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Electronic Frontiers Australia file complaint against Retailers for failure to obtain valid consent for facial recognition

Electronic Frontiers Australia has joined with Digital Rights Watch and the Australian Privacy Foundation to file an official complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about the conduct of Bunnings, Kmart, and The Good Guys

The grounds for complaint are as follows:

Lack of valid consent

APP 3.3 provides that APP entities must not collect sensitive information unless:

• they have obtained consent to the collection and the collection is ‘reasonably necessary for their functions or activities, or

• an exception listed in APP 3.4 applies.

The APP Guidelines provide that, for consent to be valid, it may be express or implied, but:

• the individual must be adequately informed before giving consent,

the individual must give consent voluntarily,

the consent must be current and specific, and

the individual must have the capacity to understand and communicate their consent.

In addition, the fact that the technology operates on every person entering a store means that minors, who cannot legally consent, are also having their biometric information collected and used by the retailers

See link to Open Voice: https://www.facebook.com/105441945275112/posts/175172434968729/

Retailers Bunnings stated in response:

“We let customers know about our use of CCTV and facial recognition technology through signage at our store entrances and also in our privacy policy, which is available on our website”.

Providing notice of collection is not the same as obtaining consent. The circumstances of the collection of biometric information is covert.

Full Details: https://www.efa.org.au/2022/06/22/efa-complains-to-oaic-about-retailers-use-of-facial-surveillance/

We refer to our previous posts on the proposed introduction of Facial Recognition Technology in Ireland and submissions people can adapt to voice their strong objection to this dystopian mass surveillance which poses significant risks to individual and societal privacy rights and to freedom of expression, assembly and movement(https://www.facebook.com/107967184868855/posts/309256261406612/)

See also link to Petition raised by Jana Lunden https://www.change.org/p/stop-facial-recognition-surveillance

The State are attempting to introduce this Chinese-style Facial Recognition Technology by pulling on the emotional heartstrings of the people in Ireland under the guise that it will prevent murders, child killers and protect innocent people. Minister McEntee has failed to provide any hard facts on this unfounded claim and has ignored the evidence of high levels of inaccuracies found in the study conducted on the London Metropolitan Police’s pilot project. The London Metropolitan Police introduced Facial Recognition Technology in 2020 and there is currently a campaign by civil liberty groups such as Big Brother Watch UK and Liberty to STOP this Surveillance because of the risks to people’s civil and human rights.

The thinking people of Ireland know that if Facial Recognition Technology is introduced under the Garda Síochána Recording Devises Bill for ‘limited circumstances’ it is only a matter of time before it is used as a tool of mass surveillance by successive authoritarian Governments.

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The hypocrisy of the my body my choice movement

The world is witnessing the outpouring of anger and condemnation by celebrities, singers, politicians and human rights NGO’s throughout the world following the US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade.

We hear them shout loudly in protests and on social media “Freedom” “Bodily Automony” “My Body My Choice”.

The very same people who wanted enforced mandatory vaccinations and called for the unvaccinated to lose their jobs. They advocated for the unvaccinated to be frozen out of society, segregated and denied even basic grocery shopping.

The thinking people of the world are not duped by this screaming and shouting about bodily autonomy and freedooms by the same people who are the gatekeepers of this tyrannical global regime.

All has been revealed.

LIBERTY UK WINS LANDMARK SNOOPERS’ CHARTER CASE

Human rights organisation Liberty has achieved a landmark victory in a legal challenge against powers used by Government bodies to spy on the UK population.

In a judgment handed down on 24th June, the High Court of Justice ruled that it is unlawful for the security services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to obtain individuals’ communications data from telecom providers without having prior independent authorisation, when those bodies are carrying out criminal investigations.

Since 2016, the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) – otherwise known as the ‘Snoopers’ Charter’ provided state agencies access to private communications and personal information regardless of whether they suspect us of any wrongdoing. Data that can be accessed under the Act includes telephone records, text messages, location history and internet browsing history.

The Court ruled that there are insufficient safeguards within the Act when it comes to the security services obtaining people’s private data.

