& you think our lot are sucking their thumbs? Take a drive around ... think of what Your government are quietly doing!

Or take a walk around the centre of London, or (now likely) choose any other population centre to walk around... The area is blanket covered with CCTV and includes computer monitoring that recognizes the features of pedestrians to follow their every movement and track them across the CCTV zones. You are even recognized again if you briefly drop out of view or as you move between cameras.

Loiter or otherwise behave differently to 'average behavior' and you are automatically flagged up to 'security operators' to eye you up...


All for "your own safety" ofcourse...

This one in a city near you...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

& you think our lot are sucking their thumbs? Take a drive around the Holborn area, Chancery Lane, New Fetter Lane or Shoe Lane, or even Fleet Street. While everyone is concentrating on the Yanks, think of what Your government are quietly doing!

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With recent events, we've had George Orwell's 1984 explode into our faces. Now this?


Privacy activists sue FBI for access to facial recognition records

Feds ignore FOIA queries about massive biometrics database

... The law enforcement agency is busily beefing up its Next Generation Identification (NGI) database, which will include biometric information like iris scans, palm prints, face-recognition-ready pics and voice data, adding to its existing database of fingerprints for law enforcement agencies across the US.

"NGI will result in a massive expansion of government data collection for both criminal and noncriminal purposes,"...

... Face-recognition technology is among the most alarming new developments, because Americans cannot easily take precautions against the covert, remote, and mass capture of their images."...


Here's looking at YOU baby!

All in our own little world,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

So... Premier League football moguls can arbitrarily turn off the internet?!


Premier League seeks ISP site block...

... The League wants ISPs to cut off access to FirstRow1.eu, which operates from Sweden.

The BBC understands none of the ISPs plans to challenge the court order.

If successful, the action will be the first sport-related site block in the UK.

The Premier League's move follows a precedent set by the BPI music industry body, which has been successful in having several piracy websites blocked in the UK...

... Jim Killock, of the Open Rights Group, said he worried that conflicted interests might lead to the blocking process becoming less transparent.

"All of the major ISPs now have differing degrees of conflicts of interest," he told the BBC.

"Sky, BT, Virgin and TalkTalk all supply televisions services now...


So... Who 'owns' The Internet? And what of 'freedom'??

IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

D/D shakes head. Thinks of bill from power company dear old Dad got.
Background, had been going along just fine for some years. Power company made some upgrades to the power vault. They put a new meter on. [New meters start at zero.] Interim bill arrives for a three day period. It is for seven figures and about 25% of their generating capacity. I'm sure you can figure out what happened. Told in a very flat droll voice "that is your bill" by the CSR. Did offer a super's phone number. Super, who can do math in their head realizes the sheer impossibility of the bill. Don't pay anything, I'll get it taken care of (and please dear god don't show it to a consumer reporter!) Takes a big boss override of a manager over ride of a super's over ride to get it fixed. Just real happy it wasn't D/D.

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Sirius is right in that D/D's are OK in themselves, but you have to be careful with whom you do business. Some companies really are ramshackle outfits not to be trusted. As one on pension I cant afford to keep that much of a buffer in my accounts anyway, so like Sirius I keep a close eye on it.

As already stated, mistakes can & do happen, but the D/D guarantee does work.

Several years ago, & as Chris has stated, one needs to keep a buffer in account. I did, but one company took the same D/D twice within several days & as I, at that time, only reconciled my accounts when I received the monthly statements, went overdrawn which I only noticed when I went to draw cash from an ATM.

It took the Bank & I several hours to go through all the transactions until we found it. As I'd proved it wasn't an error on my part, they cancelled the bank charges & refunded the second D/D which was greatly appreciated.

That was in April. Then in June that year, I noticed that I had too much in account compared to my own records. On checking statements, found that the company had refunded the 2nd D/D as well but failed to notify me.

I cancelled that D/D & have not dealt with that company since.

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As can I Chris, and amend the amount paid via a Standing Order while online.

