By Maureen Brosnahan - CBC News

A new report says many Canadians, especially in Alberta, are having their privacy rights violated because police are releasing non-criminal information in routine police checks..."The status quo is unacceptable..."There is an urgent need for greater fairness and clarity in the police background check process."

By Paul Bond - 11 April 2012

Britain’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat government has announced plans to extend wider state surveillance across e-mail, telephone and social media communications. Senior government officials have made clear their determination to press ahead with these and other proposals that would strengthen the repressive apparatus of the state.

By Dana Gabriel

The move towards a North American security perimeter is being done without congressional or parliamentary approval. There is no reason to trust that our governments will strike any kind of balance between security and freedom. That is why it is imperative that we demand more transparency and input. With a joint action plan expected to be released soon, it is my hope that Canadians and Americans will reject any perimeter security deal that reduces privacy rights and further puts our sovereignty at risk.

By Amy Chung and Jordan Press - September 15, 2011

The author of a report criticizing Canada's anticipated trade and security agreement with the United States says Canada is "selling" its sovereignty with no guarantee of a reduction of red tape at the border for Canadian business..."We've got a desperate attempt by the Canadian government to try to do something by selling basically the privacy rights of Canadians to the Americans, in order to get changes on the border."

By Peter Daniels - 26 August 2011

The New York City Police Department, working in close collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency, has carried out an unprecedented spying operation directed against Muslim immigrants and Muslim-Americans over the past decade...“A months-long investigation….has revealed that the NYPD operates far outside its borders and targets ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government...”

By Sherwood Ross - July 20, 2011

...[A] global eavesdropping scheme being run today by the United States and Great Britain dwarfs anything that Rupert Murdoch's editors at The News of The World (TNTW) ever dared attempt...Launched in the 1970s to spy on Soviet satellite communications, the [National Security Agency] and its junior partners in Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand operate ECHELON, which is a network of massive, highly automated interception stations covering the globe...

By Juan Cole - April 19, 2011

It always disturbed me when on Star Trek the captain asked the ship’s computer where a crew member was and was told the person’s exact location. Even civilians such as the ship’s physician and the empathy counselor were not immune from these inquiries...Is America heading toward being one big star ship, where government officials can casually inquire at will into our whereabouts and private doings?

By Seth Freed Wessler - October 21, 2010

Last week, Homeland Security released an internal memo on how to use social networking websites to investigate fraud in marriage-based immigration applications. The document is the first of what’s expected to be a ream of incriminating paper...force[d] out of several law enforcement agencies. The documents raise serious questions about government surveillance in the 21st century and the rules that protect everyone...from abuse.

By Ari Melber - October 12, 2010

Facebook forces users, including minors, into legal agreements granting the company perpetual rights to personal information, pictures and data shared on the site...It has also repeatedly launched controversial programs to track and sell users' private information...Then there was "Places"...which enables users to publicize their whereabouts in real time and, despite the privacy and security implications, the live locations of other people without their consent. It's like a crowd-sourced National Security Agency.

By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI - September 3-5, 2010

In 1997, the San Diego District Attorney came up with “Project 100%.” Under the program those wanting to participate in the county welfare program must consent to unannounced visits from members of the Public Affairs Fraud Division who walk through the house looking in drawers, medicine cabinets, etc. to make sure no crimes are being committed...“This case is nothing less than an attack on the poor. San Diego’s program strips these individuals of their rights of privacy...”

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - March 23, 2010

...[T]he "freedom and democracy" government spies on the entire world and sends drones into foreign countries to murder people disapproved by Washington...Washington denounces other governments for human rights violations while itself violating human rights every day...Washington puts foreign leaders on trial for war crimes, while committing war crimes every day.

By Janice Tibbetts - November 17, 2009

Canadians sometimes end up in a federal database that tracks cash linked to terrorist financing and money laundering, based merely on their ethnic origin or other unwarranted grounds, Canada's privacy watchdog said Tuesday...In a separate audit, [she] reported that the federal bureaucrat in charge of Canada's "no-fly list" did not have the information needed to make informed decisions about who should be banned from boarding domestic and international flights.

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN - October 30-Nov. 1, 2009

...[C]oncern with sexual behavior has nothing to do with sex but everything to do with policing. American sexual prudery is part of political and social policing within the nominally legal context of supposed individual freedom. People learn to be prudish with sex before they understand anything else in society and this prudery is transferred to other areas later which are even more important for social control and stability.

By Mike Blanchfield - August 22, 2009

Calling asylum seekers a "vulnerable group," Canada's privacy commissioner expressed concern yesterday about a new government plan to share fingerprint information with Britain and Australia to combat immigration fraud...A lawyers' group in Australia also raised privacy concerns about the plan, which the United States and New Zealand are expected to join later.

Part 15 (additional part 2 and final chapter)

Chapter 12. The enforcement of psychological self-criticism: suicide.