The judgment means that the security services will no longer have the power, when carrying out criminal investigations, to get detailed information on the UK population from telecom providers without having first obtained independent approval that this is necessary and proportionate.

This requirement already applies to the police and, following today’s judgment, will also apply to the security services. The court ruled that there is no reason for the security services not to be subject to the same safeguards as the police when also conducting the same criminal investigative function.

This judgment is the latest stage in a long-running battle fought by Liberty over surveillance powers within the Snooper’s Charter. Liberty believes that powers within the IPA are too broad and the safeguards around bulk powers fail to protect rights to privacy and free expression, including safeguards protecting journalists and their sources.

Liberty has called on the Government to introduce proper safeguards into the IPA that protect human rights, including the right to privacy and free expression.

Liberty lawyer Megan Goulding said:

“We all want to have control over our personal information, and to have a government that respects our rights to privacy and freedom of expression. This judgment is a major victory in the fight against mass surveillance”

“Mass surveillance powers do not make us safer, they breach our privacy and undermine core pillars of our democracy. Today represents a huge landmark in reining in mass surveillance powers, and we hope now the Government creates proper safeguards that protect our rights.”

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125Patrick McNeely and 124 others

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Senator Regina Doherty tells the Scottish Parliament there are 9 genders in Ireland and a woman’s role is NOT being “downgraded”.

Senator Regina Doherty spoke at the Scottish Parliament as reported on by mass media outlets including the Irish Times yesterday. She warned of a ‘summer of discontent’ over trans issues.

She stated that there is a “growing debate” in Ireland surrounding gender identity that was not existent in 2015. Senator Doherty referred to the opposition to the proposed change of language under the Maternity Protection Acts in the Work Life Balance Bill from ‘pregnant women’ to ‘pregnant people’ and that a debate was needed with “some women” who “might think their role is being downgraded but its not being downgraded”.

It is striking that Regina Doherty refers to a ‘debate’ in the same sentence as diminishing women’s opposition to any reference to she, her, female or women being literally erased in the Maternity Protection Acts under Heading 10, 11 and 12 of the Work Life Balance Bill to allow for transgender males. It is NOT for Senator Doherty to inform women, who are capable of thinking for themselves, whether or not their role is being diminished. The arrogance and irony of Senator Doherty to suggest that those in opposition are somehow misguided and following a false ‘narrative’ that a woman’s role is being diminished whilst at the same time stating to the Scottish Parliament that there are now “around” 9 genders in Ireland as a matter of undisputable fact.

The State are obviously panicking about the growing resistance from women AND men in Ireland to the erasure of women in the Maternity Protection Acts under the Work Life Balance Bill. Regina Doherty refers to a “huge amount of negativity” and this in itself is telling. Lawyers for Justice Ireland are of the opinion that the State are fearful of the upsurge of growing dissent in Ireland on the ground about the literal erasure of women and the rally organised in Celebration Of Womanhood on 7/7 at 12 noon at Leinster House.

We would urge you to attend this Rally to make our voices very clear to the State that men women and children are together Standing For Women. Women will NOT be erased or silenced.

The hypocrisy of Senator Doherty who suggests that the Work Life Balance Bill DOES NOT diminish her “.. womanhood, my femininity, my role in society as a mother…” by the erasure of any reference to female YET describes herself on her Twitter Profile as ‘Proud Mam, Wife, Daughter’. This begs the question: if the deletion of any reference to a female DOES NOT ‘downgrade’ women why has the Senator not yet replaced ‘ Proud Mam, Wife, Daughter’ with ‘Proud Person’?.

Senator Doherty needs to be reminded of the words of Friedrich Nietzche:”No power can be maintained when it is only represented by hypocrites”.

Christian Tehres MEP speaks out against the extension of the EU Digital Covid Certificate

Lawyers for Justice Ireland commend Christian Tehres MEP for speaking out against the extension of the EU Digital Covid Certificate by the EU Parliament for another year until June 2023.

He states that its purpose was to “domisticate” EU citizens into compliance and submission and is leading to the Chinafication of Europe and a Digital tyranny.

Be part of a worldwide resistance movement against the global digital ID agenda.

