Was Apple right to deny the FBI access to the data on the San Bernardino’s terrorists phone? Apple says it has wider implications for privacy in general and that they wouldn’t be able to access any usable data anyway. As the debate has rage the FBI have been accused of using the same torture tactics commonly used by the CIA.

In justifying their efforts to get into San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone, the FBI is now using the same logic that the CIA used to justify torturing people who had no information to share.

From the start of the FBI’s efforts to get into Farook’s phone, it was fairly clear there’d be nothing on it. What kind of terrorist, planning to attack his co-workers at a holiday party, would coordinate his planning on his work-issued phone?

Plus, Farook went to some lengths to make data on his other devices unavailable. He destroyed two personal cell phones and successfully hid a hard drive. That he didn’t make the same effort with his work phone should have been the tip off for the nation’s top law enforcement agency that there would be nothing there.  – source here

But it turns out the FBI had already hacked the i-Phone anyway. The debate has opened up a can of worms on the sacrosanct of privacy. Here is a timeline of the full events;

The problem with CCTV footage from cities and towns used by the authorities is that it is painfully slow to analyze and takes lots of manpower and time to deal with criminals and terrorists. That may all be about to change though with a technology breakthrough in one of the most “watched” nations in the world, England. They may be known for their reservedness and stiff upper lip, but Brits spend way more time on CCTV than anyone else in the world.

Trials of this new technology are due to start it the next few months. It will allow facial recognition software, common to consumer phones and cameras to scan and link to databases of known or just recently found criminals. The system will connect to cameras all around the world and create a vast linked up network that can track people across continents. Here’s the full scoop:

The UK is one of the most surveilled nations in the world. An estimated 5.9 million CCTV cameras keep watch over our every move, but the volume of footage creates a problem: when the police or security services need to actually analyse it, things move very slowly. Despite the proliferation of CCTV, technology for handling the petabytes of data collected is still little more than human eyeballs and lots of patience.

That might be about to change. New technology could allow police and security services to quickly analyse CCTV footage to look for movement, faces and track suspects across the world. By linking ‘dumb’ CCTV cameras to a ‘smart’ online system, authorities will soon be able to find and track anyone. Trials of the technology with two UK police forces could begin in October.

In the aftermath of the London riots in August 2011 police scoured through more than 200,000 hours of CCTV to identify suspects. Around 5,000 offenders were found by trawling through the footage, after a process that took more than five months. Finding missing people is similarly arduous work — when teenager Alice Gross went missing in September last year 30 officers were tasked with combing through CCTV from 30 cameras, covering a six-mile radius. – Wired News

Pro’s & Con’s

Brave new world or what? We are already heading that way anyway. I wouldn’t start to worry unless you get a fine in the post, or more likely email because you spat gum on the pavement. The potential with this technology is staggering as is the debate over privacy and misappropriate use of the data. Whatever you think about it it definitely feels like the future is just about now.

And it isn’t in China or some communist block. It’s right across the so called western world. So what happens with countries that don’t play ball to American or British ideals? Does this leave countries surveillance systems prone to hacking attacks? And if so can hostile countries, criminals and terrorists use our systems to their advantage?

Breakthroughs in technology like this are always welcome but they always come at the expense of civil liberties and great responsibilities need to be addressed when something so powerful comes into fruition. How does something like this be legislated across countries and nations? With the debate arising from privacy invasions from drone cameras and the range of current CCTV cameras this one might yet open a huge can of worms.

Like someone once said a gun in the hands of a good man is no problem, but a gun in the hands of a bad man is. Yet how do we differentiate between good and bad and do we create a crime watching people for the “good” or the “bad”. Seems there will be a lot of watching us, watching them, watching us.

 
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Do you need permission to instal CCTV cameras in your home? Well that depends on the state and whether they invade your neighbors house or cause an intrusion on their privacy. George Clooney has just recently been granted permission to install  a whopping 18 CCTV cameras at his luxury hideaway mansion in England.

His new home must be absolutely massive to need that many cameras! Originally it was implied the cameras could invade on the privacy of his neighbors but the local council in Oxford has allowed him permission to mount cameras up on poles on the grounds of his 10 million GBP country house. The poles were originally planned to be 16 feet high (5m), but this was scrapped after complaints.

George has bought an exquisite listed building overlooking the River Thames to share with his new wife Amal. We suspect George won’t be using cheap surveillance cameras from the likes of Zmodo or Amcrest for the installation. More like a state of the art high end 4K system.

Here’s a bit more info on the incident.

George, 54, and wife Amal, 37, are set to move into the 17th-century Mill House later this year once renovations are complete.

The Grade II listed Aberlash House will be fitted with 10 cameras, and surrounded by eight wooden 18ft poles fitted with further security cameras.

Each camera will be housed in a protective vandal-resistant dome and could be tilted or panned to face in any direction, allowing Clooney and his barrister wife, Amal, to keep watch all around their property.

The scheme was met with heavy criticism from residents and the local parish council. Preparing to move in: George, 54, and wife Amal, 37, are set to move into the 17th-century Mill House later this year once renovations are complete

Eye and Dunsden Parish Council objected to the plans, claiming that the wide range of cameras would represent a ‘potential infringement of the privacy of neighbouring properties.’

It said the poles would be a ‘visual intrusion’ into the village’s conservation area, adding: ‘A more appropriate security system could be achieved by a greater number of inward-facing low-level cameras.’

The couple’s planning agent, Paul Butt, submitted an amended application on July 13 this year which planned to reduce the height of the two tallest CCTV support posts.

Planning bosses rubber-stamped the amended plans, saying they ‘would not be detrimental to the special architectural and historic interest of the listed building or its setting.’

Read more: Daily Mail 

 

George will be able to keep nosy tabloid reporters from invading his property, but we still suspect paparazzi’s will be hanging out of white vans with massive zoom lenses hoping to catch a glimpse of the star or spot some “trouble in paradise” to paste in the papers.

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