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Monday, September 9, 2002 |
Arlington TX Police Requesting Thumbprints for Checks
Arlington Texas police proposed Operation Thumbs Up, a voluntary initiative for local merchants to collect thumb prints with checks, as a deterrent to forgery. This has a couple of civil liberties and privacy implications:
It highlights the growing problem of identity theft. Unfortunately, identity theft cannot be solved by the seemingly perfect solution of biological identifiers, such as fingerprints, because identity theft can actually involve several intervening forms of identification that eventually associate a fingerprint with a different identity. This process can easily begin with a social security number, which is supposed to be very private but is in fact requested by businesses regularly. Identity theft is practically a difficult crime to prevent, but the solution is implausible unless it keeps identity more private, not less.
It also mentions the growing problem of surveillance databases, which in this case is a database of citizen fingerprints. Without this type of database, collecting fingerprints with checks is almost useless. Unfortunately, like many other databases used by the police and other government departments, they do not take into account the due process rights of the citizens whose records are being added or modified.
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Privacy Digest]
3:16:09 AM 
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Thursday, September 5, 2002 |
Louise Roback and William Schneider on Freedom and Security
In a pair of articles in the Press-Herald on Monday, Louise Roback, the new executive director of the MCLU, and William Schneider, the lead homeland security prosecutor in the Maine Federal AG's office, addressed homeland security due process issues.
Schneider: "We can fight any terrorist organization and any threat within the guidelines of the Constitution . . . the more we have to sacrifice civil liberties, the more the terrorists will win"
Roback: "People say, 'Well, I don't see my rights are threatened, so whatever the government needs to do is fine.' But once the balance shifts, you don't get those rights back. That's why we should care."
12:36:58 AM
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Tuesday, September 3, 2002 |
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Sunday, September 1, 2002 |
Maine Dress Codes Balance Learning and Expression
Maine school districts are instituting written dress codes to avoid class distraction in what this article calls a "sex-sells/MTV culture." The article highlights the fact that an established dress code is the fairest way to have a dress policy at a school, because it does not leave dress standards up to individual teachers' tastes. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools can set dress codes within reason, despite freedom of expression issues.
Louise Roback, MCLU executive director:
"'The school exists to educate kids,' she said. 'We don't quarrel with the finding that sexually revealing clothing can be disruptive. We're not going to battle over that.' A case could be made for wearing T-shirts with controversial messages on them, she said. 'Sometimes government and schools prohibit things because it's just embarrassing, that they're just a little uncomfortable,' she said. 'Schools are overreaching when they try to impose excessive conformity, like with uniforms,' she said. 'If they're just trying to keep up with the latest 16-year-old TV star, it's not really on our radar screen.'"
Nonetheless, students don't see the need, says Miranda Peters, a senior at Brunswick High School: "'They say it's a distraction to us, but it's really not a problem.'" [Portland Press Herald]
5:08:26 PM
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Saturday, August 31, 2002 |
49%: "First Amendment Goes Too Far"
The annual State of the First Amendment survey, released on Thursday, had found that just under half of the Americans surveyed felt that the First Amendment guarantees too much freedom. The 49% figure, according to the center, is a ten percent jump since September 11. The survey found that between forty and fifty percent of Americans supported increased surveillance of religious groups, bar criticism of government actions, and monitor muslim citizens particularly closely. Forty percent also found the press too aggressive in questioning the government in the war on terror.
More information at the Sacramento Bee. The report is available for download. [Privacy Digest and Slashdot]
1:42:47 AM
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002 |
The Failures of Technological Security
This collection of articles from the Atlantic Monthly highlights the dangers of relying on technological solutions to America's post-9/11 security needs, especially those that invade our civil liberties. The articles all note in particular that there is valid tradeoff between liberty and security-- except that this technology does not provide real security.
"The trick is to remember that technology can't save you.... We know this in our own lives. We realize that there's no magic anti-burglary dust we can sprinkle on our cars to prevent them from being stolen. We know that car alarms don't offer much protection. The Club at best makes burglars steal the car next to you. For real safety we park on nice streets where people notice if somebody smashes the window. Or we park in garages, where somebody watches the car. In both cases people are the essential security element. You always build the system around people."
