I apologise …
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By Simon Davies There’s something of the Neville Chamberlain in EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding’s assurances that concessions are being won from the US over PRISM. Truth be told the result of the current stand-off will never be “peace for our time”. On the basis of recent history the US simply cannot be trusted to …
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By Simon Davies It would be hard to overstate the extent of public outrage at the moment about the NSA PRISM scandal. I can’t recall an issue for many years that has triggered such widespread anger. The response is also noteworthy because it cuts across national boundaries and demographics. From the local pub in Hertfordshire …
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By Simon Davies In a landmark ruling, Sweden’s data protection authority (the Swedish Data Inspection Board) this week issued a decision that prohibits the nation’s public sector bodies from using the cloud service Google Apps. The ruling – which bans Google cloud products such as calendar services, email and data processing functions – is based …
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By Simon Davies Walking through Boston Airport yesterday brought both the chill of foreboding and a thrill of excitement. I was being chased by a miniature drone. It was an awesome piece of technology. Controlled remotely through the Android platform it had two high resolution cameras, gyroscopic stabilisers and proximity sensors. The video images were …
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By Simon Davies Some readers will recall the 2006 controversy over SWIFT and the secret grab by US agencies for the world’s financial transaction data. These notes detailing one element of that campaign – like those I published yesterday on the 1997 ECHELON action – may be useful to PRISM campaigners. Taking on Goliath …
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By Simon Davies Sixteen years ago a high-profile campaign began in Europe to expose the NSA’s global spying operations – an activity which at the time was almost unknown to the world. The outcome of this prolonged campaign should be a warning from history to anyone who believes that reform of the intelligence services …
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By Simon Davies The world’s most influential thinker, Professor Noam Chomsky, has voiced his concern over the amount of data being amassed by Google, linking the advertising giant’s activities with the growth of the national security sector. Professor Chomsky spoke to me at MIT in Boston today for the upcoming audio series The Privacy Channel, …
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