Surfing for terrorism


The US government has started a project to develop ways to spot terrorists using virtual worlds. Codenamed Reynard (foxy, eh?) it aims to identify ‘normal’ behaviour in online worlds and from there target ‘anomalous’ activity. Hmm. Is it normal for anybody to spend all of their time online building fake identities in fake environments? And the same old question underlines this latest bonkers initiative: what exactly is normal?

Permanent link to this post.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

tags: , , , ,

The watchers find out they’re being watched


The current furore over an MP having been bugged is paradoxically both deliciously ironic and tellingly dangerous at the same time. While we, the citizens, are overwhelmingly angered that the guarantee of confidentiality between members of Parliament and their constituents, which has been a given since the Harold Wilson era, has been rescinded—in one especially foul swoop further eroding our trust of elected officials or, indeed, any officials at all by a huge degree—it is also true to say that the reason this has happened is because the government made it happen. Labour in power since 1997 has worked hard to erode the civil liberties of not just terrorists (and, whether we like it or not, a suspected terrorist should have the same rights to a fair trial as anyone else) but everyone and anyone who they decide isn’t worthy of complete freedom. And that has appeared for some time to be all of us.

Read the full article.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

tags: , , , , , ,
  • Page 2 of 2
  • <
  • 1
  • 2