Movement for a Socialist Future

London-based Statewatch, with partner organisations the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Focus on the Global South, Friends Committee (US) and International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) has published an in-depth report on "The emergence of a global infrastructure for registration and surveillance".

With the support of around 100 civil liberties groups and NGOs from across the world, the report is backed by the launch of the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS).

"Policies like the incorporation of biometrics into all identity and travel documents, the obligations on service providers to retain all telecommunications data, and the surveillance of air travel are being agreed in intergovernmental forums like the EU, G8 and ICAO" said Tony Bunyan, Director of Statewatch.

"They are now global surveillance issues. We are pleased to be joining with so many civil liberties groups from around the world to oppose these developments."

The ICAMS "signposts"

The ICAMS report sets out ten "signposts" that show the emergence of an infrastructure for global surveillance and the alarming context of this development. The highlights the mechanisms and policies that underpin this infrastructure and how it is being implemented across the world.

The ICAMS signposts:

The Registration of Populations - for example under the US VISIT programme, the EU Visa Information System and the construction of national databases.
The Creation of a Global Identification System - though the introduction of biometrics into ID cards and travel documents and the creation of databases; the EU has agreed that everyone will have be fingerprinted to get a passport by 2007
The Creation of an Infrastructure for the Global Surveillance of Movement - through the collection and exchange of passenger data ("PNR") and the creation of profiles on travelers; the EU has signed a PNR Treaty with the US that abandons data protection rules
The Creation of an Infrastructure for the Global Surveillance of Electronic Communications and Financial Transactions - through mandatory "data retention" regimes and new laws on police access to private sector information; for example in the draft EU framework decision on mandatory data retention
The Convergence of National and International Databases - in the EU the second-generation "Schengen Information System" (SIS II) will incorporate data from a range of national and international law enforcement databases
The Spread of the "Risk Assessment" Model - through "risk profiling", "terrorist profiling" and "data mining" everyone is a suspect - but it is increasingly difficult for innocent people to who maybe labeled as a "security risk" to challenge this
Security-Force Integration and the Loss of Sovereign Checks and Balances - international mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreements, joint investigation teams and the exchange of data across national borders are not subject to adequate safeguards; the EU has entered into three such treaties with the US (MLA, Europol and PNR)
The Corporate Security Complex - technological advance and the climate of fear engendered by "September 11" is putting profit and security above civil liberties and privacy concerns
The Erosion of Democratic Values - in developing global surveillance policies governments are removing judicial oversight of law enforcement agents and public officials, circumvented democratic oversight and debate by "policy laundering" and disregarded privacy and data protection law; this is part of a broader assault on due process in the criminal justice system
Rendition, Torture, Death - the loss of moral compass on the part of the United States and other countries that hold themselves out as defenders of human rights as they have begun to embrace inhumane and exceptional practices of social control.

Executive summary:

Full report: