Privacy
Has your local shop blacklisted you?
Britain’s obsession with surveillance is reaching new heights. Several of the UK’s largest retailers have quietly installed facial recognition checkpoints…
The authoritarianism of British Transport Police
When our freedoms are being taken away we are like the proverbial frog boiled alive in water where the temperature…
The death of the private citizen
The internet is not a private place, but news outlets have decided that it’s up to them to determine when…
Why is everyone on Facebook so paranoid about their privacy?
There’s a line in Desperately Seeking Susan where Madonna (Susan) reads aloud the diary of Roberta, the bored housewife she…
In praise of privacy
David Niven’s younger son Jamie, now an old man and a bit overweight, approached my table and announced that he…
Forget your data – it’s your DNA privacy you should be worried about
Nearly ten years ago, a lorry driver known only as ‘Michael Harry K’ adopted an extreme response to combating what…
Are we all potential cyberterrorists now?
Hollywood got there first, of course. Back in 1983, before most of us even learned — then forgot again —…
What Samsung’s new TVs owe to Jeremy Bentham
Watching brief Samsung warned users of its voice-activated televisions that what they said in front of the TV could be…
Spectator letters: In defence of the GMC and Ukip members, and how Rachmaninov spelled Rachmaninov
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
Every 73 seconds, police use snooping powers to access our personal records. Who'll rein them in?
Police are using an anti-terror law to run wild in the public’s mobile phone records
The age of selfie-obsession
People can’t seem to stop taking pictures of themselves – and their private parts. It’s the ultimate expression of our increasingly puerile and narcissistic society
Is clicking on Jennifer Lawrence’s naked pictures really as bad as hacking and distributing them?
‘If you click on Jennifer Lawrence’s naked pictures,’ said the headline on the Guardian’s website, ‘you’re perpetuating her abuse.’ That…
Radek Sikorski’s notebook: Goose-steppers in Oxford, and a drone in my garden
As the BA flight from Warsaw landed at Heathrow, I felt a little tremor of anxiety, though it wasn’t anything…
Ten reasons why conservatives should take Edward Snowden seriously
So why are British conservatives determined to ignore his revelations?
Dear Mary: How can I escape my neighbour’s spy cameras?
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
Letters: Jeff Jarvis defends internet companies, Royal Society fellows defend Lord Lawson
A net gain Sir: Jamie Bartlett tries to balance plus and minus, and ends with zero (‘Little Brothers are watching…
iSPY: How the internet buys and sells your secrets
If you use the internet at all, companies will be grabbing whatever information they can find about you
Joan Collins’s notebook: Fighting libel and rude houseguests
I recently had to spend a great deal of time attempting to clear my name from a ludicrous assertion in…
