Comments on Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Hello Home Office Blog Watchers

"Each Civil Service Department has its own IT sect...

2006-12-01T15:22:00.000Z

"Each Civil Service Department has its own IT section devoted to running filtering software that prevents its employees from looking naughty sites"
Do us a favour. Even I know how to do an end run round that sort of software.

It's not that easy if big brother has set it up correctly. Besides they can always allow access but keep the server logs and use it against you at an opportune moment.

The safest way if you're paranoid is to use a secure anonymising proxy, encrypted tunnel or something like tor - assuming the firewall lets you through.

Oh and don't forget to turn off browser cacheing - if you're using Windows you're probably screwed anyway unless you have a very good 'cleaner'.

I do wonder how John Reid is squaring the circle w...

2006-11-30T17:16:00.000Z

I do wonder how John Reid is squaring the circle with his frozen Home Office budget. Seems that catching criminals is the corner he has decided to cut.

Don't worry, they are all lithuanians getting 50p ...

2006-11-30T17:03:00.000Z

Don't worry, they are all lithuanians getting 50p an hour!

Anon, Its the same in industry....and from memory,...

2006-11-30T16:29:00.000Z

Anon,

Its the same in industry....and from memory, more gorvenment employees seem to get sacked than private workers...
Just bumped into Peter Walker...wow he looks doddery...

Anonymous 1:27 PM said... Uncivil sevantWhen I mad...

2006-11-30T16:13:00.000Z

Anonymous 1:27 PM said...
Uncivil sevant
When I made my 1051 post it was in all honesty meant to be humorous but your oh so rapid response has convinced me I'm on to something. ...
Do us a favour. Even I know how to do an end run round that sort of software.

Hmm, I don't think you understand the culture of the Civil Service very well (at least that which prevails here out in the 'Regions' - not working anywhere near the Big Smoke I couldn't speak for SW1).

In Reach for the Sky shortly before the accident in which he lost both legs, there was a marvellous little bit of dialogue between Douglas Bader (Kenneth Moore) and his CO in which the CO remarked "You know what I think of some rules - 'Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men' ".

Well in the Civil Service rules, once written, have to be obeyed, and Civil Servants, especially those at the bottom of the dung-heap, are the fools whose only hope of continued employment depends on them obeying the rules to the letter. And that includes "information professionals" - who, by the way, will almost certainly not be at all geeky. Any attempt to circumvent the filtering software would be a breach of the Departmental IT Security rules, and therefore of their terms of employment. At the very least you would be looking at a formal warning, which in the Civil Service is serious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOtckaZtLg Apt tho...

2006-11-30T13:51:00.000Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOtckaZtLg

Apt though old technology

Uncivil sevantWhen I made my 1051 post it was in a...

2006-11-30T13:27:00.001Z

Uncivil sevant
When I made my 1051 post it was in all honesty meant to be humorous but your oh so rapid response has convinced me I'm on to something.
"Each Civil Service Department has its own IT section devoted to running filtering software that prevents its employees from looking naughty sites"
Do us a favour. Even I know how to do an end run round that sort of software. (Although if that was true all Guido has to do to keep his blog from prying official eyes is include a minge montage with every post - should we vote on this?)
As for "would soon become obvious in an open-plan office...", well everybody else knows Home Office information professionals are a bunch of complete wankers so word must of gotten around SW1 by now.

Time for a new (Labour) Panto figure 'Big Brother'...

2006-11-30T13:27:00.000Z

Time for a new (Labour) Panto figure 'Big Brother'--He's behind you!

Librarians--not libertarians.Computers are the way...

2006-11-30T13:14:00.000Z

Librarians--not libertarians.Computers are the way to go and I know the left have their claws in the BBC.I'm going to end this 'Teflon Tony' syndrome for your lot.People will have an efficient way of keeping tabs on you.Now I've said it,I''d better go off and do it.

Frank @ 1.07. Sadly commercial organisations do h...

2006-11-30T13:13:00.000Z

Frank @ 1.07. Sadly commercial organisations do have access to the DVLA. That is how private companies take your number plate and send you a "fine" for illegaly parking on their property. They obtain your address from the DVLA by providing your licence plate in return for a fee.
The government will be selling our DNA records to insurance companies next (when they have the DNA database that I incompetently neglected to mention). You'll only know when you get a letter withdrawing your life insurance because you have some genetic suceptibility to say cancer in your genes.
I don't recognise my society anymore!

ANPR in very wide use, especially at choke points ...

2006-11-30T13:07:00.000Z

ANPR in very wide use, especially at choke points in the road network (Automatic Number Plate Recognition)

And the rest - I was at a sainsburies petrol station the other day; THEY are using ANPR too, to deter drive offs. Although quite how that is meant to deter drive offs I'm not sure... But since when did commercial operations get access to the PNC and DVLA?

Oh, and what's so wrong with 12 libertarians working at the home office?

anyone but blair - I also heard on the radio that ...

2006-11-30T12:36:00.000Z

anyone but blair - I also heard on the radio that they are thinking of the integration of high power microphones into the CCTV system to eavesdrop on our conversations as well !!!

Does the Daily Mail know about the 12 librarians?

2006-11-30T12:23:00.000Z

Does the Daily Mail know about the 12 librarians?

