(They wish). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2761-2426874,00.html British the most spied-on people in western world Lois Rogers BRITISH people are now more spied upon by their political leaders than any other population in the free world, according to an official report. The linkage of databases and surveillance systems mean people are now having their movements tracked, habits profiled and photograph taken hundreds of times a day. The findings, in a report compiled on behalf of Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, raised concerns that Britain is b waking up in a surveillance societyb . * Thomas said: b Many of these schemes are public sector driven, and the individual has no choice over whether or not to take part. People are being scrutinised and having their lives tracked, and are not even aware of it. b They donbt know, for instance, that a record is kept of every internet site they visit. They donbt realise that when identity cards come in, there will be a record of their movements and every time they have engaged with any public service.b He also revealed that his office is investigating allegations of lax security at the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The banks may face unlimited fines over claims that they dumped sensitive details of customersb accounts on the streets. The report, compiled by surveillance experts and academics, points out that a typical Briton will be caught on camera up to 300 times a day. Britain now has 4.2m public CCTV cameras, or one for every 14 people, more than any other country. Other examples of surveillance highlighted by the report include the growing use of automatic number plate recognition to track peoplebs journeys and the long-term retention of logs detailing the websites people visit at home. b Itbs not just unwarranted intrusions into privacy, itbs also the dangers of inaccurate information, of mistakes being made, of information being held for too long,b Thomas said. He cited an example of a schoolgirl whose playground banter resulted in her father being refused work because he had been classed as a suspected paedophile. b The little girl was overheard saying, bMy dad bonked me last nightb. A dinner lady heard this and reported it to the school authorities,b Thomas said. Social services discovered that the girl was referring to her father tapping her playfully on the head with an inflatable hammer. The file was closed, but five years later the father discovered he was still a suspected sex offender. -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]