Spy chiefs target travel cards
SECURITY chiefs are demanding the right to monitor the movement of bus, train and car passengers in Scotland as part of the battle against terrorism. MI5 wants to use live information from a new generation of swipe-card payment systems planned for buses, trams and trains, as well as automatic number-plate recognition, to plot the movement of suspects as they travel. It argues the information could be used to foil terrorist incidents such as last year's Glasgow Airport attack. But civil rights campaigners say the plan is another step towards a "surveillance society" and is open to abuse. <snip> A security source told Scotland on Sunday: "At the moment, MI5 and MI6 chiefs can demand to see the details of specific individuals using the London Transport network who are already 'flagged up' on their own computer system. "However, they now want to be able to 'trawl' the whole travel network. By being able to access the movements of individuals, the security services will either be able to monitor a situation developing 'live' or go back through the database to establish routes and timings. <snip> The security agencies also want access to the Automatic Number Plate Recognition Scheme, a UK-wide network of 3,000 CCTV cameras. The technology has the eventual capacity to monitor up to 50 million cars a day, including the time and date a vehicle was spotted, and its location, direction and final destination. <snip> http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Spy-chiefs-target--travel.4049184.jp
SECURITY chiefs are demanding the right to monitor the movement of bus, train and car passengers in Scotland as part of the battle against terrorism. MI5 wants to use live information from a new generation of swipe-card payment systems planned for buses, trams and trains, as well as automatic number-plate recognition, to plot the movement of suspects as they travel. It argues the information could be used to foil terrorist incidents such as last year's Glasgow Airport attack. But civil rights campaigners say the plan is another step towards a "surveillance society" and is open to abuse. <snip> A security source told Scotland on Sunday: "At the moment, MI5 and MI6 chiefs can demand to see the details of specific individuals using the London Transport network who are already 'flagged up' on their own computer system. "However, they now want to be able to 'trawl' the whole travel network. By being able to access the movements of individuals, the security services will either be able to monitor a situation developing 'live' or go back through the database to establish routes and timings. <snip> The security agencies also want access to the Automatic Number Plate Recognition Scheme, a UK-wide network of 3,000 CCTV cameras. The technology has the eventual capacity to monitor up to 50 million cars a day, including the time and date a vehicle was spotted, and its location, direction and final destination. <snip> http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Spy-chiefs-target--travel.4049184.jp