"New Zealand Customs and Auckland International Airport have begun shopping for self-service border control kiosks that look set to spell the end of face-to-face checks by Customs staff on all visitors, speeding up border checks for "trusted travellers"."

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is arguing that a New York federal court should stand by its decision to require probable cause to believe a crime has been or is about to be committed before letting the government secretly track people using their cell phones."

"Snap-happy amateur photographers armed with cellphones are invading the privacy of crash victims and capturing disturbing images, police warn."

"Residents love them for the way they protect their streets. Cops say they help push dope dealers away."

"Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras from capturing that secret shot."

"Can a microscopic tag be implanted in a person's body to track his every movement? There's actual discussion about that. You will rule on that - mark my words - before your tenure is over... - Sen. Joseph Biden, to Judge John Roberts at his confirmation hearings, Sept. 12"

"More than 80 parents have complained to a school in Lancashire after cameras were installed in the toilets there."

"For years automobiles have been outfitted with satellite tracking devices, to locate cars in an emergency or when one is stolen. Florida has a new law requiring a "unique personal identifier" to recognize individuals in court cases, and John Roberts, the nominee for the position of Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, argued years ago for a revised national identification system."

"Governor Mitt Romney raised the prospect of wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students in Massachusetts, as he issued a broad call yesterday for the federal government to devote far more money and attention to domestic intelligence gathering."

"Whoever you are, wherever you are, at any given moment some friend or foe may be watching you. That's today's reality... Personal surveillance is of two kinds, public and private... Although public surveillance has many times the scope of private surveillance, the two realms' technologies constantly overlap: The same devices may entrap the frisky husband and the errant embassy official."

"Liu Di, a 24-year-old Beijing translator, uses encryption software whenever she sends off emails, but not everyone is that careful. "People aren't aware of the risks that are involved when they receive or send emails," she said. "But most emails are in fact monitored.""

"When the stranger on the subway car unzipped his fly and started fondling himself, Thao Nguyen, 23, did what any woman confronted by a flasher might like to do. She took out her cellphone, snapped him in the act with its built-in camera, then posted the image online."

"...thanks to modern technology, parents of teenagers can effectively have ... sense of security about where their children are, what they're doing, what they're eating, how fast they're driving, and whether they're in bed at the right hour. Through the newest cell phones, Global Positioning Systems, electronic lunch pay systems being used in schools, and monitoring devices installed inside cars, parents are using high-tech means to keep tabs on their kids, and know that they're safe."

"The use of new electronic devices to track products, pets, and people using radio frequencies is growing at what privacy advocates say is an alarming rate, given concerns that the technology is being implemented without proper safeguards, in both the public and the private sectors."

"Six could be seen peering out from a chain drug store on Broadway. One protruded awkwardly from the awning of a fast-food restaurant. A supersized, domed version hovered like a flying saucer outside Columbia University. All were surveillance cameras and -- to the dismay of civil libertarians and with the approval of law enforcement -- they've been multiplying at a dizzying rate all over Manhattan."

"The U.S. Constitution contains no explicit language on privacy, though a number of amendments imply that Americans have a right to it. But it is left to the courts and state legislatures to define privacy, thus giving us the case of the camera phone and a Virginia man's apparently legal effort to use one to take a photo up a woman's skirt last year at a local shopping mall."

"San Francisco is the latest city to succumb to the siren song of Big Brother technology. The announcement of a 90-day pilot program to post two video surveillance cameras in the Western Addition is a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided response to the problem of street crime. High-tech cameras sacrifice precious privacy while providing very little in return in the way of added safety. In a city that has long prided itself on its dedication to civil liberties, this is a disheartening turn of events."

"New York will have a more advanced web of high-tech transit security than any other city in the United States when the MTA installs its planned network of surveillance cameras and sensors. The new system, moreover, will be adaptable to coming generations of technology. Devices that aim to detect explosives, recognize faces, measure signs of nervousness such as perspiration and track someone from place to place all are being developed and refined."

"Blimps, they're the next big thing in homeland security."

"Knox County school officials say several hidden cameras have been used in schools in circumstances similar to the one discovered in a teacher's lounge at Gresham Middle School, a room where both teachers and cheerleaders changed their clothes. School administrators say they used the camera at Gresham in an attempt to catch a candy thief... "If I were a teacher, I think I would argue that I had a reasonable expectation of privacy to go in and change between classes and things like that," said attorney Greg Isaacs."

