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A new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project involves the deployment of innovative data collection software that would provide law enforcement with the ability to track, monitor and “identify vehicles by size, color, shape and license tag, or drivers and passengers by face,” according to this AP article. The DARPA contracting document for Combat …
A Citizen’s Guide on Using The Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request Government Records (text version, pdf version), First Report by the Committee on Government Reform, June 23, 2003, House Report 108-172. The Freedom of Information Act Privacy Act of 1974
In a 6 to 3 decision (56 pages, pdf) released today in United States v. American Library Association (02-361), the Supreme Court ruled that the Children’s Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment, and Congress can thereby require the use of Internet filters by public libraries receiving federal funds. See also: My related …
From the June 19 Meeting of the DOJ Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee (TAPAC): Statement of Jay Stanley, Communications Director, Technology and Liberty Program, ACLU, on Terrorist Information Awareness.
Steven D. Hinckley, Associate Dean for Library and Information Technology & Professor of Law, University of South Carolina, authored, Your Money or Your Speech: The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Congressional Assault on the First Amendment in Public Libraries, in the Washington University Law Quarterly, vol. 80, No. 4, Winter 2002 (via The …
According to this June 14 Washington Post article, the controversial CAPPS II airline passenger data collection and surveillance program will be scaled back as a result of considerable opposition from the public and advocacy groups. The article also states that “new details about the system are expected to be included in a Privacy Act notice …
Declaration on freedom of communication on the Internet, Strasbourg, May 28, 2003, Adopted by the Committee of Ministers at the 840th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies. “The member states of the Council of Europe…should not subject content on the Internet to restrictions which go further than those applied to other means of content delivery.”
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren addressed a range of issues, including national security, civil liberties and cybercrime, in this speech from May 29.
From the Center for Democracy and Technology, this analysis, Privacy’s Gap: The Largely Non-Existent Legal Framework for Government Mining of Commercial Data, [pdf] May 28, 2003. Quoting from the report, “The government has argued that it should have the same access to consumer data that the private sector has, but in fact it seeks access …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists maintains an extensive resource on Bush Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy. Included are links to: Presidential Documents, Related White House Press Briefings, and Other Official Documents on Bush Administration Secrecy Policy.
SFGate.com reported on public protests against the Patriot Act by Palo Alto librarians. In addition to the librarians, the article states that the “police chief is supporting a resolution before the Cicty Council next week that would prohibit her department from aiding the FBI in Patriot Act searches, interviews or surveillance without evidence that a …
Experts Say Technology Is Widely Disseminated Inside and Outside Military – “Congressional efforts to rein in a Pentagon surveillance project may be ineffective because new surveillance technology is being widely disseminated both inside and outside of the military and other less visible federal offices are pursuing similar research, industry executives and computer scientists say.”
