"Terror Reading"

[Adam Shostack]

On Tue, Jun 25, 2002 at 04:56:10PM -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:

| would be aware of it, and people would be talking. I don't know of any way it
| would be possible to make the software keep track of just one person, it would
| have to keep the records for everyone. Of course, someone could keep track
| manually, but I'd be willing to bet that if this were happening at all, the ALS
| would know about it and would be filing suit against the DOJ. 


No, they wouldn't.  The USA PATRIOT act forbids a library from talking
about it.  Thats why point 12 of the recent House Judiciary committee
letter to Ashcroft asks about libraries.

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism_militias/20020613_letter_to_ashcroft.html



| 
| On Tue, Jun 25, 2002 at 02:23:08PM -0700, Joseph Ashwood wrote:
| > ----- Original Message -----
| > From: "Eric Cordian" <emc at artifact.psychedelic.net>
| > 
| > > It was my understanding that libraries destroy records of patrons'
| > > activity as soon as the books are returned.  Nonetheless, this is an
| > > interesting Federal fishing expedition, with warrants issued by secret
| > > courts, and criminal penalties for librarians who talk too much.
| > 
| > I can tell you that at least in some areas that is simply not the case. I
| > have personal experience with the San Jose City library and know this for a
| > fact to be incorrect. They store information since the last upgrade of the
| > central database, currently the better part of a decade, but coming up on a
| > cycle point. Although it is very difficult to get the information, and large
| > portions of even that have been lost through various issues.
| > 
| > That is just a single area, but it seems reasonable that most
| > cities/counties/schools would follow the same general principle. Of course
| > with the lax way the information is kept it takes nearly a week to recover
| > the list of books you've checked out in the last month that have been
| > returned (unless there are penalties), so there is some saving grace to the
| > system.
| >                     Joe
| 
| -- 
| Harmon Seaver	
| CyberShamanix
| http://www.cybershamanix.com
| 

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume