bm259 Fingerprinting the German Government

The German minister who famously believes in law and order and high security and knowing as much about citizens as possible, has now – himself- been fingerprinted. Whats more, the fingerprints are being distributed all over the world as part of a very strong statement and critique of what is supposed to be such a safe and secure method of identification.

This podcast is recorded at the CCCB in Berlin, and it features the participation of some very kind and socially conscious hackers. As we sat around assembling the magazines, finger prints and all, I took out the recorder and asked them to explain how it is they got hold of the German interior minister’s finger prints and what the larger meaning of this action, will be.

By the end of the recording they realized we hadn’t spoken in detail about many of the OTHER examples of what the German government is trying to do when it comes to data retention and privacy. Below is a list of links they recommended I include for better details about what is going on.

EU-Wide implementation of the data retention

German minister defends ‘Trojan horse’ spy tactic as needed to fight terror

Schäuble: Facts Obtained Through Torture Should be Used

Oh and as a bonus, the Finger Print story in Wired.

 

KGB Baltic Documents

A new project came to my attention this week via global voices: The KGB Baltic document project. Decades and decades of secret KGB records and documents about activity in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Just glancing through the list of documents, translated to English, there are titles like:

  • about the work done to expose Lithuanian and other bourgeois nationalists through the broadcast and print media.
  • about the constant attention which should be paid to known writers of anti-Soviet documents written anonymously, and to those who published and distributed them.
  • or

  • plan of the main KGB agency and operative measures on how to strengthen the KGB’s fight against ideological sabotage aimed at the country’s artists

Amazing to see the types of surveillance this secret and wide reaching agency was involved in. Just reading through these kinds of headlines, one might think to oneself “what a strange time that was”.

Yet what if we could get our hands on CIA and FBI documents from the last 2 to 4 years? Reading through info of how agents try to disrupt peace marches, or infiltrate groups organizing against the war. Artists and community leaders that are, as we speak, monitored and tracked.. in the name of “national security.”

For now Ill keep reading through the KGB documents and try not to see the parallels.