ELENA...Germany's Big Brother temptation

[Cain]

http://countermeasures.trendmicro.eu/move-over-big-brother-sister-elena-is-here/

On the 1st of January this year German employers became subject to a new legal requirement, one that has their own Data Protection Authorities, Trade Unions and Civil Rights groups appalled.

From the beginning of 2010 every German employer must now submit detailed information on a monthly basis to the so-called ELENA database, ELENA is an acronym for Eleketronischer Entgeltnachweis which loosely translates to Electronic Payslip. This sounds innocent enough until you consider exactly what information employers are obliged to provide.

The information will cover every worker's salary, all absenteeism and their participation in strike action whether legal or illegal. This data is to be submitted to a central hub and from 2012 it will be used to determine whether to pay out or refuse social benefits. Plans are in place to relieve employers of the necessity of printing paper-based pay statements for their employees and instead issuing each worker with a plastic "jobcard" again by 2012. This card would then need to be produced should the holder ever need to apply for benefits allowing for data retrieval to determine eligibility.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 

[Verbal Mike]

This would go on my list of cons to staying here for my MA, but then I'd have to add so many cons for going to the US, UK or Holland (a few of my top candidates) so whatever.

Also, true story: I entered this thread thinking there were pics of a hot contestant in the upcoming (or newly-begun?) German version of the reality television program Big Brother, which I have seen many large ads for because I happen to have eyes and these ads are probably about as big as you'd expect actual portraits of Big Brother were in Orwell's Oceania.... Yeah so anyway I'm pretty disappointed this thread is boob-free.

[President Television]

This would go on my list of cons to staying here for my MA, but then I'd have to add so many cons for going to the US, UK or Holland (a few of my top candidates) so whatever.

Also, true story: I entered this thread thinking there were pics of a hot contestant in the upcoming (or newly-begun?) German version of the reality television program Big Brother, which I have seen many large ads for because I happen to have eyes and these ads are probably about as big as you'd expect actual portraits of Big Brother were in Orwell's Oceania.... Yeah so anyway I'm pretty disappointed this thread is boob-free.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Of course you realise this means the scheme will be introduced in england in 2011, following a pilot introduction in Scotland from June this year. You know how it is - our totalitarian dictators will do anything to avoid being one-upped by the fucking Germans 

[Cain]

We're getting unmanned drones flying over the country, recording evildoers.

No mention yet whether or not they'll be carrying Hellfire missiles in order to carry out summary justice, but its only a matter of time before Chris Grayling suggests it as a possibility.

[President Television]

We're getting unmanned drones flying over the country, recording evildoers.

No mention yet whether or not they'll be carrying Hellfire missiles in order to carry out summary justice, but its only a matter of time before Chris Grayling suggests it as a possibility.

Please tell me this is a joke.

[Cain]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year.

I wrote up a quick piece on it here http://alamut.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/time-to-buy-a-copy-of-skygrabber/

[Faust]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year.

I wrote up a quick piece on it here http://alamut.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/time-to-buy-a-copy-of-skygrabber/

Pull!
                                                /

[President Television]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year.

I wrote up a quick piece on it here http://alamut.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/time-to-buy-a-copy-of-skygrabber/

How can they get away with this?

[Cain]

Easy.  This government cant get any less popular and the opposition are just as authoritarian.  If the PM went on live TV tomorrow and decapitated a kitten with his teeth, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the polls.  And then the Shadow Cabinet would criticize him for not decapitating ten, because he is soft on crime and the causes of crime.

[President Television]

Easy.  This government cant get any less popular and the opposition are just as authoritarian.  If the PM went on live TV tomorrow and decapitated a kitten with his teeth, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the polls.  And then the Shadow Cabinet would criticize him for not decapitating ten, because he is soft on crime and the causes of crime.

Yeah, but why the fuck aren't the streets swarming with protesters? Isn't that what people do when the government doesn't give them any acceptable options?

[Reginald Ret]

Easy.  This government cant get any less popular and the opposition are just as authoritarian.  If the PM went on live TV tomorrow and decapitated a kitten with his teeth, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the polls.  And then the Shadow Cabinet would criticize him for not decapitating ten, because he is soft on crime and the causes of crime.

Yeah, but why the fuck aren't the streets swarming with protesters? Isn't that what people do when the government doesn't give them any acceptable options?

Why aren't you protesting?

[President Television]

Easy.  This government cant get any less popular and the opposition are just as authoritarian.  If the PM went on live TV tomorrow and decapitated a kitten with his teeth, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the polls.  And then the Shadow Cabinet would criticize him for not decapitating ten, because he is soft on crime and the causes of crime.

Yeah, but why the fuck aren't the streets swarming with protesters? Isn't that what people do when the government doesn't give them any acceptable options?

Why aren't you protesting?

I live all the way over in Canada. Canada's government is much more reasonable about this sort of thing for now.

[Rumckle]

Easy.  This government cant get any less popular and the opposition are just as authoritarian.  If the PM went on live TV tomorrow and decapitated a kitten with his teeth, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the polls.  And then the Shadow Cabinet would criticize him for not decapitating ten, because he is soft on crime and the causes of crime.

Yeah, but why the fuck aren't the streets swarming with protesters? Isn't that what people do when the government doesn't give them any acceptable options?

Too many comfy chairs that are facing a widescreen plasma TV playing celebrity big brother.

[Triple Zero]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­”routine” monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year.

I wrote up a quick piece on it here http://alamut.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/time-to-buy-a-copy-of-skygrabber/

How can they get away with this?

um, by plane?