UK Highway Cameras Appeared Useless

It recently turned out that the advanced snooping technology of the British Highways Agency has proved so useless that no drivers at all have received tickets for speeding on the M25.

Although a lot of users of the largest carpark in the world may be surprised that anyone could go fast enough to get a speeding ticket, it’s clear that at least someone must have got past 70 miles per hour during the past year. Local newspapers explained that certain technical and legal difficulties were the reason why the Highways Agency couldn’t switch on the network of 36 new digital cameras.

The cameras were purchased and installed in order to enforce variable speed limits on the London orbital motorway. It was found out that the equipment was wasted only after AOL wondered which section of the road netted the most cash. Surprisingly enough, it

British Government Rejected Online Porn Ban

The UK government has recently rejected demands that ISPs install automatic filters on porn material online to protect the kids. After a joint consultation of the Department and Education and Home Office, the ministers have agreed that broadband providers won’t be required to put default blocks on porn content, and the responsibility should lie with parents.

During the consultation, there were suggestions for a process whereby users would have to “opt in” if they wanted to see adult content, instead of being freely available for any users to access. But the report delivering the government’s response to the consultation read that broadband providers would continue to use a so-called “active choice” system employed by such providers as BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. The system involves encouraging parents to set certain controls on specific content instead of being putting it under the remit of the provider.

Iran Launched Its Own YouTube

The country has created its own YouTube which would only allow video on approval of the government’s regime.

Mehr, which means “affection” in Farsi, is created for Persian-speaking Internet users. Its aim is to promote and cultivate the local culture. At the moment, the URL YouTube.IR is redirecting to Fars TV, while Mehr, located at http://ir.mehr.ir, appears to be down. Anyway, the service is expected to share content specific to the country, including music videos. Iranian users will also be able to submit their own material.

Genetic Database to Be Created in UK

Advocates expressed concerns over a £100 million project that will see DNA information of 100,000 cancer patients mapped out in a database. Big Brother Watch has called the plan “wholly wrong”. In the meanwhile, David Cameron promised that the plans will be worked on over the next 5 years to finally hold the genetic details of every UK citizen.

According to the Prime Minister, this move will push the boundaries of science and allow genetic sequencing by unlocking the power of DNA information. However, the UK’s genome plan has also raised some concerns that the information could be used to create commercial deals with such entities as drug firms. People also fear that people having access to the database might use the genetic codes in order to identify and track everyone on it, as well as their relatives.

The Prime Minister’s office also promised that the genome sequencing would be entirely voluntary and the patients will have a choice to opt out without affecting their NHS care.

ITU Treaty Refused by US, UK, and Canada

The United Kingdom, United States and Canada have refused to sign a treaty which would allow greater involvement in web governance to nations throughout the globe

During the International Telecommunication Union conference in Dubai, a number of countries objected outright to the proposals of the agreement. For instance, there was strong opposition from the US Federal Communications Commission. Its head, Robert M. McDowell, claimed that the public governing of the web might impact the basic freedoms of web. McDowell also said that a number of countries present at the conference in UAE had gone back on commitments to keep the web free from government control.

Entertainment Industry against UK Pirate Party & TPB

Music industry group (British Phonographic Industry) is accusing the British Pirate Party of running its TPB proxy. The copyright outfit is going to sue the British Pirate Party because it refused to take its proxy for The Pirate Bay tracker offline.

The British Phonographic Industry asked the Pirate Party to close down the site, but the outfit had to quickly turn to threats when it didn’t get its way. The Pirate Party leader claimed that the party will stand behind its principles, which could result in an expensive legal battle.

After the High Court ordered a number of British Internet service providers to block their subscribers’ access to the largest BitTorrent tracker earlier in 2012, millions of users began using the British Pirate Party’s proxy service. Frankly speaking, it’s currently one of the most popular sites in the country.

IRC Botnet Takes Advantage of Tor Networks

One of the German anti-virus firms, G Data Software, has found out a controlled from an IRC server botnet inside Tor’s networks. According to the security experts from G Data Software, the botnet is operated via an Internet Relay Chat server hidden inside Tor’s networks.

The security specialists point out that this method involves both benefits and drawbacks. However, the specified list of benefits seems to over weigh the disadvantages. First of all, the obvious advantage is that the botnet server can’t be closed down, because it is nearly impossible to pin-point its location. Secondly, Tor’s protocol also includes encrypted data running via several nodes, which makes surveillance on a certain network very difficult.

UK Copyright Outfit Advised for Transparency

The Open Rights Group made an attempt to avoid complications of website blocking, at the same time having in mind transparency and accountability. The outfit asked ISPs to maintain the public lists of blocked sites, provided by the entertainment industry.

In 2012 the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in cooperation with ISPs managed to block such websites as The Pirate Bay and Newzbin2 across the country. Nevertheless, these giants were only the primary targets, while received injunctions enable the outfit to block other sites providing access to “rogue websites” via alternative addresses. The lists in question are sent to ISPs that ultimately apply the blockage.

UK Black Cabs to Get Free Wi-Fi

London’s famous black cabs are expected to provide free Wi-Fi to passengers. This will be possible thanks to technology provided by a TechCity startup. Passengers of the cab will be able to use the CabWifi service to gain access to 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi after they watch a 15 second ad.