The danger to our civil liberty and livelihood is also pointed out in the context of biometric ID cards:
"For the purposes of a national ID card, identity is a unique, unchanging set of distinguishing characteristics: the flecks in one's iris, the ridges of one's left thumb.... As Americans, though, we have a higher identity: free agent, self-legislator, citizen. It's a common identity held individually. It's what allows us to bond and make a nation or, if necessary, dissolve our bonds. This identity can't be captured on a card, but there is a risk it could be supplanted by one."
These articles should be taken into consideration of the Deering High School ID Badges.
2:30:49 PM
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American Library Association: The USA-Patriot Act
The American Library Association has posted a collection of information about the investigative provisions of the USA-Patriot Act. The collection is intended to be a guide for librarians, but is also very useful for library users interested in the impact on their privacy and due process rights. [From the Scout Report]
2:02:56 PM
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And Now, The Secret Appeals Court...
[Following the Secret Intelligence Court's rebuff of the Justice Dept...]
The nation's super-secret intelligence appeals court has been asked to make a ruling on the extent of the police powers that should be granted to the Justice Department. By Philip Shenon. [New York Times: National]
2:02:35 AM
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Man Freed After DNA Clears Him of Murder
Eddie Joe Lloyd had confessed to the rape and murder of a sixteen year old girl in 1984. He had made his confession while being evaluated in a mental hospital and says that he had made it in order to help the police capture the real killer.
Eddie Joe Lloyd, on capital punishment: "I consider myself lucky.... Seventeen years? If Michigan had the death penalty, I would have been through, the angels would have sung a long time ago."
Judge Leonard Townsend, overturning the conviction: "I have never heard this gentleman say, `I didn't do it,' or, `They forced me to say it.' Even though he might have lied about what he did, the fault falls on him. The fault lies with no one else."
Judge Townsend, convicting Lloyd, 1985: "The sentence that the statute requires is inadequate. The only justifiable sentence, I would say, would be termination by extreme constriction."
[New York Times: National]
1:27:03 AM
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Deering High Requires Photo Badges
Deering High School will be requiring students to wear photo badges at all times this upcoming school year. Although the school is seeking to protect students and improve security, the photo badges will not realistically protect the school from intruders. Students will also be losing the opportunity to learn about their rights to privacy and due process.
12:02:15 AM
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Friday, August 23, 2002 |
Georgia School Board Requires Balance of Evolution and Bible
Although the evolution vs. "intelligent design" issue is in constant battle in public schools, in this case the proponents are only seeking to add disclaimers that students should approach evolution "critically." The Georgia chapter of the ACLU seeks to remove the disclaimers.
In a survey conducted by Lawrence Lerner of California State University in 2000, both Georgia and Maine were found to have seriously problematic education standards for evolution.
[New York Times: National]
4:19:43 PM
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FBI Misled Intelligence Court to Avoid Fourth Amendment
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret court which approves FBI electronic surveillance requests, said that it was misled "an alarming number of times" in 2001 and 2002 on the intentions of FBI surveillance requests. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the FBI has a much lower evidence standard to request a surveillance warrant to be used for counter intelligence purposes, but the information they gather cannot be used for any domestic criminal investigation. The court said that it was frequently misled by the FBI that this "wall of separation" between counterintelligence and criminal investigations was being maintained.
Surprisingly, the court actually praised the Ashcroft Justice department for cleaning up these abuses, but the court had also rejected the Justice department's request earlier this year to circumvent the FISA protections, saying that the request was not reasonably designed to protect Americans' privacy.
The full opinion is also available. [PDF, link from The Washington Post and Slashdot.]
[New York Times: National]
3:34:41 PM
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Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ...
Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of this liberty;... |
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This is text in a table with a gray background inside a cell with a blue background.
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© Copyright 2002 Lucas Burke.
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