I always consider a Direct Debit is you licensing the company to dip their hand in to your wallet. I am not that confident nor impressed by the DD money back guarantee.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

I can control both standing orders and direct debits myself via my online banking account. Standing orders are usefull where you have regular payments that don't change, such as paying an insurance policy in 12 installments, instead of a lump sum. Direct Debits are variable payments that the company takes as required, where the amount changes over time. An example there would be pay as you go gas and electric bills that differ in winter and summer. Its easier than them billing you every month for single payments, but you do have to keep a buffer in your account. They both have their place. If I so wanted I could go online and cancel every SO and DD in 5 minutes.

When I make regular payments I always insist on Standing Orders. I control them not the company.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

They do it for credit cards. How many times have people used their C/C's only to have it blocked as the banks thought that being used abroad, assumed it was a fraudulent transaction, with the user having to contact the bank to get it authorised?

Anyone with any common sense informs their card issuer of the dates, and where, before they go abroad, so that they are expecting the transactions that they will receive.

Stating the obvious again I see, unfortunately, even then, mistakes do & will continue to happen.

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They do it for credit cards. How many times have people used their C/C's only to have it blocked as the banks thought that being used abroad, assumed it was a fraudulent transaction, with the user having to contact the bank to get it authorised?

Anyone with any common sense informs their card issuer of the dates, and where, before they go abroad, so that they are expecting the transactions that they will receive.

It's not a case of E-Commerce, but one of your bank & the companies you deal with not noting weird transactions.

Surely, the banks should have spotted those D/D's being reinstated after such a long time being cancelled?

They do it for credit cards. How many times have people used their C/C's only to have it blocked as the banks thought that being used abroad, assumed it was a fraudulent transaction, with the user having to contact the bank to get it authorised?

Yet, allow fraudulent transactions to occur in the user's home country, for example a user uses his credit/debit card in his home town/city at say, 13:30 & 30 minutes later there is a transaction on that card at 14:00 in Southampton which they let through?

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Sirius, that is one of the main reasons why I try to avoid e commerce as much as possible.

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Hmmn, no current backup procedures in place then?

Restarted Direct Debits

Up to a decade after they were cancelled?

"Bacs said it was made aware last summer that Totalcaresupport.com had reactivated some direct debits without being authorised to do so. It understood it was the result of a technical issue that resulted in the loss of its most current database, so it submitted a direct debit file which, by mistake, contained some former customers' details."

So no recent backup?

Surely, they must have had a D/D file more recent than a 7/10 year old copy?

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Unfortunately too often the answer is no you can't trust most of the companies you have to deal with. Which is why we have so many dag blamed lawyers.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

BBC's Watchdog programme confirmed that it was not possible for a broken handset to download that amount of data in the time specified........

.....hmmnnn.....

...Orange profits not large enough for them?

£163,178.86 Mobile Shock

Just goes to show you can't trust them . And they didn't even give him 6 months free service for the hassel . I would give the cash back and try and sue them geees 250 pound wasn't even 1 month's bill he payed .

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BBC's Watchdog programme confirmed that it was not possible for a broken handset to download that amount of data in the time specified........

.....hmmnnn.....

...Orange profits not large enough for them?

£163,178.86 Mobile Shock

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There's an awful lot of call centre fraud and dubious practices going on where your details get forwarded on whether you want your details passing on or not.

Next you know, from whatever innocuous foreign call centre interaction, you are now on the spamming list of other untrusted call centres. Often, they will have 'number unavailable' or a completely fictitious number for their caller id...


There's also the dead calls from the auto dialers.

And then certain phone providers charge extra to block such nuisance calls...


Good luck,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I totally understand and why over here some company's have brought the call centres back to oz people where finding it hard to understand them and peoples personal details have been used to commit fraud .And some of the company's noticed people where going to other company's that had there call centres here and started losing money

Just the other night I called the operator for a number I had a realy hard time understanding him and he ended up sending me the wrong number so I waited till I got back home and looked it up myself

So I would have to vote NO you can't trust Company's

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