Actually, startup firm Eyetease has been pushing the system in question for 2 years already, trying to offer broadband usage without racking up huge fees. This is especially important for tourists who are forced to pay huge money for data usage when being abroad. However, as Eyetease founder Richard Corbett pointed out, taxi drivers themselves have also seen data costs increasing.

The Promo Bay Website Banned in UK

After successfully testing out promoting platform for musicians via file-sharing, TPB officially launched The Promo Bay as a separate platform for content creators. However, in a few days, the UK’s ISPs banned the website.

The Promo Bay was started as a launching pad for new content creators and proved to be a great idea. The Promo Bay was appreciated not just by TPB’s users, but also by lots of artists who signed up in a few months. This success made The Pirate Bay to

UK Pirates Are Also Big Spenders

The recent Ofcom’s report revealed that one out of six British citizens is involved in downloading copyrighted goods. But on the other side, the report in question states that the UK pirates are also spending more than the average consumer.

The country’s communications regulator, Ofcom, launched a survey to find out about the citizens’ download habits. It has published the results on the 20th of November, which reflected the answers of 4.400 Internet users (12 and older).

UK Music Outfit Blacklisted BitTorrent Portals

The British Phonographic Industry is trying to force major British Internet service providers prevent their subscribers from accessing a number of BitTorrent portals, including Kickass Torrents, Fenopy, and H33t.

The list of broadband providers which have received letters with such a request includes TalkTalk, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, and O2 – basically, all major Internet providers of the country. All of them have agreed to enforce this new anti-piracy measure, but only when a new court order is passed.

Amazon Stealing Cash from UK Citizens

Online seller Amazon has been making profits from its UK customers by making them pay 20% VAT on electronic book sales, while the seller has to pay only 3% VAT. The difference is simply pocketed by Amazon.

Newspapers claim that the Luxembourg-based bookseller is making money from a European tax anomaly, trousering the difference between what it forces customers to pay and what it really pays itself.

Britain Failed to Catch up with FTTH Broadband Plan

The United Kingdom appeared to have the worst FTTH Broadband, according to a recent report. According to the FTTH Council Europe, there are 22 countries having over 1% of households with access to FTTH broadband, while Europe in a whole featured a 16% increase in subscribers. At the moment, there are over 32,000,000 homes in the region with FTTH, featuring 5,950,000 subscribers.

However, the United Kingdom wasn’t in the rankings because of its low FTTH penetration. The statistics say that the country only has 0.05% of subscribers with access to FTTH, despite the government assurance to ensure the fastest broadband in the region by 2015.

UK Hacker Extradition Blocked

UK’s Home Secretary has finally announced that Gary McKinnon won’t be extradited to the United States to face charges for hacking into their military system. Speaking at the House of Commons, Theresa May announced that the hacker should stay in the United Kingdom to face charges for hacking the US computers more than a decade ago.

Janis Sharp, Gary’s mother, has been trying to argue for the last 10 years that her son, Asperger’s sufferer, would be at a very high risk of him ending his life in case of extradition. Theresa May has heard her words and said that after careful consideration she had come to a conclusion that extradition could have really caused such a high risk of suicide that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights. As a result, Home Secretary has withdrawn the extradition order against Gary McKinnon.

UK Watchdog Fined Police for Data Breach

The UK watchdog Information Commissioners Office has recently slapped the police authorities with a $200,000 penalty after they were found guilty of a serious data breach. This is how it happened.

Greater Manchester Police was called to account after an investigation carried out by the Information Commissioners Office. The investigation was prompted by the theft of a memory stick which contained sensitive personal information from an officer’s home. It turned out that the memory stick had no password protection and was carrying the information about over a thousand people, as well as the links to serious crime investigations.

.uk Domain Offered to Public

During the consultation that started today, Nominet, known as a top level domain vanguard in the United Kingdom, recommends the short .uk domain be offered for businesses. According to the local media reports, the non-commercial outfit thinks that top level .uk domain would be both good for business and security.

However, the industry experts have a different opinion, warning that it may all seem good until Nominet pays to a 3rd party auditor for cleaning the books and suspending domains it supervises without notification. Such move will inevitably threaten the business of the companies that would choose Nominet domains.

Most Complained about ISPs in UK

TalkTalk was labeled the most complained ISP in the country, according to recent Ofcom survey. The information, collected by Ofcom, includes phone, broadband and pay TV complaints on a quarterly basis. As for the fixed broadband services, the biggest number of complains were those for TalkTalk: 0.042% of all its services about line faults or other service troubles.

Despite the fact that the number of TalkTalk complaints reduced from the previous quarter (0.056%), the figure still doubles the national average. The second most complained about ISP is BT Retail (0.031%). As for the best broadband provider, it turned out to be Sky Broadband, which only has 0.01% complaining subscribers.

UK Authorities Cut Broadband Bureaucracy

While the British government announced its plans to fast track high speed broadband rollout, the country’s Internet users don’t have any confidence in its promises. That’s why newly appointed culture secretary Maria Miller promised today to cut broadband “red tape” in a bid to enable the swift rollout of high speed service.

She said that superfast broadband is essential to secure the UK’s future – to kick start economic growth and create jobs, and that’s why the authorities have plans to invest £680 million in high speed broadband infrastructure.