Data Protection Day
The "European Data Protection Day" came and went yesterday without so much as a whisper or a whimper here in Ireland. It was only last Saturday that Karlin Lillington’s (you may remember Damien’s encounter with her a few months ago), article appeared on the front page of the Irish Times declaring the governments rush to bring surveillance plans into action within a months time. Very little noise since, and seeing as the Dail will only be recovening in a few days after a long layabout, this eavesdropping strategy proposed by our illustrious minders will hardly be a priority topic in the near future.
This prying into personal data is really catching on, and as some would say inevitable. Recently US President George W. Bush has ordered the NSA to snoop on domestic agencies, up until now that was against the NSA’s remit and unlawful. Robert Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwe, and his dabblings in data watching were noted in this previous post on Freedom and Security. The UK Telegraph reports on 1,000 phone calls a day being monitored, with plenty of "legitimate" reasons being offered by the politicians. In the article James Kirkup writes, "Britain is in danger of becoming a ’surveillance state’", oops wrong! There is no danger at all, Britain is an "endemic surveillance society" according to Privacy International, as are China, Russia, and the United States. We will soon be joining them.
Where does Ireland stand in Privacy International’s eyes? According to their site we have "systemic failure to uphold safeguards" and "leadership" is the worst stumbling block. Imagine that!
- Politics, Culture, Caoimhin, Irish Culture, Irish Politics, misc, All posts, Web/Tech, Media and Journalism, freedom, World | Time: 2:51 pm (UTC+8)
Very good point. I actually wrote an article about this. It is available here:
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Frankly I am very surprised this has recieved so little attention as it will affect approx 3.3 million people..
Comment by Paul Walsh — January 30, 2008 @ 12:10 am
Thanks for the links Paul!
Comment by Administrator — January 30, 2008 @ 10:48 am
Sometimes when I think about this it scares me… and then I feel a little foolish for messing about with things like facebook.
My privacy is important to me and yet I share information with who knows who?.
Let me know if you come with any information on our governments stance…Great post btw.
Comment by Isitjustme? — February 1, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
Thanks Is It! I will let you know!
Comment by Administrator — February 1, 2008 @ 7:24 pm