“Examples of poor or unnecessary use of section 44 [Terrorism Act 2000] abound. I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist… Read the full story

This column has banged on at some length in recent times about the dangers to civil liberty and privacy caused by unlimited surveillance, and now the EU is weighing in with the same concerns. “Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used” said Viviane Reding, Read the full story

In August 2004 the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warned against the possibility of the UK sleepwalking into what he referred to as a “surveillance society” in which the tools of mass surveillance have become ubiquitous and individual privacy a thing of the past. Read the full story

“We regard privacy and the application of executive and legislative restraint to the use of surveillance and data collection powers as necessary conditions for the exercise of individual freedom and liberty.” Not the words of a committed civil liberties’ campaigner Read the full story