Fergie's Tech Blog

Ex-British Spy Advocates Greater Access to Personal Data

A Reuters newswire article, via eWeek, reports that:

Security at the G20 summit next week will rest in part on Britain's pervasive closed circuit cameras, but in the future pre-emptive surveillance could extend to the entire country's personal data.

That is the vision outlined by former security chief David Omand in a study of intelligence methods seen by privacy campaigners as a plan for a vast breach of human rights.

"Finding out other people's secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules," he said in the paper for the Institute of Public Policy Research, an influential think tank.

"Application of modern data mining and processing techniques does involve examination of the innocent as well as the suspect to identify patterns of interest for further investigation."

In an interview, Omand said: "If you have the advantage of pre-emptive intelligence, then you are able to use the rapier, not the bludgeon, of state power."

posted by Fergie @ 3/25/2009 05:34:00 PM