CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones: Via UK news | The Guardian.

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. [ Read more ... ]

CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones: Via UK news | The Guardian.

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. [ Read more ... ]

Is Google's Nexus One phone any good? : Via |Technology |The Guardian(UK).

Above all, though, you are stepping through a portal into Google's world. On first use, the phone prompts you to log into your Google account – within seconds it has synchronised your email, web searches, contacts book and any other information you happen to keep with the company. Convenient for you, but also – thanks to the constant stream of data being fed back to California – handy for Google. You're now a satellite-tracked, walking, talking, web-surfing recruit into Google's informationalised army. [ Read more ... ]

Police to continue to hold DNA of innocent people: Via Politics | The Guardian .

Profiles to be kept for six years under revised bill

Terror suspects' details could be held indefinitely

Chief constables are to carry on refusing requests to delete the DNA profiles of arrested people released without charge, while a fresh political battle is waged over how long the details should remain on the database.

Home Office ministers confirmed they want to see the DNA profiles of innocent people kept on the national database for six years, after failing to persuade parliament to back a longer period of up to 12 years for the most serious offences.

But senior Labour backbenchers, alongside Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, made clear tonight that they did not believe the government climbdown on DNA went far enough. [ Read more ... ]

Guardian (UK): Police to continue to hold DNA of innocent people: Via Privacy Lives.

The Guardian reports that the UK Home Office “ministers confirmed they want to see the DNA profiles of innocent people kept on the national database for six years, after failing to persuade parliament to back a longer period of up to 12 years for the most serious offences.” Also, the ministers said “in the case of those arrested under terrorism legislation or national security provisions,” those individuals’ “DNA profiles will in future be kept indefinitely.” [ Read more ... ]

Story of a Credit Card Fraudster: "A two-part story from The Guardian: an excerpt from Other People's Money: The Rise And Fall Of Britain's Most Audacious Credit Card Fraudster.

(Via Schneier on Security.)