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Norway to track all food purchases

Free West Media | June 5, 2022

Statistics Norway plans to capture several million daily receipts from food stores, signalling a new era in state data collection. Privacy advocates as well as supermarkets question this move.

Such a collection will signal a new shift in data collection and surveillance for the SSB, as the agency now seeks to force private companies and not just public ones to comply with state oversight. Given the rise in identity theft in Norway, many have grave concerns about the need for increased data collection.

Statistics Norway (SSB), the state-owned entity responsible for collecting, producing and communicating statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels, now also wants to know where what Norwegians buy and where they shop, according to a report by NRK.

In Norway every citizen is linked to their fødselnummer (birth number), and thus the SSB is well-informed about what individuals earn, their taxes due and their criminal records.

But it appears that the SSB does not yet know enough about their subjects. it has ordered Norway’s major supermarket chains NorgesGruppen, Coop, Bunnpris and Rema 1000 to share all their receipt data with the agency. Nets, the payment processor that is responsible for 80 percent of transactions related to supermarket purchases, will also need to provide data.

“A link between a payment transaction made with a debit card and a grocery receipt enables SSB to link a payment transaction and receipt for more than 70 percent of grocery purchases,” SSB said in an assessment.

Privacy advocates and the retail industry rejected the proposal.

Why is SSB doing this?

SSB claims they want “a less time-consuming way” of collecting and analysing data on household consumption in order to design an appropriate tax policy, adjust social assistance and child allowance payments.

In 2012, Norwegian households had listed household purchases in a paper booklet, but according to the SSB the survey was time-consuming and error-prone. This prompted discussions on whether the state could take advantage of tracking digital footprints left by consumers.

“When the purchases are linked to a household, it will be possible in the consumption statistics to analyze socio-economic and regional differences in consumption, and link it to variables such as income, education and place of residence,” the SSB said. They claim that they are only concerned about regional data, but NTNU researcher Lisa Reutter underscored how the public sector was being digitised and was using more and more data.

Reutter is among those concerned with the state’s thirst for increased data collection. “When we increase the public administration’s ability to classify, predict and control citizens’ behaviour using large amounts of digital data, the balance of power between citizen and state is shifted,” she said.

Pushback from retailers

The biggest player in Norwegian grocery retail, NorgesGruppen said they would appeal the decision and ask the Norwegian Data Protection Authority for guidance, according to NRK.

Payment processor Nets said they share concern “about the collection and compilation of data that may be problematic and intrusive for the individual citizen.”

Coop spokesperson Harald Kristiansen also expressed his reservations about this plan. While Coop believes that the SSB may be acting in good faith, the company will nevertheless consider appealing the order.

Data collection in supermarkets is nothing new, however. Many consumers already make available all their purchase data to supermarkets and other retailers in the form of loyalty programs and cards.

While consumers are offered discounts, supermarkets in turn gain access to valuable information about individual purchasing habits and preferences.

But the big difference between these loyalty programs and the SSB proposal is that supermarket loyalty programs are optional.

June 5, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | Leave a comment

Moscow responds to German spying allegations

Samizdat | June 5, 2022

Moscow has shot back at Germany’s accusations of spying, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying on Sunday that Berlin forgot about America’s wiretapping practices. The remark was in response to German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s recent warning that Russia could be wiretapping government offices in the capital.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild on Saturday, Faeser said her ministry “is keeping an eye out for what intelligence means the Russian government is using.”

It is this vigilance, according to the official, that led Berlin to expel 40 Russian embassy staff in April. Faeser claimed they were working for Russian intelligence services.

Moscow vehemently denied the accusations and responded with a tit-for-tat expulsion of 40 German diplomats.

Bild’s report went on to quote unnamed officials from Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as saying that “particularly in sensitive areas such as the government quarter in Berlin, the risk of wiretapping and the threat of unauthorized data collection are real and should not be underestimated.”

“Nancy Faeser forgot to add that German officials have always been wiretapped by the Americans,” Zakharova said in a Telegram post.

In 2013, it was revealed that the mobile phone of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had been monitored by the NSA as part of systematic wiretapping operations worldwide. Merkel famously said “spying on friends” is unacceptable.

Last May, Danish state broadcaster DR reported that the NSA had colluded with Denmark’s foreign intelligence unit to spy on officials in several neighboring countries, including Germany, from at least 2012 to 2014.

According to the revelation based on the Danish Defense Intelligence Service’s 2015 internal investigation, Merkel, along with then-Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former opposition leader Peer Steinbrueck, were among the targets.

June 5, 2022 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | 4 Comments

Foreign-supplied tanks destroyed in Kiev – Russia

Samizdat | June 5, 2022

Russian airstrikes have destroyed foreign-supplied tanks in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Moscow said on Sunday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said during a regular briefing that Russian forces carried out airstrikes “on the outskirts of Kiev, destroying the T-72 tanks and other armored vehicles that were supplied by Eastern European countries and kept in railcar repair facilities.”

The spokesman did not specify where the tanks came from, but Poland previously said it had donated T-72 tanks to Ukraine.

Konashenkov said that military targets were also hit in Donbass, as well as in eastern and southern Ukraine, including multiple rocket launchers and a US-made mobile counterfire radar.

Ukraine’s General Staff earlier reported that Kiev was among the areas hit by Russian forces. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that one person was hospitalized.

On Saturday night, the Donetsk authorities said Ukrainian troops shelled the city, killing five civilians and wounding 20.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling residential areas and killing civilians.

June 5, 2022 Posted by | Aletho News | , | 4 Comments

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