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The Home Office Helped Phorm To Spy On You

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Emails secured through an Freedom of Information Act request show exchanges between the British Home Office and Phorm, a highly controversial advertising company that secretly worked with British Telecom to illegally spy on users connecting to its Internet service.

Subsequently the EU has initiated legal action against Phorm for violating European privacy and consumer-protection laws.

The emails, which date back to August 2007, show that Phorm influenced the way authorities decided policy guidelines and that the company repeatedly asked the Home Office if it “has no objection to the marketing and operation of the Phorm product in the UK”.

A UK Home Office official also offered advice on how to skirt British law.

“My personal view accords with yours, that even if it is ‘interception,’ which I am doubtful of, it is lawfully authorized under section 3 by virtue of the user’s consent obtained in signing up to the ISPs terms and conditions,” an unnamed Home Office official said in an e-mail dated August 2007, talking to Phorm’s legal representative.

The Home Office wrote to Phorm again, asking: “I should be grateful if you would review the attached document, and let me know what you think.”

Another email from the Home Office stated: “If we agree this, and this becomes our position do you think your clients and their prospective partners will be comforted.”

Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Home Affairs, Baroness Sue Miller, said: “My jaw dropped when I saw the Freedom of Information exchanges. The fact the Home Office asks the very company they are worried is actually falling outside the laws whether the draft interpretation of the law is correct is completely bizarre.”

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More Than 5 Million Stored On DNA Database

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

RINF News

The UK national DNA database is expanding at an alarming rate and is already five times larger than DNA databases in other European countries.

Many of the profiles contained on the database are of innocents who were later cleared of any crime but their details remained on the database.

The figures were revealed in parliament in response to a question asked by Lord Hanningfield in his role as a Conservative peer at Westminster.

Lord Hanningfield said: “I was a bit surprised at the numbers. As someone who believes in personal freedom, I am a bit worried about this creeping state control.”

In Suffolk alone 52,275 profiles have been added to the database and 140,103 in Essex have also been added.

A spokeswoman for human rights group Liberty said: “Our DNA database is at least five times larger than those of European countries, yet our crime rates are remarkably the same.

“A smaller, more targeted database of serious sexual and violent offenders would cost less to our purses and our privacy.”

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Could The Government Drop ID Cards?

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

RINF News

A senior Cabinet minister has sparked a flurry of speculation that the national ID card scheme will be axed to ease public spending and reduce Britain’s debts.

The controversial ID card scheme will cost the taxpayer more than £5bn, however cancelling the ID card national rollout, due in 2011, will cost £40m.

The minister, according to The Independent newspaper, is reported to have said: “My sense is that ID cards will not go ahead. We have to find savings somewhere, and it would be better to shelve schemes like this that aren’t popular.”

The Government has just signed contracts of £750m to set up a biometric database and upgrade passport applications, ID cards would be used in conjunction with the database.

Former cabinet minister, Stephen Byers, is the first senior Labour figure to admit that ID cards may have to be axed

He also suggested the £25bn replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system also be axed.

Speaking about Trident, the unnamed senior Cabinet minister source said: “There is a case for shelving Trident Two, but the number of jobs that go with it is just too great. I just can’t see us cancelling a Trident replacement now.”

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Sri Lankan military ’still killing civilians’

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

The Tamil Tigers have accused the Sri Lankan military of continuing to bomb civilians after Colombo ordered an end to air strikes in the country’s northern war zone.

Under intense international pressure to prevent further civilian deaths, the Sri Lankan government declared that it would immediately stop air strikes and artillery attacks in its war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Presidential Secretariat said: “Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties.”

But the LTTE-aligned Tamilnet website on Monday immediately accused the government of violating its own order and “deceiving the international community.

“Two Sri Lanka air force fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu’l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks,” Tamilnet alleged, citing Tamil Peace Secretariat director Seevaratnam Puleedevan.

Meanwhile, top UN humanitarian official John Holmes met Sri Lanka’s foreign minister to express concern for the estimated 50,000 trapped civilians amid reports of growing cases of starvation and casualties among the population.

Mr Holmes later visited a village south of the war zone to inspect displacement camps overwhelmed by the massive influx of war refugees in recent days.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband heads off to Sri Lanka with his French and Swedish counterparts tomorrow to attempt to mediate the conflict and address the dangers faced by civilians.

They are unlikely to get a warm welcome in Colombo, which has rejected previous British mediation offers, saying that it will only talk peace once the LTTE rebels have been crushed.

A recent government offensive forced the LTTE out of their strongholds in the north and cornered them in a narrow coastal strip less than four miles long.

Expressing concern for the civilians, the rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday.

They asked the international community to press the government to halt its offensive as well, saying that the unfolding “humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by the declaration of an immediate ceasefire.”

The government, which accuses the LTTE of holding the civilians as human shields, derided the appeal as a “joke” and accused the rebels of playing for time.

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SEO Internet Marketing Skyrockets

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

A quick snapshot of a search for ‘SEO’ in Google Trends demonstrates how more and more people are searching for a new way to market their Internet business.

Search Engine Optimization provides a simple solution for website owners to gain traffic, which eventually leads to sales.

Google Trends has shown that demand for SEO has tripled in recent years, including the topic being a frequent search in Google News, again with a steady climb in searches.

With Internet Search Engine Optimization companies reporting a massive 10 fold increase in demand for their SEO services, has this little known technique reached the mainstream? No.

Comparison searches in Google Trends for celebrity names, TV shows and pop artists still produce much larger search volumes, as expected.

However SEO is catching up and looks set to remain that way for a long time to come.

This alone is evidence that Search Engine Optimization techniques work.

If you would like to SEO your own website, RINF News is offering the SEO video masterclass containing over 30 videos from novice to expert, explaining how we became a Google authority and receiving top rankings for a multitude of search terms.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Contributions & Guests . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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