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Momentum against the TIA program is escalating, as the Senate agreed yesterday in a voice vote to accept Ron Wyden’s Amendment 59 to H. Res. 15, the continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2003. The purpose of the amendment is to block the use of funds for further development and expansion of the program until …
The Association for Computing Machinery’s U.S. Public Policy Committee issued a press release “recommending a rigorous independent review of the U.S. Government’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) program.” The organization also issued a copy of a letter they sent to the Armed Services Committee, on behalf of their membership of 70,000 computer scientists, stating in part: …
Recent news articles point to a growing controvery over proposed surveillance programs to collect and review personal data generated by daily online transactions by citizens. This New York Times article, Many Tools of Big Brother Are Up and Running, concludes that the foundation for much of the work to conduct widespread surveillance has already been …
The Total Information Awareness Office (TIA) and its controversial director Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, (remembered by some for his Reagan era Iran Contra involvement), have begun to feel the heat of growing dissent concerning the activities of this project. Personal data about Poindexter has been posted on numerous weblogs (see this example) and discussed …
In the December 18, 2002 Federal Register there are proposed changes to sentencing guidelines for United States Courts in response to the Patriot Act and other post 9/11 laws concerning terrorism and national security.
This New York Times article, New Tools for Domestic Spying, and Qualms, provides important perspective on the increasingly contentious issues associated with domestic surveillance and civil liberties in the post 9/11 world. Data on citizens who use public services such as libraries, and a range of commercial services, such as flight training schools and scuba …
The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a joint effort of the INS, DOJ and Dept. of Education, facilitates the collection and dissemination of data on students who are in the U.S. as non-immigrants and exchange visitors.
There is a growing concern in the U.S. about state sponsored Internet censorship in countries throughout the world. Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman at Harvard are skillfully documenting this activity. Now Congress is responding to Web filtering with a bi-partisan legislative initiative, H.R. 5524. This bill seeks to “develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet …
This site comes via the University of Minnesota Law School, its librarians and student assistants. It provides annotated links to dozens of first amendment cases from the Supreme Court (current and retrospective), as well as Courts of Appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court. In addition, there are links to primary sources for researchers, historical materials …
The Information Society Project at Yale Law School (ISP) hosts several resources focused on how the Internet, intellectual property and telecommunications impact our civil liberties. The site posts working papers and information about policy initiatives. In addition, the project sponsors a provocative, insightful, and informative searchable weblog, LawMeme, with commentary on legal-tech issues provided by …
This DOJ Factsheet indicates that the Office of Legal Policy will play a major role in Patriot Act related issues of security, privacy and surveillance.
Surveillance, privacy, a secret court, the Constitution and the fight against terrorism are all elements in a public debate in which the legal ramifications of 9-11 continue to impact the lives of Americans. Civil liberties groups including the ACLU, EPIC and the Center for Democracy and Technology, filed an amicus brief on September 19 with …
