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Pre-recording bodycam exposes dishonest cops

By on August 3, 2017 in Civil rights, Law enforcement, Police state, Rule of law

It seems as though a Baltimore police officer forgot about one key feature of his bodycam: the fact that it saves the previous 30 seconds of video recorded before the camera is activated. Most bodycams record and dump constantly. The moment it’s activated, the 30 seconds preceding the activation become part of the recording.

What was apparently inadvertently captured by the camera was the officer planting drugs in a can and hiding them in an alley. All three officers then retreat to the sidewalk outside the alley before heading back in to “discover” the drug stash.

Techdirt: Body Cam Footage Of A Cop Planting Evidence Leads To Dozens Of Dismissed Cases »

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Meanwhile, in Norway…

By on July 27, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Law enforcement

On 5 April 2017, the Norwegian government proposed an amendment to the Norwegian code of criminal proceedings to allow the police to compel the use of biometric authentication. After two quick debates, the Norwegian Parliament passed the proposition into law on 21 June. (…)

The lack of specificity of an “electronic system” means this law has an extremely wide scope. We can, for example, envision that access to a personal device such as a mobile phone, which stores the access credentials to several cloud storage services, essentially gives away a more or less complete description of a person’s life. To entrust such decision to a single police officer with no due process means that an act with very far reaching consequences may be performed in a matter of seconds. (…)

There is also no reference to proportionality of the use of force. Although there is no reason to suspect this would be used in a disproportionate way, the lack of such a limitation means that we don’t know how far the use force might be taken.

EDRi: Norway introduces forced biometric authentication »

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Meanwhile, in Australia…

By on July 15, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy

“The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia”, said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today. He has been rightly mocked for this nonsense claim, that foreshadows moves to require online messaging providers to provide law enforcement with back door access to encrypted messages.

EFF: Australian PM Calls for End-to-End Encryption Ban, Says the Laws of Mathematics Don’t Apply Down Under »

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The police will always know who you are

By on July 10, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil liberties, Civil rights, Democracy, Law enforcement, Privacy

Police already have access to visors with built-in face recognition and fugitive spotting. The technology was in prototype stage a few years ago, and was successfully tested when police officers walked into dark cinemas full of people and got so-called People of Interest highlighted directly onto their field of vision. The future is approaching fast, and it’s not all shiny happy rainbow unicorns.

Falkvinge: There are already police visors with built-in face recognition and fugitive spotting »

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One wiretap order – 3.29 million calls intercepted

By on July 2, 2017 in Big Brother, Data Retention, Law enforcement, Police state, Privacy, surveillance, US

US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation.

The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was applied for in late 2015.

ZDnet: With a single wiretap order, US authorities listened in on 3.3 million phone calls »

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»All your data are belong to US«

By on June 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Data, Data Protection, Internet, Law enforcement, Rule of law, US

The Justice Department on Friday petitioned the US Supreme Court to step into an international legal thicket, one that asks whether US search warrants extend to data stored on foreign servers. The US government says it has the legal right, with a valid court warrant, to reach into the world’s servers with the assistance of the tech sector, no matter where the data is stored.

Ars Technica: Does US have right to data on overseas servers? We’re about to find out »

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The German »Staatstrojaner« mission creep

By on June 22, 2017 in Big Brother, Germany, IT security, Law enforcement, Police state, Privacy, surveillance

A new law allowing the German police to hack into mobile phones for even minor crimes, is expected to be passed by the German parliament this week [update: the law has now been passed]. Currently, the use of a “Staatstrojaner” – government trojan – is only permitted in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. Under the new law, the authorities will be allowed to implant surveillance malware to help secure convictions for over 70 types of crime. These include serious ones such as genocide, treason and murder, but also less serious crimes such as money counterfeiting, vehicle theft, computer fraud, rigged sports betting and tax evasion. Two kinds of trojans will be available. The first allows the authorities to eavesdrop on calls made with the mobile phone, whether using standard telephony or VoIP, while the second gives access to all information held on the device.

Glyn Moody on PNI: Police use of trojans to hack into mobile phones will become routine under new German law »

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EU is undermining the rule of law: e-evidence

By on June 16, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, EU, Human rights, Internet, Law enforcement, Police state, Privacy, Rule of law, social media

In a similar way that the police cannot enter your home without a court warrant, they are not supposed to look into your private communications without permission, right? Not really.

The EU is working towards easing the access to e-evidence for law enforcement authorities. The plan of the European Commission is to propose new rules on sharing evidence and the possibility for the authorities to request e-evidence directly from technology companies. One of the proposed options is that police would be able to access data directly from the cloud-based services.

EDRi » Access to e-evidence: Inevitable sacrifice of our right to privacy? »

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