DEMAND THE TABLING OF A GOVERNMENT MOTION ON OUR HUMANITARIAN AND HOMELESSNESS CRISIS BEFORE SUMMER RECESS

The Dail adjourns on 14th July for the Summer Recess. We have drafted a submission people can adapt and send to their TD’s to demand the Tabling of a Motion on our human homelessness and housing crisis in light of the State’s policy of continuing to accept an uncapped number of Ukrainian Refugees.

Dear (Name of TD)

Re: Urgent Tabling of a Motion Before Dail Recess.

Humanitarian Homelessness And Housing Crisis

In the last few days the people of Ireland have witnessed Mattie McGrath TD and Carol Nolan TD actually doing the job that they were voted in to do by publicly questioning the State’s policy of accepting uncapped Ukrainian Refugees despite our own humanitarian homelessness and housing crisis.

The people of Ireland were never asked whether they agree with the State’s policy of abandoning any illusion of neutrality by taking one side in a war and accepting uncapped Ukrainian Refugees into a country that is already overstretched to breaking point with housing, education and health services. We have over 10,000 homeless, over 61,000 on the local authority housing list, the longest hospital waiting list and most overcrowded classrooms in Europe.

Carol Nolan TD was verbally attacked by the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien in the Oireachtas for raising a legitimate Parliamentary Question on her constituents behalf. The question posed was simply to ask if the State had conducted an Assessment on housing delivery for its own citizens. The Minister rather than answering this fundamental question attempted to shut her down by playing the ‘racism’ card which has failed miserably as has been shown by the overwhelming public support for Carol Nolan TD and Mattie McGrath TD.

It has now reached a critical point in our society with the Central Statistics Office reporting today 24th June than an additional 3,000 Ukrainian Refugees have arrived in the last fortnight. Our infrastructural services are at risk of total collapse and the policy of accepting uncapped Ukrainian Refugees needs to be reversed immediately to protect the welfare of the people of Ireland.

I call upon you as a political representative to now table an urgent motion in the Oireachtas to deal with this unsustainable and reckless policy before we are at risk of descending into a critical state of economic and social upheaval in our country. It is your duty to serve your people and to honour our ancestors who fought and died for this country.

Yours etc.

___________

Signed

Mattie McGrath TD asks the Government will it continue handing over our freedoms to the globalists?

Lawyers For Justice Ireland commend Mattie McGrath TD for his Parliamentary Question in the Oireachtas on whether the Government are going to continue handing over our freedoms to the EU and to International globalists, namely the WEF and WHO.

He rightly states that our freedoms and Sovereignty have been hard-won by our ancestors.

We salute Mattie McGrath TD for standing up on behalf of the People of Ireland. Mattie is amongst only a few politicians that are actually doing the job they were voted in to do by protecting the constitutional, civil and human rights of the people over the financial interests of multibillionaire and trillionaire globalists.

There are those who have attempted to silence Mattie by direct and indirect innuendos and suggestions that he is ‘racist’ on social media following his interview on the Claire Byrne show. The thinking people of Ireland know that such labelling is used in an attempt to quell any questioning of the State. The same tactics were used during Covid-19 when anyone attempted to question the lockdown, face masks and vaccine mandates which have all proved to be inherently destructive, flawed and irreversibly damaging to the entire social fabric of society.

Senator Garret Ahearn called Mattie’s comments on the Claire Byrne show “absolutely disgraceful” and stated that it is not the “view of the vast majority of people in Tipperary. I’d take 1000 Ukrainian Refugees over Mattie McGrath”

We are of the opinion that Senator Ahearn might just get a shock if he went into the community and actually asked the ordinary people on the ground what they thought.

Such labelling techniques no longer work as more and more people are becoming awake every hour of every day and the State cannot stop the changing tide no matter what it does in an attempt to crush resistance. The State has been revealed.

Quite frankly the thinking people of Ireland no longer give a damn what they are labelled as they they take strength from the unwavering knowledge that they are on the side of right.

The end of woke if you want it

We have come to a pivotal new point in society. One where people will no longer bow under the pressure of their labelling and name calling.

We witnessed yesterday Carol Nolan TD being verbally attacked by the Minister for Housing for raising legitimate questions about the State’s Risk Assessment on the policy to accept uncapped Ukrainian Refugees. Rather than crumble with the accusations against her, Caron Nolan stood her ground and pursued the truth.

Mattie McGrath TD did an interview with the Claire Byrne show irrespective of the repercussions by the labelling brigade who subsequently suggested he was racist.

This follows Senator Sharon Keoghan recently speaking out against the erasure of any reference to women under the Maternity Protection Acts. She did this regardless of the backlash.

All the liberal leftist society have are threats and name calling as they cannot debate the realities of what is going on. The threats they make against the people are that if they do not go along with their agenda there will be hardships and chaos. The thinking people are only too aware that this society is already descending into extreme economic and social chaos.

They rely on trying to stop debate with name calling and that is all they have.

Let us take strength from the name calling as we know that the only reason they do it is because we are a threat to their regime and this is the only thing they have. The people of Ireland should make no apologies. The days of retreating in the face of this name calling because of fear of public condemnation are over.

There is a shift in the psyche of the people across the world. More and more people are no longer silenced by their empty threats and name calling which has no impact on the growing resistance movement. The pendulum swung so far and is now making its way back.

No apology

No retreat

We don’t give a damn

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Minister O”Brien accuses Carol Nolan TD of raising Parliamentary Questions that “pose a risk to social cohesion” and threatens that she “walked a very fine line” because she asked the State about their capacity to house its own citizens

Carol Nolan, TD for Laois-Offaly, asked Darragh O’Brien if the Government planned to conduct an assessment on the State’s capacity “to deliver housing to its own citizens in light of the enormous rise in inward immigration, international protection and asylum applications.”

https://twitter.com/CNolanO…/status/1539651798763507712

The Minister responded by condemning Carol Nolan for raising the questions. To threaten a TD that she “walked a thin line” simply by asking the Housing Minister about the sustainability of the State’s housing policy demonstrates that the Government want to quell any public debate on this topic.

We wish to commend Carol Nolan TD for standing up against this clear attempt by the Housing Minister to silence public debate on this fundamental issue. Let us remember we have over 10,000 homeless in Ireland and this number is increasing by the month. Our housing crisis has reached epic proportions and the Minister for Housing dares to suggest that a political representative doing her job by raising such Parliamentary Questions “poses a risk to social cohesion”.

Carol Nolan is a woman that will not be silenced and retorted that the State’s policy is “reckless” as we already have an unsustainable housing crisis.

It is the State that is risking the utter disintegration of social cohesion in Ireland through their policies without any regard for the best interests of its citizens.

The State have taken one side in a conflict and the people of Ireland are suffering the consequences. We are being told that the hardships will increase including food and fuel shortages because of Ireland’s ‘war effort’. We are also told that the State will continue with their policy, which could be reversed at any time, of taking in an uncapped number of Ukrainian Refugees even though we already have an unsustainable housing crisis, the longest hospital waiting lists in Europe and the most overcrowded classrooms.

The People of Ireland have not been asked if they agree with the State’s policy in abandoning any illusion of neutrality by taking one side in a conflict and publicly supporting the EU Policy in Ukraine of contributing billions to military aid on top of the $40 billion funded by the USA.

It will be the ordinary people of Ireland that will suffer extreme hardships because of the State’s reckless policy NOT the political leaders like Minister O’Brien and the wealthy elite.

We would urge people to contact their TD’s to stand up and speak out against Minister O’Brien’s tactics to silence TD Carol Nolan for raising legitimate questions about the State’s ability to deliver housing. We salute Mattie McGrath TD for speaking out against Minister O’Brien’s behaviour.

Minister O”Brien should be reminded that as a public office holder in a so-called democracy he has a duty to be open, transparent and publicly accountable to the people he serves. Rather than answer Carol Nolan TD he attempted to shut her down with his accusations and threats. Demand that he now answers on public record the very simple question: where is the Risk Assessment on the State’s capacity to deliver housing to its own citizens in light of our unsustainable humanitarian homelessness and housing crisis and the policy of continuing to accept an uncapped number of Ukrainian Refugees?

The People Will Not Be Silenced

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