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Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

wired.co.uk

21–30 of 115 posts

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#21

Mac address randomization is a must if your wifi is on in public (you don't even need to connect anywhere to be fingerprinted and tracked). Also use cookie self-destruct plugins for your browser.

MAC address randomisation has been proven to be essentially useless: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02874v1

Does anyone know how the MAC randomisation in Windows 10 devices stacks up? I'd assume it's better than a fixed MAC, but a quick Google search doesn't give much info. about how easily it can be sidestepped.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#22
post #17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK intends to continue with GDPR post-Brexit

The UK is required to continue with GDPR post-Brexit for EU Citizens

Yep, We are doing it at work at the moment and whatever legislation we implement post-Brexit has to be at a minimum as strong as GDPR.

It's causing us problems but I wholeheartedly support the regulation and the intent of the regulation.

I also expect once we are outside the EU that the EU will stop pussy footing around with us (we (Britain) get away with murder by ignoring bits we want to and as a member they don't come down hard enough on us).

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#23
post #17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK intends to continue with GDPR post-Brexit

The UK is required to continue with GDPR post-Brexit for EU Citizens

I'm not sure how the GDPR would apply to interactions that happens entirely inside a non-GDPR country, such as an EU citizen signing on to wifi in, say, China or the US, or in a hypothetical post-brexit UK that repealed the GDPR.

There are, of course, provisions for cross-border digital services, but there's nothing cross-border about these wifi services.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#24
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not with that pesky so-called "Charter of Fundamental Rights" that keeps forcing them to slightly update their mass surveillance laws every couple of years, as they're ruled invalid...again, and again. It's why the cons have intended to switch to UK's own "Bill of Rights" since Cameron.

In fairness, keeping the Charter as-is doesn't make a huge amount of sense given how tied it is to Citizens of The Union/Member States/Union law (e.g. A15, and most of Title V - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:120... ). Even if you enshrined it into UK law, large parts would cease to apply anyway (e.g. anything that grants rights to "Every citizen of the Union" or begins "The Union recognises…

More concerning would be a withdrawal from the ECHR, which focuses on fundamental human rights per se, not fundamental rights arising out of EU membership.

Both are concerning, though. I was recently educated by a real lawyer about my idealistic view of the ECHR. It turns out that I had a fundamental misunderstanding for years, so I will share the essence of what they told me in case I wasn't the only one. (I am not a lawyer, so please forgive any continuing misunderstandings in what follows.)

The thing about the ECHR is that it doesn't really operate as a law, more a benchmark against which other laws are measured. A UK court will attempt to interpret UK law in a way that is compatible with the ECHR/HRA where possible. However, if a law cannot be so interpreted and is not compatible with the ECHR, the most a court can actually do is issue a declaration of incompatibility, which is the political equivalent of being told off and put in the naughty corner. The law itself still stands. Usually after a declaration of incompatibility the government does acquiesce and modify the law to be more compatible, but there have been some notable instances such as voting rights for prisoners where they have refused to do so. At that point, regardless of any theoretical protections afforded by the ECHR, the practicality is that is has no more power.

The legal situation seems to be quite different as far as the Charter and enforcement through the CJEU go, because that mechanism appears to have real legal teeth in its own right. This is the mechanism that will almost certainly disappear as part of Brexit, and so it is important for the protection of rights and liberties that something analogous be enshrined in primary UK legislation. The government of the day could still change it later, because in this country we don't have a constitution that guarantees these sorts of rights and sits at a higher level of law, but at least they would have to do so actively and under full parliamentary scrutiny like any other law.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#25

Mac address randomization is a must if your wifi is on in public (you don't even need to connect anywhere to be fingerprinted and tracked). Also use cookie self-destruct plugins for your browser.

MAC address randomisation has been proven to be essentially useless: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02874v1

Preventing every possible form of tracking is so difficult it’s almost a lost cause.

Preventing forms of tracking that are actually in use is much easier.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#26
Briton are 95% comfortable with massive surveillance. The "average Joe" has the "I got nothing to hide" and that "go get them paedophiles", which are very true statements.

We are talking about a nation that has 4,200,000 [1] cameras surveilling them and nobody bats an eye about this. For some reason, Britons have decided (or was forced to them and they didn't push back) that privacy is not necessary, so, let them have it.

What harm can 3 more cameras can do? :) (per kiosk, per street)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_Unite...

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#27

Sorry, but can somebody give a full explanation why is it so bad? And if you want want you can just not to use this kiosks, right?

I have an issue, when e.g. Argos is using my phone's wifi antenna (even when I'm not connected to their network) to track where do I walk within their stores.

I do accept the fact that any cell signal provider can also track my movements since I am using their antennas.

I do perfectly understand that the STATE (law, justice, etc.) can also track my movements, and does so, using due process (I hope). But a private corporate, to be seeing where do I walk, what do I use, for me it is a problem.

In the same spirit Google was slapped by openly tracking every WiFi signal their cars intercepted. What if I don't want MY home wifi, or MY phone's wifi be a tool for THEM to make billions? Why do I need to be a product for their greed?

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#28

Sorry, but can somebody give a full explanation why is it so bad? And if you want want you can just not to use this kiosks, right?

> ... if you want want you can just not to use this kiosks, right?

When they start enabling the cameras, thereby likely capturing passers-by too, things could get tricky.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#29

Briton are 95% comfortable with massive surveillance. The "average Joe" has the "I got nothing to hide" and that "go get them paedophiles", which are very true statements. We are talking about a nation that has 4,200,000 [1] cameras surveilling them and nobody bats an eye about this. For some reason, Britons have decided (or was forced to them and they didn't push back) that privacy is not necessary, so, let them hav…

With state surveillance, I'd agree. I don't think things are so clear cut for private sector actors. Private CCTV is tolerated because it's a) typically not a networked system, b) rarely mined for analytics and c) often conflated with council run systems anyway.

Re: Stop replacing London’s phone boxes with corporate surveillance

#30

I don't know if these phone boxes will last for long, there have been plenty of efforts to repurpose them for free wifi, maps, local council services and so on but these experiments never last for that long. The fundamental problem is the guy with the iPhone X has a contract for lots of 4G bandwidth and would prefer to just use that except for at home/work when the wifi gets used. So you are left with customers for t…

Why is the guy with an iPhone X a more desirable customer than a guy with an iPhone 4S?
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