Famed privacy guru offered bounty for Five Eyes intelligence officers’ DNA
Detained privacy activist and alleged paedophile Simon Davies offered cash for the fingerprints and DNA of spies, according to explosive new allegations.
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Australia’s spy agency ASIO may want to speak to now-captured international privacy guru Simon Davies, after he offered multiple $1000 rewards to anyone who could provide him with fingerprints or DNA belonging to senior intelligence officers from the Five Eyes alliance.
The sinister plot was launched before Davies was arrested four weeks ago and now in custody on a warrant for 18 child sex and indecent assault offences dating back to the late 1980s and early 1990s when he travelled Australia lecturing on child homelessness and privacy issues.
As previously reported by News Corp Australia, the British-born Davies became an international fugitive after fleeing his London home in 2017 when told of his imminent NSW Police arrest for allegedly operating a Sydney children’s home which effectively became a shopfront for society elite to buy youths for sex.
With an Interpol ‘Red Notice’ on his head, he surrendered to police in the Netherlands last month and is currently behind bars awaiting extradition to Australia.
But subsequent police investigations into Davies, who became a renowned privacy expert founding the group Privacy International and working in the prestigious London School of Economics, has revealed an equally sinister plot he ran of an online “bounty hunt” with $1000 cash payments for every item with verifiable DNA or a fingerprint of a senior spy officer.
In his viral campaign, Davies said the aim was to send a “potent message” to spooks from Five Eyes – the intelligence alliance including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia – not to exploit the biometrics of ordinary citizens and suspects.
“The agencies – particularly the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ but also the agencies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have adopted a position that all communications data should be a ‘free for all’ subjected to only the most generic and theoretical oversight,” he wrote in his reward offer.
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He added the campaign was in the public’s interest and was not without precedence as a similar campaign in 2008-2009 managed to get the British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s data extracted from a water glass she used at a conference.
He provided specific methods on how best to preserve the evidence, ensure secure transportation and avoid criminal prosecution.
From a fingerprint, a plastic foil stamp could be made to leave their fingerprints everywhere. German hackers in 2008 did something similar to their interior minister Wolfgang Schauble then published and disseminated his alleged finger print image for biometric security use at sensitive sites.
“This isn’t about being mischievous; it’s about being responsible citizens,” Davies wrote prior to his arrest.
“All the same, anyone submitting an item should familiarise themselves with possible violation of criminal law. Confiscating a glass could be construed as theft, and establishing a public interest defence in court might be a difficult challenge. Contributors should therefore compensate the owner of the glass in whatever discreet way they can and ensure that they obtain a receipt or a written indemnity.”
Attorney-General Department sources in Australia confirmed they were looking into all activities of Davies as they pertained to Australia’s interests and national security including his bounty hunt.
In his final online post published after his December 11 surrender to police, Davies denied the child sex allegations he said were aimed at discrediting the global privacy movement and his campaigns.
“I fully intend fighting this allegation. Once the legality of an extradition is established I will defend myself in court and clear myself of this slur,” he wrote.
Originally published as Famed privacy guru offered bounty for Five Eyes intelligence officers’ DNA