Showing posts with label GCSB. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 December 2018

NZ spy firm Thompson & Clark spied on politicians, activists and earthquake victims

When we moved to New Zealand we thought we are moving to one of the least corrupt countries.

I can tell you from first hand experience that NZ is a wolf in sheeps clothing, totally corrupt.

The amount of lawbreaking, lying, spying and coverups by the NZ Govt, simply shocking.

1:46 PM - 18 Dec 2018

BREAKING: STATE SPIED ON GREENS, MANA MOVEMENT, GREENPEACE & MĀORI

On top of the mass surveillance powers the GCSB, SIS and Police have been given, we now know State Agencies used corporate spies to circumvent the law. Explosive new allegations are that State Agencies used corporate spies to spy on the Greens, the MANA Movement, Greenpeace and Māori…

the Daily Blog,

18 December, 2018

Damning report confirms Government agencies used private investigators for spying
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has issued a damning report into the use of private investigators by government agencies, calling the actions of some “an affront to democracy” and laying a complaint with police in one instance.

Hughes detailed a list of breaches of the State Service Code of Conduct, including potentially illegal recordings of insurance claimants, public sector employees accessing the New Zealand Transport Agency database for private investigation firm Thompson and Clark, paying for informants and spying on the Green Party and iwi.

Hughes today released his 80-page report into the use of external security consultants today. The inquiry was sparked by revelations of government agencies including Southern Response, MBIE, the SIS and Ministry for Primary Industries.

He took responsibility for what had occurred, as head of State Services. “I apologise unreservedly to those individuals whose privacy has been intruded on by state servants or their contractors.”

…this is the first time we are now hearing State Agencies spied on the Greens, Greenpeace, the MANA Movement and Māori…

He was scathing in his criticism of government agencies’ actions against New Zealanders exercising their democratic rights through TCIL reporting on the activities of groups such as Greenpeace, the Green Party, the Mana Movement and some Northland East Coast and Taranaki iwi groups., which he said were treated as a “security threat”.

…the enemy of the people is the State. Never forget that.

I predict these pieces of filth will get away with this, just like every State Agency gets away with it, we will now see just how controlled this Government is by their Ministries by the total inability to do anything.

The sleepy hobbits of Muddle Nu Zilind are always told that new spying powers are needed to stop terrorists or organised crime, but time and time and time again, the so called ‘enemy’ are environmentalists, social justice groups, Māori and the Greens.

What a surprise this scathing report of the State spying on the people is released a couple of weeks before Christmas. Seeing as we have light weight infotainment at 7pm instead of current affairs, this will quickly slip under the radar.

It is not until we get a radical political movement into power that we will be able to dismantle the Police State and see justice.

If you are not incandescent with rage, you’re not paying attention.

Fuck them. Fuck them all!

Security firm spied on politicians, activists and earthquake victims

Stuff,

18 December, 2018

State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has laid a complaint with police about unlawful recordings of earthquake victims by spy firm Thompson & Clark.

It comes as an explosive report details a slew of damning revelations about how the controversial spy firm was used by government agencies.

Those include reporting and monitoring the Green and Mana parties, iwi and activists - and accessing the motor vehicle register.

Hughes, who is head of the state services, has apologised "unreservedly to those individuals whose privacy has been intruded on by state servants or their contractors."

JOSEPH JOHNSON

Doug Martin began an investigation into Southern Response Earthquake Services' use of security consultants, before the inquiry was broadened.

"I take responsibility for what has happened here. And I will fix it."

Among the findings are:

- that a Thompson & Clark employee recorded several closed meetings of Southern Response insurance claimants in Christchurch between 2014-2016. The contractor was not a licensed private investigator, which is potentially unlawful. The activity is the subject of Hughes' complaint to police

- Two Ministry of Primary Industries staff were also working for Thompson & Clark, and accessed New Zealand Transport Agency information on behalf of the security firm. They are now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office

- MPI hired the firm to monitor animal rights activists, and spy on them at conferences in 2005 and 2006

- Crown Law hired investigators from another firm to dig up information to cross examine witnesses in a court case alleging abuse in state care - known as the "White case". The investigators may have used "low level surveillance"

- inappropriate email contact between a Security Intelligence Service staff and one of the firm's directors, which risked harming the reputation of the government spy agency

- unprofessional interactions between the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Thompson & Clark investigators, working for the oil and gas industry, that "created at least a perception of conflict of interest"

- Thompson & Clark reported to government agencies on the activities of the Green and Mana parties, Taranaki and Northland iwi groups and Greenpeace, described as "an affront to democracy"

Overall, the inquiry has found a lack of professional distance between Thompson & Clark and public servants, and a lack of oversight or written contracts with the spy firm.

There was "system wide failings" across the public service, with staff developing "inappropriately close relationships" with the firm's staff.

And it was also critical of Thompson & Clark's behaviour - including using an unlicensed investigator and covertly attending public metings, recording meetings without consent.

The firm also approached public servants - who had access to sensitive official information - for secondary employment, accessed the motor vehicle register for "potentially improper purposes."

KEVIN STENT/STUFF

Simon Mount, QC, was brought in to assist the inquiry in June.

Hughes has also lodged a formal complaint with the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority and asked MBIE to remove Thompson & Clark from the Government procurement panel - a scheme that pre-approves companies for Government work.

Hughes said the inquiry stretched over a decade of Thompson & Clark activity on behalf of public agencies.

"I am disappointed that the inquiry has uncovered some shortcomings across the State Services," he said.

"While many of the events are historic, the Inquiry has found that seven government agencies have breached the Code of Conduct, including agencies that breached the Code with their use of private security consultants to undertake inappropriate surveillance."

Hughes said he was most concerned that the firm treated "issue motivated" groups as a security threat.

"I am very disappointed that government agencies did not challenge TCIL [Thompson & Clark] on that. It is an affront to democracy, and it is not consistent with how we should view democratic freedom."

Hughes said agencies could gather information to investigate fraud or tax evasion.

But he added: "I am very clear it is never acceptable for an agency to classify a person or group of people as a security threat just because they lawfully exercise their democratic rights, or to use that as justification for gathering information.

"Equally, it is never acceptable to gather information about people or groups for the sole purpose of managing reputational risk to an agency."

Of the surveillance of earthquake victims, Hughes it was "ill-judged and poorly managed." "It was not right and not the sort of behaviour New Zealands would expect of a contractor working for a government agency."

Hughes says he's issued new "model standards" setting out expectations about how public service should gather information.

Thompson & Clark director Gavin Clark says his firm doesn't agree with some of the findings in the report.

"We have had the final report for less than 24 hours and will take some time to consider it in detail", he said in a written statement.

"There are some findings we do not agree with, as noted in the report, as they don't reflect the understanding that our industry and its Code operated to in years gone by. We will explain our disagreement with those findings to any future investigations that may result from this report.

The firm is undertaking its own internal review.

"We have worked with numerous government departments across three different Governments over 15 years. We have always strived to operate within the law and the rules and regulations of our industry, he said.

CAMERON BURNELL/STUFF

State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes says spying on politicians and iwi was "an affront to democracy."

In March, the SSC launched an inquiry into Crown-owned company Southern Response's use Thompson & Clark, following media allegations it had spied on Canterbury earthquake victims.

But as further ties between the firm and other agencies emerged, the inquiry was widened to cover the entire state sector.

That came after documents revealed Security Intelligence Service staff appeared to be helping Thompson & Clark find work.

Earlier this month, Stuff revealed Ministry of Primary Industries staff were emailing Thompson & Clark about Kiwi eco-warrior Pete Bethune.

Greenpeace boss Russel Norman said the report was a "Watergate moment" and accused the state of "assisting in systematic and oppressive Stasi-like surveillance."

" Heads must roll at MBIE. This rampant level of surveillance in a supposedly democratic society is simply unacceptable.

"What's more, opposition leader Simon Bridges was at the helm of two of the departments - NZTA and MBIE - that were involved in unlawful spying on civil society. He must answer a key question: Did he purposely use the state to attack democratic civil society groups and MPs, or did he just fail to exercise proper oversight over these agencies.

