Tag Archives: Europe

France’s answer to terrorism: The Law of Suspects

Posted on by

“Robespierre passed the ‘Law of Suspects’, allowing the government to essentially imprison anyone they wanted for any reason.  It was impossible to tell friend from foe back then; you never knew if someone was a loyalist, or a Christian, or an Austrian spy, or any number of counter-revolutionaries.  So people were required to carry special certificates indicating that they were good and dutiful citizens. Those without would be imprisoned, and potentially executed.  It turns out that ‘terrorist’ was originally a term used to describe the government officials who created and executed these oppressive tactics under the guise of keeping people safe from their enemies.”

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/frances-answer-to-terrorism-the-law-of-suspects-18244/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

France Changes Constitution To Protect “Emergency” Police Powers

Posted on by

logo3

“Europe’s Patriot Act has finally taken shape: according to a proposed amendment, the French state-of-emergency police powers, such as to conduct warrantless searches and order house arrests, will be unconditionally shielded from court challenges.  In other words, a handful of government bureaucrats will soon be above any and all legal ‘checks and balances’, and will be provided absolute power to decide the fate of virtually any French citizen without due or any process. Now it is the turn of the ‘democratic’ western powers to unleash their own mini USSR on their citizens. You know, in the name of ‘preventing terrorism.'”

https://reason.com/archives/2015/12/29/with-every-call-for-encryption-restricti

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

UK Police to Receive Hidden Browser History from Internet Providers

Posted on by

“The measure will force internet providers to retain all ‘web browsing information’ which will help police to ‘hunt down and identify the most serious cyberbullies and trolls,’ Theresa May of Britain’s home security said.  The Investigatory Powers Bill will give internet providers a pseudo-police role allowing them to ‘override encryption if needed.’  The new regulation will persuade all cell phone and web companies to retain records of every citizen for at least a year, providing a data pool which police and security services can access.  However many citizens are concerned over such a library of personal data, which has historically been ripe for abuse by authorities and hackers.”

http://www.copblock.org/150699/police-to-pursue-online-trolls-and-receive-hidden-browser-history-from-internet-providers/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

The Real Story Behind the 1914 Christmas Truce in World War I

Posted on by

“Moving forward, politicians and military leaders could no longer tolerate such fraternizing in consideration of mass armies existing in an age of revolutionary fervor. It suddenly became an issue of control.  Many of them saw themselves as pawns in a game they didn’t understand, fighting against an enemy for reasons that weren’t immediately obvious.  Unlike the Second World War, in which ideological motivations were evident to nearly everyone, the Great War was for many a strange, wasteful, and senseless conflict.”

http://gizmodo.com/the-real-story-behind-the-1914-christmas-truce-in-world-1749590742

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Gadget to stop driver distraction could become compulsory

Posted on by

“European Commission officials who are currently devising new safety proposals for car manufacturers may now be drawn to recommend making the cameras compulsory.  Called the Eyetracker, the institute’s device used a series of tiny cameras to monitor eye movements 200 times a second, triggering an alarm when drivers seemed about to nod off. It opens the prospect of future generations of motor vehicle being able to automatically slow down or stop if the driver falls asleep – potentially saving hundreds of lives a year world-wide.  Volvo has already developed a one-inch diameter dashboard-mounted camera which monitors a driver’s gaze and whether his or her eyelids are closing.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/12048267/Gadget-to-stop-drivers-nodding-off-at-the-wheel-could-become-compulsory.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

UK pre-crime: Better make sure your face stays off the crowdsourced watch list

Posted on by

“Facewatch is a system that lets retailers, publicans, and restaurateurs easily share private CCTV footage with the police and other Facewatch users. The BBC reports that Facewatch is currently used at around 10,000 premises. The Facewatch website is full of positive testimonials from shop owners and police forces alike; it does seem to work as intended.  Now, however, Facewatch has been updated so that it can be integrated with real-time face recognition systems. Where previously a member of staff had to keep an eye out for people on the crowdsourced Facewatch watch list, now the system can automatically tell you if someone on the watch list has just entered the premises.”

http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/12/pre-crime-arrives-in-the-uk-better-make-sure-your-face-stays-off-the-crowdsourced-watch-list/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Europe’s highest court strikes down Safe Harbor data sharing between EU, US

Posted on by

“The case was originally sent to the CJEU by the High Court of Ireland, after the Irish data protection authority rejected a complaint from Maximillian Schrems, an Austrian citizen. He had argued that in light of Snowden’s revelations about the NSA, the data he provided to Facebook that was transferred from the company’s Irish subsidiary to the US under the Safe Harbour scheme was not, in fact, safely harboured. Advocate General Yves Bot of the CJEU agreed with Schrems that the EU-US Safe Harbour system did not meet the requirements of the Data Protection Directive, because of NSA access to EU personal data.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/europes-highest-court-strikes-down-safe-harbour-data-sharing-between-eu-and-us/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Jacob Hornberger: Do You Want Your Children to Die for Montenegro?

Posted on by

hornberger1

“Get used to the possibility that your son or daughter might end up dying for Montenegro because that country has just been invited to become the latest member of NATO, the Cold War organization that was brought into existence to defend Europe from America’s World War II partner and ally, the Soviet Union.  Just in case you’ve never heard of Montenegro or maybe don’t know where it is, here’s a link to Wikipedia’s page on the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro. It seems to me that if your son or daughter might have to die in the defense of Montenegro, you might want to know a little about it or at least where it is located.”

http://fff.org/2015/12/11/do-you-want-your-children-to-die-for-montenegro/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

“Emergency” Measures May Be Written Into the French Constitution

Posted on by

“The state of emergency, which was initially supposed to mitigate the threat posed by Islamic terrorism, has been used to target environmental and political activists who have nothing to do with radical Islam, let alone terrorism.  Rather than be regarded as a temporary measure for extraordinary circumstances, the government’s ability to declare an extended state of emergency may soon be written into the constitution.  The first measure would write the state of emergency into the constitution, because the 1955 law, even in its renewed 2015 form, is likely unconstitutional. The government fears it could be challenged [..] by those who have been raided by the police or placed under house arrest.”

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/12/terrorist-attacks-spark-crackdown-constitutional-changes-in-france/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

UK May Approve Bill Allowing Spying on Individuals via Their Kids Toys

Posted on by

“British government’s new investigatory bill (pdf) has a proposal on making it legal to hack smart toys in order to allow investigators to get to pry on suspects.  This strategy could be one of many measures governments around the world are taking to track down cyber criminals and terrorists.  Furthermore, the bill has also made it a legal duty for all internet service providers to support law enforcement agencies in hacking smart devices like smart toys.  The most important clause the draft bill has is that the government can ask for the break of end-to-end encryption from private companies at any time and the companies have to oblige.”

https://www.hackread.com/uk-investigatory-bill-spying-via-kids-toys/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet