[LINK] Surveillance Society

[Roger Clarke]

>>  From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au
>>  Chris Gilbey Sent: Sunday, 1 March 2009 7:01 AM
>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5812076.ece
>
At 10:06 +1100 1/3/09, Tom Koltai wrote:
>And according to Fridays edition of that bastion of reporting - the MX
>newspaper, in Australia, Police have announced that they are
>implementing fingerprint scans on persons committing what could be
>classified as misdemeanours e.g.: swearing and comparing them within 90
>seconds to a national database of criminals to prevent young people from
>providing false information to police when questioned.
>I don’t actually remember this legislation passing anywhere.....
>And if they're not already in the database - how does this prevent them
>from giving false information?

Here's my posting to the privacy list yesterday (spurred by a call 
from the Oz that doesn't seem to have resulted in an article.  Was I 
insufficiently firm in my statements??):

All that's appeared so far is gormless reproductions of the Media 
Release - 32 of them according to Google News, incl.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25113866-15306,00.html


Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:56:24 +1100

NSW Police Media Release
Police get portable access to four million fingerprints
Friday, 27 Feb 2009 10:17am
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/latest_releases?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3LmViaXoucG9saWNlLm5zdy5nb3YuYXUlMkZtZWRpYSUyRjUyOTQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D

Apparently the Minister issued a Media Release, but if so it hasn't 
made it onto his web-site:
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/about_us/minister_for_police

Not much media yet, and what there is is almost entirely reproduction 
of the one (or two) media releases.

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/278288/finger_print_scanners_latest_weapon_nsw_police
"Sagem Australasia was awarded the contract to supply the devices in 
October 2007."

[So the process has been in train for a lo-o-o-ong time.


[This is a very serious matter, which requires careful consideration 
to get the balances right

[The process aspects appears to have been dreadful - we're not aware 
of any public consultation, despite pilots apparently having been 
conducted and now the devices actually deployed!?

[Concerns include (off the top of the head):
-   under what circumstances can they be used?
-   what do the devices give access to?
     (e.g. 'criminal record' means a dozen different things)
     (e.g. some data should not be available to policemen on the beat)
-   what is done with the data afterwards?
     (if prints are kept, what's the justification for doig so, and
      what's the authority for doing so
     (if the charge is withdrawn, or a person is acquitted, what ensures
      that the prints are deleted from the database
-   what training and instructions are provided to policemen?
-   what serious disciplinary and criminal charges are policemen
     subject to in the event of misuse and abuse?


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW