Leave Them Kids Alone
Does anyone else find it spooky that they are fingerprinting innocent kids in British schools? Even more spooky is the fact that it is VeriCool which runs the fingerprint registration systems in 22 UK schools. Part of Anteon, a division of the massive defence contractor General Dynamics, Anteon also has the contract to run courses on interrogation and counter-intelligence at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, headquarters of the US Army Intelligence Center where they train interrogators for Guantanamo Bay. Nice.See www.leavethemkidsalone.com.
59 comments:
Brilliant. And looking at the beeb's story on it, a director from the company behind it gives the classic quote:
"People who have nothing to hide - why would they worry?"
Jonty Brilliant !!
"People who have nothing to hide - why would they worry?"
Ain't that what the Rozzers said when Levy said "No Comment" then "No comment" then "No comment" ... you get the picture
:-)
Get used to it. This is all part of the EU experience. Soon all babies will be micro chipped. People will scoff but I assure you this will come, sooner than you care to think.
They will not need ID cards then will they everyone will be on a database and they will be able to pin point you at any time!
The EU is the worst kind of totalitarism one can think of and we are sleep walking into captivity!
I know people will scoff. They are the traitors to our country.
The Nazi's have won!
National Socialism has won. God help us all.
Hmmm, would be politically incorrect to suggest that any teacher trying this on with my offspring would have something to hide. Themselves from the enraged hells angel who would like to discuss the finer points of civil liberties and the rights of the individual.
"Anonymous said...
The Nazi's have won!"
I wouldn't trust the opinion of anyone who can't use apostrophes, thin edge of the wedge or not.
ninnymous said...
Hmmm, would be politically incorrect to suggest that any teacher trying this on with my offspring would have something to hide. Themselves from the enraged hells angel who would like to discuss the finer points of civil liberties and the rights of the individual.
Something is going right in education then. We have a hell's angel who is able to discuss finer points and rights of the individual. That's comforting.
I've just read the LTKA website. It's horrifying.
And a reminder that I need to renew my passport which, according to the 'Passport Service' may or may not be biometric - 'We cannot give customers the choice between a digital or biometric passport for logistical reasons'. That's one way of putting it, I wonder how many people would say no if they were given the choice?
But as a nice touch, they've added a bird theme to these invasions of our privacy 'to symbolise freedom to travel'. That's very kind of them.
Kids? A bunch of light-fingered layabouts! If they're not stealing things, they're on drugs doing ram-raids while playing loud music full of swear words.
And as for finger-printing...these juvenile good-for-nothings should be tagged and curfewed.
It wasn't like this in my day...whatever happened to respect for your elders...British sense of fair-play...etc etc
Well it looks like a half-million oblivious adults have just signed up to be DNA'd. Really, you don't have to conquer anymore; all you have to do is ask.
Here's the link. And here's the headline Fark gave it:
Half a million British will be providing DNA samples for a "medical experiment." Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, et al., simultaneously key in G Major, "Hmmmmmmmmmm ...."
Apparently, in some areas of the US parents have been requesting fingerprinting, as a deterrent to a future life of crime. If that worked, of course, every criminal would only commit one crime.
Have you also heard about the plan to put a microchip into every US serviceperson? Expect that to be a NATO-membership or coalition requirement by this time next year, if it even takes that long. And of course, it'll be illegal to remove them.
Is there an intelligent argument against fingerprinting, DNA sampling, biometric profiling, chip emplanting, etc. of the whole population?
This is tantamount to child abuse by this New Labour government.
And in answer to "billy said...", yes, there is. Individuals are responsible for their own lives. They are not the property of the State.
Lord Cranmer posted this t'other day.
Sorry to say this Guido, but you're about six weeks late on this story.
I posted this (http://remittanceman.blogspot.com/2006/07/theyre-actually-not-your-children-you.html) it on 9th July.
And I was tipped off by The Englishman (www.anenglishmanscastle.com).
I hope your new found fame isn't leading you into MSM or even NuLabour ways, recycling old stories ;o)
RM
billy said...
Is there an intelligent argument against fingerprinting, DNA sampling, biometric profiling, chip emplanting, etc. of the whole population?
9:20 PM
None - same with body cavity searches at the school gate.
RM: Love your blog, but quit the competitve blogging BS. The wider the audience the better for this.
se,
Hey, I saw the chance for a little light hearted joshing of my betters (or biggers) and some blatant self promotion.
So call me shameless.
RM
This must be the first time Mr Fawkes has lagged Cranmer by, err, three weeks?!
His Grace even included the plans for microchips.
Thank you Mr Fuller for informing Mr Fawkes of the link. He must be very short of gossip and conspiracy (Cranmer has a fermenting story he may be interested in, and it involves the Jesuits)...
guido - I don't consider myself right wing BUT am totally in favour of taking a DNA sample from EVERY new born baby
AND ALSO ALL foreigners wishing to reside in my country.
Fingerprint kids, outlaw obesity, stop treating bowel cancer - it must be August !
I may be wrong - but most people in this country seem to respond to being asked to do something - not being told ?
George Orwell was right he just got the year wrong!We're now living in a police state just noone will admit it!
This is just another extension of the right-to-privacy issue. The point at which an individual begins to be catalogued, processed, tagged or otherwise monitored is hardly germane. Not only is so much information already in the public domain, it seems now beyond the scope of the data protection act. I am kind of resigned to the fact that Tescos knows more about my eating habits than I do and that during the last week of August 2005 I ate rather too many bananas. Not only that, someone has decided that I like bananas and keeps sending me money off vouchers. They know that I like Aloe Vera lavatory paper and that I have hay fever. Just who has my finger prints has somehow ceased to worry me.
Lastly, cataloguing children from birth has been around for eons and largely works in their favour. It is anonymity we should worry about; those non-people whose fate cannot be tracked or protected.
Soon every bag of Monster Munch will carry an RFID, so I wouldn't worry your sweet little head about fingers.
If Guido really wants to get the one of the roots of New Labour he should find out how many Large Computer Consultancies offer one of the own consultants (i.e. salesmen) for FREE to each and every Ministry to "help" (i.e. fleece) them with computer issues. I would guess a figure of about £100+ billion to date has been committed by the New Labour boys on failed projects.
You know, if you add George Herbert Walker Bush's presidential number (41) to his son's (43), you get a very Orwellian number indeed.
84, for those of you who are so desensitized you can't do the math. Props to Vanity Fair, for pointing it out to me, dense as I am.
Everyone gets overworried about all these things. In order for there to be a police state of surveillance you need poeple to do the data crunching and observing. Even in communist russia at the height its power they couldn't afford to employ enough people to do the 'lissnin and recordin' required. however much impingement there may appear to be governments - even with the help of polish immigrants - won't be able to keep track. Chill out
Frankly, I'd say that is complacency, and I'm not even British.
They don't need total understanding, they just need trends.
This letter to the Telegraph reveals the midset behind such fingerprinting
Sir - Am I the only Briton to be embarrassed by the rampant xenophobia currently gripping the nation?
Problems stem from the indigenous unemployable and uneducated who infest our cities. The sooner we are rid of these blights on society, the better. The problem is: where can we send them?
Simon Smith, Cardiff
Obviously an amnesiac wartime comrade of Guenther Grass
Anon 3:03,
It's not that "they" will be tracking our every movement in real time that's scary; it's the fact that the data will be kept on record.
Let's imagine that you upset one of the nomenklatura at some point in the future. With all those records available, not only will said fat cat be able to set the watchers on you to check on any misdeeds you may commit from then onwards; he will be able to scrutinise your every past deed looking for something to nail you as well. The data will be at his fingertips.
Just think back over the past month. Have you been somewhere perhaps you would rather freinds, family or colleagues wouldn't know about? Done something you would rather not have broadcast to the world at large? And if you haven't, is there anything that could be spun to make it look as though you have?
And that's assuming the government get the system to work properly. What if they don't and you get exposed for someone else's foibles?With this government's record on IT projects, that old saw, "the innocent have nothing to fear", is not only philosophically rubbish, it's factually incorrect as well. The innocent probably have more to fear than the guilty.
RM
This is the inevitable consequence of the UK becoming just another state of the USA. Well done for that Tony Blair. Where would Britain be without you? Glad I don't live there anymore...
So called 'Biometric Passports' are really nothing of the sort (spin).
This is from the ukps site
What information is stored on the chip?
The chip stores the passport holder’s photo and the personal details printed on page 31 of the passport.
No biometric template then - although one could be generated from the digitised image. There are no standards for biometric templates you see.
Under the Data Protection Act you have the Right to Know if somebody is holding personal information about you, what they are doing with it, and have it removed. Even if it's the Government.
Leavethemkidsalone says "Data held on these systems is not protected by the Data Protection Act" - well actually it is. The Government has broad agreements with the Information Commissioner - such as the Caldicott Agreement. Because the Data Protection Act is criminal law this does not mean the Government does not have to follow it. Leavethemkidsalone seems to have been the victim is simple bullshit from the DoH. The DoH are very good at this kind of criminal activity - for example kids can sit restricted exams to get into some secondary schools - the DoH would have you believe that they can't disclose where a child came in the distribution of results - which is of course illegal because the distribution of results is not personal information and is easily available.
Fingerprints are personal information - QED.
There are 2/3 things leavethemkidsalone should do.
1) Find out who to write to and write to them about their own kid asking what information is held and for what purposes - and LATER demand his kid is removed.
I note that VeriCool and Anteon are not registered - if they are the name of the real companies they are therefore breaking the (criminal) law - and should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony down the nick.
http://www.esd.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/esd/Search.asp?EC=1
If they 'just supply' the software then you will need to find out who is registered to hold this data. Write to the DoH to find out.
Holding paper copies of personal information also needs to be disclosed.
Your deep mission here (should you choose to accept it) is to find either the public registration (on the IOC website) or the Govenment registration (under the Caldicott agreement - or which ever agreement the Government has with the IOC). Some piece of paper should exist.
This registration should say what data is held, why it is held and what is can be used for. If the data is not complete that's another visit to the nick - even if you work at the DoH.
The DoH are legally obliged to answer your question within 40 days about Data Protection - remember this is NOT Freedom Of Information. If you do not get the data complain.
2a) If you find this out - create a simple means for parents to find out if their kids have been registered, and include any information you find from the DoH.
3) If you get no joy report the Government to the Information Commissioner's Office under the PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURE ACT 1998. They are very nice people who work there are don't get too many serious complaints for them to sink their teeth into.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=32
I can assure you the DoH lawyers will sh*t themselves and advise the civil servants to disclose the information.
Bottom line - if your not getting any joy report the person you wrote to.
Look no further thann 'Sure Start' (social engineering for pre school children and their parents) and COMMON PURPOSE.
Just follow 'Common Purpose' to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office and to the EU if you do not believe me.
This country is in motral danger and nobody cares!
If you don't like your new "biometric" passport, I suggest microwaving it for a few seconds.
Presumably when they can't read the chip then they'll just have to revert to using their eyes...
To all of you arguing about who reported this first, the story has been around for years.
The BBC reported the plan four years ago.
If parental consent is not given, then surely a case of aggravated assault on a minor? Not that I'm egging anybody on to do that, launch a private prosecution, have it discontinued by the DPP and then haul *his* arse into the High Court to explain himself before that mad judge who's always overturning house arrest orders and whose name begins with a C (I think) but can't remember off the top of my head....
And remittance man, it's not a question of having embarassing data out there which may disclose bad behaviour, rather more simple. The State have NO FUCKING RIGHT TO KNOW AT ALL what I get up to, where, and with whom. I am not a criminal, nor a terrorist, nor State property, which negates any posible right they may claim to know about my goings-on.
Doesn't VeriCool sound nice and friendly...
What names will they come up with next?
SurveillaFab
InterroHappy
GuantaneFun
SleepdepriGrrrreat!
If doublespeak firms like this already exists, buy stocks now, it can't be long before they have a lucrative and intrusive role in our lives (at we, the taxpayers expense, naturally)
Raincoaster said "You know, if you add George Herbert Walker Bush's presidential number (41) to his son's (43), you get a very Orwellian number indeed."
True, but by that logic if you take Mr Clinton's number (42) then he's apparently the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything.
javelin
Like it BUT if the bastards didn't have the info in the first place there wouldn't be any need for this whole rigmarole. And anyway, suppose the government department lies (it has happened you know) what are you supposed to do then?
Who says they're innocent? The little twats tied a banger to my cats tail last year. And they weren't even old enough to buy bangers.
Mikey,
I couldn't agree with you more, but sadly there appear to be a great many of the public who do not grasp this, hence the example given as to why they have no right to this info.
This assumes the kid's not playing truant when the fingerprint man turns up.
And then he wears gloves.
Result!
"True, but by that logic if you take Mr Clinton's number (42) then he's apparently the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything."
Clinton's former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is 69. What are we to make of that?
The UK Daily Pundit said...
Who says they're innocent? The little twats tied a banger to my cats tail last year. And they weren't even old enough to buy bangers.11:15 AM
Until I read that I was totally against all this finger-printing,micro-chipping e.t.c.There`s at least one cat with a singed tail who`d have been spared a lot of pain if a previous government had the same foresight as this one.
The vast majority of people in the UK live in one place, are working/looking after their kids/retired, pay their taxes and insure and register their cars. The state does not need to collect biometric or any other kind of data on these people. If you need to find them, you can. The resources provided by these folks taxes should be spent keeping tabs on the people that cause society harm. i.e. terrorists and criminals.
"True, but by that logic if you take Mr Clinton's number (42) then he's apparently the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything."
And if you take Tony Blair's show size, add in Cherie Blair's swimsuit size (20?)and divide the combined result by a multiplication of the number of times Euan Blair has been stopped for drunk driving with the current age of John Prescott's newest secretary you end up with yet another complete load of meaningless twaddle.
Personally I think fingerprinting children isn't enough. Every child should be subdermally barcode branded on the arm, along with their MMR vaccine and their Ruth Kelly jab (stops them talking BS on Radio 4 at a moment's notice). Maybe we could also invest another £12 billion in a scheme to see if children and adults can have a magnetic stripe biologically grafted on their forheads - that way Capita could save on the cost of the Oyster Card as well.
Cranmer said: "This must be the first time Mr Fawkes has lagged Cranmer by, err, three weeks?!"
So is Guido a plumber as well?
Juvenal & Julian,
I like this numbers game, but then again I'm easily amused.
I'm 37. 3+7=10, so that means I get to screw Bo Derek, which I suspect is not the prize it might have been 20 years ago.
Guido, you enquired about my teaching pole dancing. The next lessons for boys will be held in September, you will need to wear shorts.
Actually, the specific story about the links between the US firm Anteon and finger-printing in British schools was first broken quite a few weeks ago by The Times Educational Supplement.
(It also listed a series of other military companies working in schools in the UK, including the creators of the Patriot missile...)
Now I notice it, even the picture Guido has chosen was the same as one that was in The TES. Weird.
Still, it's an important story and it's good that Guido's giving it publicity.
Is there a discount on bulk buys of brown shirts at M&S?
Jez askin!
"So is Guido a plumber as well?"
guido is a terrorist, however he is not a BBC euphamism for islamist terrorist.
Rachel said...Guido, you enquired about my teaching pole dancing. 2:21 PM
Rachel,while I welcome the East European migrants to this country I think that in the interests of integration they should be encouraged to learn English dancing.
The new department for eugenics?
Ahem.
Guido you are slow....
The 'caravan people' have been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. Just follow the links:
http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2442
http://www.letsgovernourselves.com/liberty.htm
Did they measure their heads?
"...You, my youth, are our nation's most precious guarantee for a great future, and you are destined to be the leaders of a glorious new order under the supremacy of National Socialism. Never forget that one day you will rule the world…"
- Adolf Hitler, 1938.
Is "Project Paperclip" already here?
It was reported recently (can't remember where) that data protection legislation will be changed to allow the sharing of information between government departments, as the result of a recommendation made by a committee chaired by that well-known friend of democracy Hilary Armstrong.
The proposed increased sharing of data was reported in the FT on September 13th 2006. This will be done where it is "in the public interest".
It's interesting to note that the Identity Cards bill widened the definition of "public interest" to include just about anything that the government finds convenient.
Why are we giving these bleeding heart liberals a platform?
"... civil liberties... blah, blah... civil liberties... blah, blah... totalitarianism... blah, blah, blah..."
Get real people. How do biometrics intrude on our privacy? If the police have my fingerprints or even dna profile, how is that going to affect me?
Quite apart from the fact that I have a right to my privacy, and to decide who keeps my fingerprints and DNA, the more data the police hold, the greater the chances of errors. For example, Shirley McKie, a former Scottish police officer was falsely accused by experts from the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) of leaving her thumb print on the bathroom door frame of a murder crime-scene.
And Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney, was held for two weeks in connection with the Madrid bombings, again on faulty fingerprint evidence. If the police don't hold the fingerprints of innocent people who have never committed a crime, this kind of thing could never happen.
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