Big brother really is watching us under New Labour...

2006-11-30T12:17:00.000Z

Big brother really is watching us under New Labour, you think they are monitoring blogs for media purposes. Think again it will be for both political and intelligence reasons. Our state now has:
- CCTV everywhere (doesn't seem to stop much crime though)
- ANPR in very wide use, especially at choke points in the road network (Automatic Number Plate Recognition)
- Face cameras on road network (those Blue cameras that hang off bridges or at the side of the road)
- All telephone traffic routinely monitored via System X telephone exchanges by GCHQ/NSA (a warrant for a telephone tap from a judge, don't make me laugh!)
- All international telephone traffic routinely monitored by GCHQ/NSA
- All internet traffic / email routinely monitored by GCHQ/NSA
- All financial transactions, credit card and other payment flows routinely reported and monitored by GCHQ/NSA
- All international financial transactions reported and monitored (SWIFT was caught handing payment data over to the NSA)
- Mobile phone locations (operators cannot cope with volume of requests, so now the billing system (MPay) is integrated with you know who....)
- ID Cards inc biometrics and RfID tags
- Now they are monitoring blogs and no doubt this comment
- Most if not all of this is integrated into one whopping big database that can be searched (you know where....)
Dear MI5ster reading this comment, when you leave Thames House tonight, or maybe walking down Hubble Road in Cheltenham or pehaps catching the train at Vauxhall that perhaps things have gone too far in a free and democratic society. I fully recognise the need to fight terrorism and crime but we need some freedom left for you to protect!

Anonymous 10:51 AM said:Now you've done it. Of cou...

2006-11-30T12:02:00.000Z

Anonymous 10:51 AM said:
Now you've done it. Of course the 12 librerians(sic) knew about google alerts etc, they just didn't tell their bosses. For months they've been surfing porn sites and w*nking like demented chimpanzees ( as Mr Hitchens would so elegantly put it) and all at public being expense.

I doubt it. Each Civil Service Department has its own IT section devoted to running filtering software that prevents its employees from looking naughty sites. Librarians' web access would be filtered, so they couldn't get away with that: it would be monitored and logged, to be used in evidence against them.

Also, why this obsession with autoeroticism? What you allege would soon become obvious in an open-plan office...

He does not say that the librarians only monitor b...

2006-11-30T11:56:00.000Z

He does not say that the librarians only monitor blogs as their sole job, and there's a great deal more to do other than using google alerts - like researching corrections when blogs get their stories wrong.

That's an absolute disgrace. How dare they pay peo...

2006-11-30T11:54:00.000Z

That's an absolute disgrace. How dare they pay people to read blogs for a living? From our taxes? They should be horsewhipped.

A demonstration of the paranoia that the governmen...

2006-11-30T11:23:00.000Z

A demonstration of the paranoia that the government and NuLab suffer.
Also goes to confirm what a bunch of control freaks NuLab really are.
Possibly explains why Campbell resigned, he has a small brain and wasn't able to keep up with the new technology.

Nanny is watching us....again! Enough to drive as ...

2006-11-30T11:22:00.000Z

Nanny is watching us....again! Enough to drive as chap to his laudanum bottle. That comment will doubtless bring the constabulary round with sniffer dogs.
Anyway - what about my right to privacy? It is a bit like saying we should have our houses bugged lest we get a bit political.
I see a challenge from the Human Rights laywers....hold on, those blighters are the government. Despair, despair, despair.

Is this the same Peter Griffiths as in Family Guy?...

2006-11-30T11:20:00.000Z

Is this the same Peter Griffiths as in Family Guy?

I simply find it incredible that the govt. is spen...

2006-11-30T10:58:00.000Z

I simply find it incredible that the govt. is spending money employing 12 (the majestic 12 anyone?)people to read blogs, so they know how to act/react/spin things in their favour.

If that doesn't show the true stalinist side of this government then nothing will.

Oh, and if they are reading this, then hello, you stasi-esque bastards.

" Guido uses Google Alerts, Blogpulse and Technora...

2006-11-30T10:51:00.000Z

" Guido uses Google Alerts, Blogpulse and Technorati to track every mention of him on the web."

Now you've done it. Of course the 12 librerians(sic) knew about google alerts etc, they just didn't tell their bosses. For months they've been surfing porn sites and w*nking like demented chimpanzees ( as Mr Hitchens would so elegantly put it) and all at public being expense. Oh well, all good things come to an end and their health and eyesight were beginning to suffer. One was regularly mistaken for David Milliband

If any civil servants are reading this can I ask i...

2006-11-30T10:25:00.000Z

If any civil servants are reading this can I ask if you got my Tax credit forms yet? I sent them last week and they should be with you now.

This will be the same Peter Griffiths that regular...

2006-11-30T10:13:00.000Z

This will be the same Peter Griffiths that regularly contravenes The Civil Service Code, Standards of behaviour.

6 You must not:
misuse your official position, for example by using information acquired in the course of your official duties to further your private interests or those of others;

Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd.

Yes, but isn't the hidden agenda here 'Big Mummy i...

2006-11-30T09:43:00.000Z

Yes, but isn't the hidden agenda here 'Big Mummy is watching you lads playing, so be nice to each other, no fighting and no bad language or its no tea, no toys and an early bed for you rapscallions'...