"SHOULD THE STATE have the ability to track your movements with tiny radio transmitters? This is the essence of the debate behind Senate Bill 682, which reaches a critical juncture today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee."

"VOYEURS using technology to have some fun at the expense of others may have to pay a heavy price. An expert committee constituted for an in-depth review of issues relating to Information Technology Act, 2000 is learnt to have favoured treating `video voyeurism' as a criminal offence, punishable with imprisonment up to one year or with a fine of up to Rs 2 lakh. The accused might also have to shell out a compensation of as much as Rs 25 lakh to the person affected."

"In January 2004, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility published an essay entitled, "The ROI of Privacy Invasion." The article established and demolished a strawman vision of potential government surveillance through RFID, positing that it would cost the federal government in excess of $1T to establish a "national spy network" of RFID readers monitoring all of the malls, airports, parks, playgrounds and churches."

"Many Sydneysiders may cheer when the Cross City Tunnel opens for business this Sunday. But as you whiz through the tunnel, remember to wave goodbye not only to those 18 sets of traffic lights, but also something less tangible - your anonymity."

"Attorney General Jay Nixon... "In order to run a red light, it takes a vehicle and a person". "The method they've established in this area deals only with the machine, not the person driving it, unless we're talking about Herbie the Love Bug or My Mother the Car."... Owners of vehicles that fail to stop for red lights at the intersections will have their license plates photographed and will later receive a ticket in the mail. Nixon criticizes the procedure because the responsibility of the ticket falls on the owner of the vehicle, no matter who is driving at the time of the violation."

"CORAL SPRINGS - Twice in recent months, vandals have covered the play area of Betti Stradling Park with graffiti that cost the city hundreds of dollars to clean up... City officials this week agreed to spend $49,000, plus an annual $5,194 maintenance fee, on 11 digital security cameras"

"Eyes follow you while you're driving on the Kensington Expressway. They see you taking a bus or Metro Rail. They watch you at the mall and shopping centers. And in some high-crime neighborhoods, they are watching you. There are few places these days where a surveillance camera isn't watching your comings and goings."

"The Government is creating a system of "mass public surveillance" capable of tracking every adult in Britain without their consent, MPs say. They warn that people who have never committed a crime can be "electronically monitored" without their knowledge... Civil liberties groups say the plans are a "dangerous" threat to people's privacy."

"The Thuringia-based telecommunications technology manufacturer Funkwerk has secured an order from the Italian city of Turin, the venue of the Olympic Winter Games 2006, to equip the city's new municipal subway with a video monitoring system... After its completion - the commencement of partial operations of the new Turin subway is scheduled to coincide with the beginning of the Winter Olympic Games on February 10 - a total of 600 CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras will ensure the safe and smooth running of the fully automated subway system."

"LONDON - Tracking of vehicles with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on licenses is about to be tested in Great Britain, and the U.S. government and businesses are watching closely as they consider the idea, Wired magazine reported last week. The high-tech license plates will contain microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away."

"With the ZyXel phone, you can make phone calls wherever there's an accessible Wi-Fi connection. But if the federal government has its way, you'll be tracked wherever you go. Buried in the convoluted 91-page legalese of a recent Federal Communications Commission release on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a proposal with worrisome privacy implications."

"London ... has more closed circuit television cameras than any other city on earth, experts say. "London has been the surveillance capital of the world for certainly the last 10 years," said Simon Davies, director of the British-based advocacy group Privacy International. "There is nothing like London anywhere in the world - nothing that even approximates London.""

"Six could be seen peering out from a chain drug store on Broadway. One protruded awkwardly from the awning of a fast-food restaurant. A supersized, domed version hovered like a flying saucer outside Columbia University. All were surveillance cameras and - to the dismay of civil libertarians and with the approval of law enforcement - they've been multiplying at a dizzying rate all over Manhattan."

"A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World. The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host."

"The attorney for a Virginia man told a Cumberland County judge Tuesday that, though his client acted in bad taste when he took a picture up a woman's skirt, he wasn't doing anything illegal."

"WASHINGTON - The striking images of London subway bombers captured by the city's extensive video surveillance system, and a rising sense that similar attacks could happen in the United States, is stirring renewed interest in expanding police camera surveillance of America's public places."

"The Customs and Border Protection bureau has embedded forms filled out by visitors with radio frequency identification tags in hopes of reducing lines at U.S. entry and exit points."

"... But to critics, whose reservations are based primarily on privacy concerns, the London attacks also highlighted the limitations of camera surveillance. London has one of the world's largest surveillance systems - the average person there is photographed by 300 cameras in the course of a day, according to an often-cited 1999 calculation by two British academics - yet that did not prevent terrorist bombings in the heart of the city."

"The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away. Officials in the United States say they'll be closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable."

"From www.epic.org: This month's Spotlight on Surveillance shines on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), equipped with cameras and sensors that produce high-resolution imagery and track moving targets. UAVs, which cost $350,000 to $4.5 million each, were designed for military use and have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now this military technology could be used by the federal government for aerial surveillance of civilians in the United States."

"Is the argument for surveillance cameras on the streets of Long Island any stronger since the terrorist bombings in London? Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor) says that cameras allowed police in London to identify the bombers and to plaster pictures of others involved in a botched second attempt across the United Kingdom. Locally, he thinks surveillance would be useful for apprehending criminals in places where "gangs, drugs and rapists terrorize the community." But, just as proposals for cameras in Riverhead and Hempstead have run into opposition, Cooper's bill has been stalled in committee since March. Opponents include Legis. Allan Binder (R-Huntington), who says, "It's an incredible invasion of privacy ... we are not talking about subways or national security.""

"AS much as we don't like Big Brother eyeing our every move, the use of TV surveillance cameras on subways, trains and in major transportation hubs could prove an invaluable deterrent to terrorists."

"To our dismay, the National Intelligence Service yesterday admitted it had systematically carried out illegal wiretapping under the Kim Dae-jung government. It has thus far asserted that no illegal eavesdropping had been conducted since the Kim government was inaugurated in 1998. More shockingly, the spy agency also acknowledged that its wiretapping operations included interception of calls between mobile and fixed-line phones. Since the mid-1990s, the spy agency has been suspected of illegally listening in on cell phone conversations."

"The governing Uri Party said yesterday it will propose a special law that would empower independent investigators to sidestep privacy statutes so that contents of a cache of hundreds of tape recordings gathered illegally by government eavesdroppers can be made public."

"... Yet many civil libertarians still regard videocams as a gross violation of our personal space. The American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area opposed a plan for cameras in Washington, D.C., insisting they "seriously intrude on individuals' right to privacy and have the potential to track individuals in their daily routines." But what privacy right? Walking down the street or sitting in a park is a public activity, visible to any passerby. It's hard to see how my privacy is secure with 100 bystanders watching me but reduced to tatters by a single video camera."

"... The Sorting Door project aims to examine the potential for RFID's application to surveillance, and to assess the resulting impact on privacy of such an application. The research will focus on surveillance of individuals based on RFID tags embedded in clothing they are wearing, or in devices or objects they are carrying, such as building access badges and contactless payment cards."

"When students at a Sutter County elementary school wore tiny electronic tags last winter to take attendance as they walked into class, they ignited a fight between high technology and civil liberty... Simitian's Senate Bill 682 would set standards for use of such technology by public agencies. It would ban for three years the use of radio-frequency tags on driver's licenses, public library cards, government health or benefit cards, and on student ID cards in kindergarten through high school."

"Pressure is building for greater use of video cameras to keep watch over the nation's cities - particularly in transportation systems and other spots vulnerable to terrorism - after the bombings in London. The calls have come over the last few weeks as British investigators released surveillance footage of the bombers in the deadly July 7 attacks and then put out frames of suspects in Thursday's failed attacks."

"Government-run surveillance cameras that watch Coloradans are spreading, and state officials plan to route images into a new local counterterrorism intelligence center, although privacy concerns loom."

"In San Diego, a man shoots at a store clerk; in Orlando, Fla., thieves snatch a dozen puppies from a breeder's kennel; in Houston, an arsonist isn't caught in the act when he torches a nightclub, leading to a fireman's death, but cameras see him buying the gas cans and filling them up, and a jury gives him life in prison."