According to the Telegraph the British Intelligence gathering agency Global Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, is warning people that it apparently can no longer effectively track people they refer to as "some of the world's most dangerous crime lords." Problems they claim to face in the post-Snowden age include people taking better operational security measures to avoid surveillance as well as a fear on their part to engage in many of the kinds of surveillance that have been revealed because they might be discovered. They also report that cooperation from communications companies has become problematic in smuggling and fraud cases as the companies insist requests concern matters that involve “direct threat to life” now. Continue reading
Category Archives: UK
United Kingdom Severely Constrains Porn Production
Today an amendment to the 2003 Communications Decency act went into effect that severely limits the acts that can be portrayed in pornography produced in the United Kingdom. The changes apply restrictions that the United Kingdom has placed on content produced for DVD porn and extends those restrictions to Video on Demand Porn. Pornographer Erika Lust regrets the changes as: Continue reading
Bitcoin Blackmailer Given Four Year Jail Sentence
Last month, Qntra reported on Lewys Martin, a UK citizen who attempted to blackmail Halifax Bank, a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, to the tune of 2,800 BTC. Martin had previously been given a two year jail sentence for ddosing the websites of Oxford and Cambridge university. Continue reading
CoinJar Relocate From Australia To UK, No Longer Charging GST
CoinJar has announced the relocation of its headquarters from Melbourne, Australia to the UK. As a result of the change, CoinJar customers are no longer subject to a GST of 10% when purchasing bitcoin via the platform.
CoinJar first began collecting the GST on bitcoin purchases as of October 3rd 2014. The addition of the GST made CoinJar the most expensive place to purchase bitcoin in Australia. After the GST was implemented, Qntra speculated that CoinJar customers had no reason to use the website as competitors, such as Circle, were now accepting credit cards from Australian users1 and did not collect the GST, making it a cheaper option despite currency exchange fees. Continue reading
Hit and miss depending on who issued the credit card. ↩