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From the Washington Times, Hill assumes oversight role on airline screening: “Congress has given itself special oversight authority to track a new airline screening process criticized by some lawmakers as an infringement on privacy and civil liberties.” This article refers to the enrolled version of S. 165 (pdf), an act to improve air cargo security, …
The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider this Friday the case of Healthgrades.com v. Northwest Healthcare Alliance Inc. for their fall docket (No. 02-1250). This case is of considerable interest in light of the recent Internet jurisdiction decision from Australia, Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick, which was back in the news last week. For …
From around the country, more articles on the escalating backlash against the Patriot Act as exemplified by defiant libraries and local governments. In Washington State, Libraries routinely toss data on patrons’. From New York State, Libraries, government at odds over Patriot Act, and from California, Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act.
On December 11, 2002, I posted on the High Court of Australia’s ruling in the Internet defamation case Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Barron’s (owned by Dow Jones) news bureau editor/reporter Bill Alpert (the author of the article at issue in the case) filed a complaint with the …
Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer delivered a speech before the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in which he addressed the need to protect civil liberties within the context of the fight against terrorism. As a counterpoint, please see my previous posting on recent comments by Justice Scalia that when …
Public libraries across the country continue to pro-actively protect patron privacy using various straight-forward methods. In and around Chicago, libraries have recently posted signs informing visitors that their reading habits, and web sites visited from library PCs, are subject to tracking. “We want our patrons to be aware we could be forced to turn these …
Information Week reported that “Lt. Col. Doug Dyer, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), said at an IBM-sponsored conference on data privacy…that Americans must trade some privacy for security.” The Total Information Awareness System is a project of Darpa, under the direction of John Poindexter.
The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) transfers communications over the Internet rather than through the PSTN (public switched telephone network). According to this AP story, the FBI is seeking regulatory action that includes VoIP communications so as to facilitate surveillance asociated with criminal activities and terrorism. Technology to transfer voice communications via the Internet was …
The OMB is withholding support for the CAPPS II Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System due to lack of demonstrative evidence that the system will actually diminish acts of terrorism. Not surprisingly, opposition to the system has again been communicated by a coalition of advocacy groups led by EPIC via a letter to the Select Committee …
Announcement from EPIC’s website, March 24: “In a legal memorandum (pdf) filed with the federal court in Washington, EPIC and the American Civil Liberties Union challenge the Justice Department’s refusal to disclose basic, statistical information concerning implementation of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. For background information and copies of DOJ and FBI documents that have …
The ACLU’s March 24 press release expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court’s order yesterday to reject their request to review the November 18, 2002 decision by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review upholding the DOJ’s use of wiretapping and interception of e-mail and other communications as provided by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance …
The Department of Homeland Security issued a press announcement on Operation LIBERTY SHIELD, which “is a comprehensive national plan designed to increase protections for America’s citizens and infrastructure while maintaining the free flow of goods and people across our border with minimal disruption to our economy and way of life.” Under the topic CyberSecurity, the …
