Spy cameras are being installed at household rubbish dumps to check what residents are throwing away and to fine those breaking recycling rules.How do you feel about living in 'Big Brother' Britain? Are these cameras justified? Tell us in readers' comments below...The sophisticated CCTV systems are capable of reading and storing car number plates to identify who is using the dump, how often, and what they are disposing of.But human rights groups condemned the surveillance as an 'unjustifiable' way of tracking people's movements.The Big Brother-style tactics come as the Government puts pressure on local councils to cut the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites. But the fear is that extra surveillance will only lead to more illegal fly-tipping.The Mail on Sunday has already exposed the electronic 'bugs' secretly planted in hundreds of thousands of household wheelie bins.Now sophisticated internet-controlled cameras are being installed at waste sites across the country. Officially they are to improve security, but council chiefs admit they will also monitor who is visiting the tips.Several councils also say they will use camera evidence to mount prosecutions - raising fears more householders will be taken to court over what they throw away.Cameras have been installed ...   more »

London, England (AHN) - Technology experts are saying that mobile phones are becoming closer to digital wallets, especially with a recent agreement reached among cell phone operators to expand near field communications (NFC). NFC is a short-range wireless technology like RFID tags, which are used to track stock by retailers. Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSM Association said the tags inside phone could be provided with personal information which could also serve as car keys, money, tickets and travel cards. Currently, mobile firms representing 40 percent of the global market support NFC. Sinclair explains, "Interoperability and standardization are the fundamental requirements for mobile market success. NFC opens up a wide range of possibilities and we are committed to ensuring the mobile industry works together to realize its potential." Sinclair adds that there are two elements to NFC technologies which is oftentimes called as "contactless" applications. the first is the tag inside the mobile phone which can store data and transmit that information wirelessly, and a reader, which can access the data stored on tags. An NFC-enabled mobile phone can be used to buy a concert ticker over the phone which would then hold those details, as well as ...   more »

Passports which have rocketed in value to make them more secure can be easily cloned using a microchip reader bought over the internet for less than £100.
The revelation is a huge embarrassment for the Home Office, which has increased the cost of travel documents by 60 per cent in less than a year.
The rise to £66 paid for the introduction of a supposedly-secure biometric chip on the passport, containing the owner's personal details and an image of their face.
The idea was to make it harder to produce a copy of a person's travel document.
But it has now emerged that a simple microchip reader, purchased from the Internet for £95.73, can clone the information - including the photograph.
It could then be used to produced an exact replica of the travel document, complete with a new microchip.
Opposition MPs called for the three million biometric passports issued since March this year from the Home Office's new £60m production lines to be recalled.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Three million people now have passports that expose them to a greater risk of identity fraud than before.
"We need an urgent redesign of the biometric ...   more »

By Paul Stokes
A school that wanted to offer only halal chicken on its Christmas menu has been forced to back down after a revolt by parents and pupils.
Children at the 1,000-strong comprehensive, where one in five is of Asian origin, will now have the option of traditional turkey with trimmings.
Oakwood School, in Rotherham, said its halal decision had been made to bring "a spirit of inclusion" to the Christmas meal.
advertisementBut Rachel Johnson, who has two daughters at the school, said: "It has really rocked my boat because I feel my culture is being stolen away from me. I have no objection to halal meat being on the menu so long as there is a choice of traditional Christmas fare.
"Our culture and religion are being trampled on and it is not right."
The £1.75 Christmas dinner is made available for pupils as a treat in place of the usual school menu.
Under the original proposal there would have been an option of sausages wrapped in bacon alongside the halal chicken. For meat to be halal it has to slaughtered while mentioning the name of Allah and the carcass hung upside down long enough for all blood ...   more »

WASHINGTON —  A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.
"The bottom line is this is an important research project to determine the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.
Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.
It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is home to the ...   more »