"This report shows that it doesn't matter if you're a state abuse survivor, an earthquake victim, or a climate activist. No-one has been safe from unlawful spying in New Zealand over the past decade, and it's all been supported by the state."

SIS director Rebecca Kitteridge said the agent caught emailing with Thompson & Clark was dealt with as "an employment matter" but didn't specify if they'd been sacked.

Green party co-leader Marama Davidson said the report should serve as a "wake-up call" for the public service and lead to a culture change.

"The culture of collusion undermines our precious democracy, and we are especially concerned at the targeting of communities defending and protecting their local environment."

Human rights advocates Amnesty said they were "appalled" by the report's findings. Policy manager Annaliese Johnston said: "We would expect the state to value people's freedom to advocate and mobilise on issues they care about, whether environmental, animal rights or historic cases of sexual abuse.

"That the state seems to have instead been using investigators to spy on their own citizens and treating them as threats is very troubling."

The report can be read HERE

Tuesday, 23 October 2018

New Zealand: the growth of the surveillance state

This comment appeared on Facebook today together with the article below.

Regards JLR being deemed a national security threat.

I set out looking for an item penned as fiction by Rodney Hide, and yes a strong argument can be made potential disclosures by Ross could harm what is deemed national security or economic interest of large corporations. Asian investors, or other suppliers of large donations.

In which case SIS and or GCSB can engage their tactics on him, no courts, trials involved , just destroy covertly until the end.

Which IMO will be happening

Yes that also suits National party perfectly, but they wont be the only ones with skeletons in the closet, Police, SIS and GCSB worked unlawfully under Keys instruction, knowingly so. That is overwhelming confirmed by the "sanitized" Kitteridge report.

Of course as you will see legislation when made up was sold to us as their having our interest at heart and we could trust them !! Collins being a prime participant. Dangerous stuff, whose donation decides what in national interest, or whose economic interest , or threat to National security? And yes all operations subject to strict secrecy, with anyone approached warned not to tell. Hence a person is accused and sentenced without having a clue. SIS and GCSB also have immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Rise and Rise of Daddy State: MSD blackmails NGOs for private data

Frank MacSkasy

Frankly Speaking,

25 March, 2017

Nanny State takes a Shower

What do showers have to do with this issue?

Wait and see.

Spying, Spooks, and Silly Journos

Nearly five years ago, the highly controversial Search and Surveillance Act 2012 was passed by National. As reported at the time;

The Search and Surveillance Act, which was passed through Parliament in March, extends production and examination orders to the police and legalises some forms of surveillance.

It will let more government agencies carry out surveillance operations, allows judges to determine whether journalists can protect their sources, and changes the right to silence.

[…]

Police could complete some forms of surveillance and searches without warrants, but[Police Assistant Commissioner Malcolm] Burgess said the situations were pretty common sense.

Yes, indeed. Police surveillance and seizure powers were being massively extended. But according to the Police Commissioner, citizens could rely on the Police using “pretty common sense” to use them.

Then-Justice Minister, Judith Collins offered this excuse for the extension of police powers;

“ The new Search and Surveillance Act 2012 brings “order, certainty, clarity and consistency” to messy, unclear and outdated search and surveillance laws.”

(Interestingly, the fact that Collins felt the need to use irony-quotation-marks, in her Beehive statement, to enclose the phrase order, certainty, clarity and consistency is revealing.)

This is the same Judith Collins who, in 2009, passed personal phone numbers of a civil servantto far-right blogger, Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater.

A year later, the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill was being hotly debated throughout the country.

Essentially, the Bill (since passed into law), would allow the GCSB to spy on New Zealand citizens which up to then had been the sole province of the NZ SIS.

National’s ‘spinned message’ – constantly parroted by Dear Leader Key – was;

“In addition, the Act governing the GCSB is not fit for purpose and probably never has been. It was not until this review was undertaken that the extent of this inadequacy was known…

[…]

The advice we have recently received from the Solicitor-General is that there are difficulties interpreting the legislation and there is a risk some longstanding practices of providing assistance to other agencies would not be found to be lawful.

[…]

It is absolutely critical the GCSB has a clear legal framework to operate within.”

In fact, the law was clear with it’s wording and intent and Section 14 of the Act (since altered to reflect the Amendment) stated with crystal clarity;

14Interceptions not to target domestic communications

Neither the Director, nor an employee of the Bureau, nor a person acting on behalf of the Bureau may authorise or take any action for the purpose of intercepting the communications of a person (not being a foreign organisation or a foreign person) who is a New Zealand citizen or a permanent resident.

Some journalists were too lazy to fact-check Key’s lies;

Journalists who failed to realise that Key was being disingenuous, and simply parroted the government’s official spin, did immense damage to public understanding of the issues involved.

Others, like Audrey Young and Tracy Watkins were sufficiently experienced and knowledgeable to recognise a government ‘stitch-up’ when they saw it;

“ The GCSB Act 2003 expressly forbids it from spying on the communications of New Zealanders. But, by a series of snakes and ladders through the stated functions and objectives of the act, it convinced itself it was allowed to help the SIS and police spy on New Zealanders.” – Audrey Young, 26 June 2013

“ The GCSB’s interpretation of the law was so loose it managed to spy on 88 New Zealanders even though the law specifically stated it was not allowed to do so.” – Tracy Watkins, 3 August 2013

National ignored strong public opinion wary of extending the GCSB’s surveillance powers. The Bill became law on 26 August 2013.

The Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Act was followed by the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act (TICS), made law on 11 November 2013.

The TICS law made it mandatory for all electronic communications companies (telcos) to comply with spy agencies demands to intercept and decrypt phone calls, txt-messages, and emails.

The excuse for this piece of intrusive legislation from Communications Minister, Amy Adams;

“ The fundamental reason that I have sought to introduce this bill is to safeguard New Zealand public safety and security. ”

The Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act was, in turn, followed by the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill (split into several Bills after it’s Second Reading in Parliament on 9 December 2014).

This Bill, covering three existing laws, allowed the SIS to conduct surveillance on terrorist suspects without requiring a judicial a warrant for up to 24 hours; to conduct secret video surveillance on private property; gave SIS access to Customs Department data in relation to suspected terrorism, and allowed the Minister of Internal Affairs increased powers to arbitrarily suspend or cancel a passport.

The Labour Party were so opposed to this law change that they voted for it. (NZ First, the Maori Party, and the Greens, to their credit, voted against it.)

Then Dear Leader Key used the usual “defending Kiwis against terrorist” bogeyman to justify the State’s growing surveillance powers;

“ The threats faced by New Zealand have grown and it is important that we have the ability to respond to that. The Government has a responsibility to protect New Zealanders at home and abroad…”

Simultaneously in 2014, the IRD signed an agreement to share data with the Police;

Taxpayer information is required to administer New Zealand’s tax system effectively. This information can be supplied by taxpayers, or it can be collected by Inland Revenue during an audit.

Broadly, the government’s current legislative position is that this information is not shared with other government departments on the basis that it is ‘tax secret’.

However, there are instances where sharing taxpayer information relating to serious crime could bring offenders to justice, support the goals of other government departments, and offer the State broad efficiencies.

Up until that point, the IRD expected everyone who earned money – whether from legal or illegal mean – to pay tax. This meant that, for example, sex workers prior to 2003 would be expected to pay tax on their earnings regardless of the fact it was an illegal activity.

The tax department didn’t care where or how the money was earned – they just wanted their “fare share”.

After 2014, the IRD abandoned that policy, and data-sharing with Police was implemented. It means that taxing other illegal activities such as the production and sale of cannabis, is no longer feasible. This has unintentional consequences – such as the hoarding of cash; use of firearms to protect that cash; and violence.

This is part of an on-going wider process of government departments sharing private information with each other.

The Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Act, Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act, and Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill all follow on from previous extensions of State power, notably the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.

This poorly thought-out law was Labour’s contribution to George Bush’s ill-conceived “War on Terror”.

Throughout National’s three terms in office, it has extended Police powers; widened the scope for the GCSB and SIS to spy on New Zealanders; and created a vast data-sharing network amongst it’s bureaucracy.

MSD, NGOs, and Demands for Data

To date, New Zealanders have been mostly apathetic as the government build up it’s ability to spy and store personal information on us. Most of the government’s “targets” have been so-called “terrorists”, immigrants, criminals, student-debt defaulters, and those on welfare benefits or living in state houses.

Most of Middle New Zealand find it difficult to identify with these elements of our society.

Recently, however, Radio NZ has been running a series of stories and interviews on a disturbing development regarding state aquisition of personal information.

On 2 March, on Radio NZ’s Nine To Noon programme, Kathryn Ryan interviewed Brenda Pilott, the chairperson of ComVoices (an umbrella organisation for NGOs).

At issue was the disturbing revelation that the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), presumably under direction from National ministers, was forcing NGOs to collect and pass private information about their clients back to the Ministry, in return for on-going funding. This proviso was to be written into new contracts set to take effect in July this year after negotiations had concluded after Easter.

>Kathryn Ryan interviews Brenda Pilott – 2 March<

Accordingly to Comvoices, NGOs were expected to pass on;

names of clients
birth dates
ethnicity
other personal details such as dependent children’s names

NGOs that refused to share this information with MSD would forego funding. The result would be predictable;

According to Brenda Pilot, the Ministry’s excuse to demand this data was;

“ They want to be able to find out what services are effective. And that this will provide information over time that will allow sensible decisions to be made about government funding and where to apply that funding.”

Ms Pilot voiced concerns that private, identifiable information would be used for tracking individuals who used NGO services. She said that vulnerable people needing to use services such as counselling, Women’s Refuge, Rape Crisis, etc, would be reluctant to engage those organisations and would “walk away”. Ms Pilot was concerned that passing personal, identifiable data to MSD would force NGOs to violate Privacy Laws.

Ms Pilot said that the Privacy Commissioner was also concerned at MSD’s intentions to obtain such data, and was investigating. She said the Commissioner would most likely report on the issue by the end of this month.

On 3 March, Radio NZ reported; grave concerns held by at least one NGO, Women’s Refuge;

Women’s Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said agencies would have to abide by the contract change if they wanted to keep their funding.

“If agencies choose not to share this information they won’t be contracting with the ministry. That’s pretty much where it sits.”

Dr Jury said it was not an ideal situation for the refuge but they were not in a position to say no.

“This is not something that we would happily go out and say, ‘yes, this is exactly what we want to do’.

“If it is going to happen, our job now is to make sure we get the sort of safeguards built around that information that we need to keep our women and children safe,” she said.

At least one privacy lawyer doubted the legality of MSD’s demands;

Privacy lawyer Kathryn Dalziel said the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) looked to be on shaky ground.

“This is a potential breach of privacy because they don’t appear to have identified, anywhere, the purposes for which they are collecting that information.

“There doesn’t seem to be any transparency around it … I also don’t think it’s fair,” she said.

“Principle 2 of the Privacy Act says that if you want to collect information from third party, you have to have a good reason.

“You also have to have … lawful and reasonable purposes for collecting that information in the first place. Now, none of that has been done.”

However, what really raised fears was Ministry of Social Development deputy chief executive, Murray Edridge’s responses to Kathryn Ryan’s questions. His answers not only failed to reassure, but raised serious concerns as to MSD’s intentions regarding the storage and end-use of personalised, identifiable data.

>Ministry responds to privacy concerns – 3 March<

Edridge parroted the usual monetarist rhetoric of “the New Zealand public demands that government spend it’s money well”.

When Ms Ryan put it to Edridge that MSD was attempting to track NGO service-users, he denied it;

“ No we’re not tracking them. What we’re doing is we’re saying to providers, look, for us to understand the effectiveness of services, to understand where the resources are best invested, where we will decide between priorities in terms of investment we need to understand who the people are and what value they get from the services. For some time we’d had concern that investment’s been made in social services where they’re not the most effective mechanism for the people that require them, and this is part of the mechanism by which we understand the clientele better and we understand how we can serve them better and invest in services that are going to support them.”

When Ms Ryan put it to Edridge that anonymised data would work just as well, Edridge kept referring back to needing to know “who these people are“.

Moments later, Edridge contradicted himself by admitting “we know who the clients are, we know all about them“. If that wasn’t creepy enough, Ms Ryan then asked Edridge why MSD demanded further information about NGO service-users. She asked why MSD needed to know who was approaching (for example) Women’s Refuge for assistance..

Edridge’s response was further contradictory and throughout the twelve minute interview he could provide no satisfactory answer why MSD was requiring personalised data from NGOs. At one point he attempted to cloud the issue by stating that MSD required “demographic information”.

Ms Ryan dismissed that claim by remind Edridge that MSD was seeking names, addresses, ethnicities, children’s names and that was not simply “demographic information”.

When Ms Ryan suggested that NGO service-users might not want their details passed on to MSD or other ministeries, Edridge could only respond,

“ Well, we need to know where to get the money in the right place.”

Four days later, Rape Crisis draw a line in the sand and announced it would flat out decline to sign contracts with MSD in return for passing private information about service-users in exchange for on-going funding.

>Rape Crisis reject “data-for-funding” contracts – 7 March<

By 16 March, pressure on MSD and Minister Tolley was such that the ministry caved, and was forced to step back from demanding personalised data from some NGOs dealing with sexual violence.

>Temporary reprieve over ‘private data for funding’ contracts – 16 March<

The “reprieve”, however, was only temporary, and would last for only one year until MSD “works out how to securely collect and store their clients’ private data”. It also did not apply to all NGOs.

The Creep of Big Brother and the Daddy State

Up till this point, data-collection has centered on those who come in contact with the Justice system; WINZ beneficiaries; and Housing NZ tenants. These are generally New Zealanders who are usually the most deprived and vulnerable socially and financially, and rely on State assistance to survive.

A person seeking help from WINZ and Housing NZ is forced to supply both ministeries their private data. To refuse means no help. Next stop; the street;

A citizen in contact with the Justice system has even less option to refuse to provide private data.

MSD’s demand for personalised data from NGO service-users marks a new stage in National’s slow advancement in building a data-base on every person in the country.

NGO service users may not necessarily be unemployed beneficiaries or live in state houses or have broken the law in some way – but their details will still be required to be collected and supplied to the Ministry of Social Development.

The ministry has assumed the de facto role of collecting and storing data on New Zealanders who – up till this point – may never have come into contact with any governmental organisation such as Housing NZ, WINZ, or Police.

The implications of this are staggering.

The net to scoop up data on as many citizens as possible, has just widened considerably.

If you think you – the reader – may never need the services of Women’s Refuge or Rape Crisis, consider for a moment that there are thousands of NGOs operating in this country and hundreds that are funded by the State.

Victim Support is just one state-funded NGO;

So if you’ve just become a victim of a crime; Victim Support enters your life; the State now has your personal data on file;

Client: Name, address, gender, date of birth, primary ethnicity, Iwi.
Dependents: Name, date of birth, relationship to client.
Service Level: Information Programme/service name, start date and end date.”

Middle-class New Zealanders who may never have had cause to have personal data collected on them may soon be on file with various ministeries. With data-sharing, personal information from MSD can end up throughout other ministeries. Or on the desks of ministers;

Never mind “Nanny State” – this is the muscular arm of Daddy State flexing it’s strength to reach out to grab more and more of our private information.

And it won’t end with this.

Not until we say “Enough is enough. No more“.

Back to Showers

Remember this?

In the lead-up to the 2008 general election, National attacked the then-Labour Government for “Nanny Statism”.

Following on from a disastrous drought in 2007 that cost the country’s economy over $2.8 billion (in 2008/09 dollars), the then-Labour government sought out ways and means to conserve water. The alternative was the possibility of further water-shortages or costly storage and irrigation systems. Labour opted for conservation. This included measures to save water in residential areas.

It could be suggested that water-saving shower heads and energy-efficient light-bulbs are the least of our concerns. National has surpassed anything that Labour envisaged, as this government reaches further and further into our private lives.

If there is one thing that history has taught us – governments that spy on their own people do not trust their people, and are fearful of them.

National must be very frightened of us.