ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

  • Home
  • Community Journalist
  • Events
  • Media Page and Press Kit
    • Projects and Work
  • Resources & Documents
    • LGBTQ+ Support Groups and Documents
  • Archives
  • Contact

Westwind by Ian Rankin – Book Review

10/11/2020 By ACOMSDave

Westwind by Ian Rankin

Amazon Link To Buy – Westwind by Ian Rankin

 

For me the concept that the military from the USA, UK and other countries, as described in Westwind by Ian Rankin,  would conspire to bring down the elected governments of the day is an anathema, however, we only have to look into history and what happened in German pre WW2 and the African sub-continent and its various countries and we can see parallels.

As an ex-soldier who has served in the UK and Germany, Canada and South America I could never conceive of a time in which the British Armed Services would allow this to happen and where they would give up their allegiance to the Crown (not the government).

The characters are reasonably well-drawn, but the main character Martin Hepton has questions to be asked.  How come a computer nerd, who does not seem to have any background in intelligence apart from watching a computer screen and interpreting pictures, suddenly develop a 6th sense in being able to handle a prime assassin?

Various other characters are brought into the story to add pace and distance, but the ‘badies’ are somewhat predictable as are the various stage sets and locations.

 

It is also interesting to look at age-old secret service writer’s ploy – namely that of levels within levels of the British Secret Service all looking over their shoulders to check who is watching whom!

And not to be forgotten is the age-old commentary on a person’s position in society – what university did one go to, which service did you belong to etc.

However, even with all these thoughts and reservations, I would still recommend this book.  It is a good thriller, well crafted and written, and it does pose questions – could it happen now?

To quote Wikipedia, Ian James Rankin OBE DL FRSE FRSL (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels… His range is prolific, from the series with Rebus, to stand-alone novels to collaboration on opera, to short stories.

 

Fun Extras and Links

  • Wikipedia – Ian Rankin
  • Ian Ranking Website
  • Amazon UK – Ian Rankin

I am a book blogger.  I am not paid to do this.  All opinions are my own.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Community Journalist, Reviews Tagged With: assassination, big brother, espionage, government, Ian Rankin, murder, secret service, spy satellites, Technology, UK, USA, Westwind

Surveillance Camera Statistics: Which City has the Most CCTV Cameras?

04/08/2020 By ACOMSDave

Source: Surveillance Camera Statistics: Which City has the Most CCTV Cameras?

Surveillance cameras proliferance does not equate to less crime, so says this report.

Big Brother Surveillance

But what made me go looking at these statistics?  The Sunday Mirror on the 2nd Aug 2020 has a smallish report by Matthew Davies stuck on the bottom of page 14 – ’19 billion cars a year caught on cops’TV’.  This report stated that ‘cops’ are snapping motorists with road cameras at a record rate of 610 per second, that the number of cars pictured by a network of CCTV devices annually has doubled in five years, up to 19.2 billion in 2019-2020 from 11 billion in 2014-15.

But are all these drivers breaking the law?  It would seem not, and privacy watchdogs have warned the technology could be used to film innocent people who are not breaking any laws.

This is nothing new or startling, but what is startling is the volume of pictures being taken, and that there is very little oversight into how long these pictures are kept, who is taking them, and if they even should be taken!

An interesting fact that came out during my research is that the vast majority of CCTV cameras are not operated by government bodies, but by private individuals or companies, especially to monitor the interiors of shops and businesses.  According to the 2011 Freedom of Information Act request, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 over the entirety of the UK. (Wikipedia -Mass Surveillance In The UK).

Surveillance

Further reading:

  • Surveillance camera statistics: which cities have the most CCTV cameras?
  • Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom
  • WHERE ARE YOU BEING WATCHED MOST?
  • A UK map of CCTV cameras: Towns and cities by surveillance camera concentration
  • How many CCTV Cameras are there in the UK?
  • The Most Surveilled Cities in Europe
  • CCTV Britain: Why are we the most spied on country in the world?
  • A Review of the international evidence of the effectiveness of the use of CCTV in care home settings

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: big brother, Crime, Motor Cars, Surveillance, Technology, Watchdog, Who is Watching Who

Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind

26/07/2020 By ACOMSDave

Source: Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind

When I read this article, I had to go back and read it again – ‘Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind’ when read properly shows that both government and big business are out to control us – does this not reflect back to ‘1984’ by George Orwell

Invisible Manipulators

“…“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984…”

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have thoroughly detailed how to go about controlling people through ‘hudges’ and not surprisingly the big names in the digital world have listened, understood and applied it  ( Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon), Larry Page (Google), Sergey Brin (Google), Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft), Sean Parker (Facebook), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Evan Williams (Twitter), and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia).)

But it doesn’t stop there, there is every indication that President Trump’s election team have also applied the theory to his electioneering mechanism – and it seems to have worked!

Invisible Manipulators

We in the UK have also seen some of the applications with the  ‘Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data breach which occurred in early 2018 when millions of Facebook users’ personal data was harvested without consent by Cambridge Analytica to be predominantly used for political advertising’ (Wikipedia).

Is it not time that the human race realised what is happening and took a stand and stopped the erosion of human rights, our rights, and make an effort to clean up politics and business?

Invisible Manipulators

[Read more…]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: 1984, big brother, business, government, Language, Manipulators, Mind Control, Nudges, politics, Silicon Valley

Amal Clooney Transcript of UN Speech on Trump and Journalism | Time

04/07/2020 By ACOMSDave

Source: Amal Clooney Transcript of UN Speech on Trump and Journalism | Time

I am writing as a community journalist, who in the past along with Sean McGoruan and others have tried to write and reflect about the LGBTQ community in Northern Ireland.  There were times when it felt an uphill struggle, as we fought censorship and bureaucracy, not to mention the establishment.

We wrote about murders, about police sting operations, about AIDS.

Even today we still have to write about homophobia, how the ‘lockdown’ has and is affecting people; but we are lucky now to not have people thrown into prison without trial.  Though I must say that the government’s current stance on ‘gay cure’ therapy beggars belief – is the Prime Minister trying to go back to the days of Margaret Thatcher?

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney’s speech is thought-provoking, and also worrying, because only this morning I re-published on the NIGRA website about  the film ‘

Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge, review: a heart-stopping account of those fleeing persecution

which was shown on BBC TV this week

Take time to read the articles and watch the film, if you haven’t already.  YOu won’t’ be disappointed.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: attacks, big brother, Chechnya, free speech, homophobia, imprisonment, journalism, murder, Russia

Civil Liberties and the World Wide Web

13/03/2017 By ACOMSDave

Civil LibertiesIt is interesting to read this article, as it reflects the things that I have been writing and talking about over the last 20 years – of course I have been writing about Big Brother and the loss of civil liberties in part, and this is now encompassed in the world wide web and how government is using it to monitor and control what we do, see and hear.  I make no bones about the fact that I distrust government in its attitude and continued use of phrases  about we need CCTV to control terrorism, for your protection etc.  That we don’t need personal encryption, as if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide, and we won’t maintain personal data longer ‘that is necessary’.  There ares lots of more glib phrases, but they all come down to government control, and you losing your civil liberties  Civil Liberties - CCTV

It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want – for everyone

Source: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it | Tim Berners-Lee

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: big brother, encryption, government, police, politics

HMRC achieves Big Brother Status

28/12/2016 By ACOMSDave

HMRC is watchingI was reading an article by Paul Rigney entitled ‘The all seeing eye – an HMRC success story?”, in itself the story does show a success story, in that the HMRC (for a government department) has managed to combine three discreet function into a fully functioning catch all system that enables HMRC to:

  • analyse tax data
  • collate information from credit reference agencies to pinpoint individuals and behaviours that may indicate fraud etc
  • They can extrapolate who is a director of a number of companies, his/her family connections and the companies that a partner is a director of as well as family trusts.

Investigations which may have taken weeks or even months in the past, can now be carried out in a day or less.

The HMRC system is called ‘Connect’, and its use and application will continue to grow with the planned introduction of quarterly returns and other instruments now in the pipeline.

These tools also enable the HMRC to keep a beady eye on online traders using such sites as eBay or HMRC - recovered moneyAutorader, or even Amazon and evaluate whether the trading sales activity qualifies as “business activity” or not for purposes of taxable income.

So why am I writing about what seems to be a perfectly valid use of resources and government money (remember it is our money)?   Well over the last few years I have written about ‘Big Brother’ government, and its abuses.  The latest of which has come to light through a FOI (Freedom of Information) request by one of our national papers, which showed how local government has been misusing the legislation, put in place to cover terrorism, to monitor all weird and wonderful things like, dog pooing in parks, litter louts, parents registration for schools etc – all obvious targets for the terrorism surveillance.

Government has to govern, and indeed we all want to live secure lives free from attack and terror; but what we must not do is give up our right to a free society, one in which we are not observed through discreet surveillance, one in which we can be locked up for disagreeing with government or taking pictures of a demonstration and use of police as examples.  the list of abuse is wide, and we as the voting population need to ensure that our freedoms are just that, our freedoms.  Ensure that you vote properly when you next have an election, it is your and your family’s future.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: amazon, autotrader, big brother, connect, ebay, HMRC

Encryption matters for your security

30/10/2016 By ACOMSDave

cyber security and encryptionEncryption matters – as someone who regularly writes about ‘Big Brother’ and the intrusion by state and other agencies into our private lives, I have to also point out that we as individuals owe a duty to ourselves and society to protect ourselves.  The first step is being careful with your passwords, do not use simple ones easily fathomed out from your personal details.

Secondly, whenever possible, encrypt your data.  A lot of message systems do so automatically now, but don’t use one if it doesn’t.  Also, check your email service and how secure your emails are from the point they leave you until they arrive at their destination.

Security is our problem, and we can’t complain if we don’t do whatever we can ourselves to ensure our own safety!cyber security and encryption

Encryption needs you! Sign Mozilla’s pledge to stand up for encryption and a more secure Web at advocacy.mozilla.org/encrypt

Source: Encryption matters

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: big brother, encryption, security

The dick pic test: are you happy to show the government yours?

09/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

Editorial.  In the past I have written about government intrusion into our lives, about government high tactics (police confiscation of cameras during marches), indeed even about surveillance.  I make no apologies for highlighting this article to all our readers, who I am sure (in the main) have never sent a naked ‘selfie’ of themselves to their lover – but be warned the government is watching you! (Tongue in cheek)

 
We rarely care about our privacy and surveillance in general terms, but when it comes to specifics we can get very defensive.

Someone looking at pornography on a computer

‘GCHQ did attempt to add some automated filters to protect its staff from seeing too much adult content, but noted there was “no perfect ability” to do this.’ Photograph: Alamy


@jamesrbuk
Wednesday 8 April 2015 16.05 BST
If you’re doing nothing wrong, and have nothing to hide from your government, then mass surveillance holds no fears for you. This argument might be the oldest straw man in the privacy debate, but it’s also a decent reflection of the state of the argument. In the UK’s first major election since the Snowden revelations, privacy is a nonissue.
This is a shame, because when it comes down to it, many of us who are doing nothing wrong have plenty we would prefer to hide.
One student learned that lesson in a hurry a few years ago. He had lent his lecturer – who happened to be me – his laptop to do an online demo as part of a presentation to his postgraduate class. All went well until a new Firefox tab was opened. When you do this, Firefox helpfully previews nine windows from your recent internet history. Unfortunately for the student concerned, five of these showed stills from hardcore porn videos. The material was legal, matched his stated sexual orientation, and was relatively vanilla – nothing he’d necessarily wish to hide – but it’s safe to say he’d rather it hadn’t been projected to his classmates.
The rest of the planned lesson had to be abandoned because of interruption (“What was the title of the one in the top left again? Was that the Busty Milf Teacher one?”) And instead the students got a crash course in internet privacy and anonymity. You have never seen a class so attentive.
We rarely care about our privacy in general terms; when it gets to specifics – can I read your text messages? – we tend to be more defensive. And when we get anywhere near the sexual realm, we get very defensive indeed.
That’s a truth the US comedian John Oliver realises to a much greater extent than many of his journalistic colleagues. In a segment during an interview with Edward Snowden, he vox popped people in Times Square on mass surveillance, only to be received with apathy and confusion. Then he suggested the government was collecting their dick pics – to a unanimously furious
Chatting to the host afterwards, Snowden acknowledged that lots of NSA and GCHQ activity does indeed hoover up dick pics . But he offered some slight reassurance. “Well, the good news is, there’s no program named the Dick Pic Program.”
The strange thing is, there’s something that comes pretty close: the UK intelligence agency GCHQ has collected so many dick pics they’ve become something of a problem for the organisation.
The problem arose, as it were, through a capability codenamed Optic Nerve, which allowed the agency to identify and hoover up any Yahoo webcam imagery that crossed its various bulk interception points across the internet. Rather than just collect the information for specific surveillance targets, the system hovered up virtually everything it saw. In what must surely rank as the most predictable complication in history – though it still apparently took the agency by surprise – it turned out a substantial quantity (up to 11%) of what it was intercepting were pornographic pictures. GCHQ did attempt to add some automated filters to protect its staff from seeing too much adult content, but noted there was “no perfect ability” to do this. Reassuringly (or disturbingly, depending on your point of view), policy documents reminded GCHQ staff that “dissemination of offensive material is a disciplinary offence”.
Such is the reality of modern internet surveillance: the UK’s intelligence agency has, quite literally, taken and stored material from a camera in your bedroom. The UK government has collected what must be one of the world’s largest collection of dick pics (and, for that matter, tit pics), stored them, and on a regular basis viewed – even if unwillingly – quite a lot of them.
And like any disreputable teenager, or modern five-eyes government bound by intelligence-sharing treaties, it will have shared quite a few of those pics with its friends. UK intelligence is typically and automatically shared with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to the actions of Edward Snowden in leaking documents, of reporters spending months studying them, and editors brave enough to publish the results of that work, we now know about this.
It is currently perfectly possible, and perfectly legal, that a government employee has seen you naked. The question is, are you bothered? Because when we talk about surveillance reform, this is what we’re talking about.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: History Tagged With: big brother, governmet, naked, selfie, Surveillance

Categories

Copyright ACOMSDave.com © 2021