9/11 Legislation Launches Misguided Data-Mining and Domestic

[Gregory Hicks]

Surveillance Schemes
Reply-To: Gregory Hicks <ghicks at cadence.com>

 From the EFFector 17.45 (21 Dec 04)

 9/11 Legislation Launches Misguided Data-Mining and Domestic
Surveillance Schemes

On Friday, President Bush signed into law the Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), launching several flawed
"security" schemes that EFF has long opposed.  The media has focused on
turf wars between the intelligence and defense communities, but the
real story is how IRTPA trades basic rights for the illusion of
security.  For instance:

~ Section 1016 - a.k.a. "TIA II" ~

A clause authorizing the creation of a massive "Information Sharing
Environment" (ISE) to link "all appropriate Federal, State, local, and
tribal entities, and the private sector."

This vast network would link the information in public and private
databases, posing the same kind of threat to our privacy and freedom
that the notorious Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program did.
Yet the IRTPA contains no meaningful safeguards against unchecked data
mining other than directing the President to issue guidelines.  It also
includes a definition of "terrorist information" that is frighteningly
broad.

~ Section 4012 and Sections 7201-7220 - a.k.a. "CAPPS III" ~

A number of provisions that provide the statutory basis for "Secure
Flight," the government's third try at a controversial
passenger-screening system that has consistently failed to pass muster
for protecting passenger privacy.

The basic concept: the government will force commercial air carriers to
hand over your private travel information and compare it with a
"consolidated and integrated terrorist watchlist."  It will also
establish a massive "counterterrorist travel intelligence"
infrastructure that calls for travel data mining ("recognition of
travel patterns, tactics, and behavior exhibited by terrorists").

It's not clear how the government would use the travel patterns of
millions of Americans to catch the small number of individuals
worldwide who are planning terrorist attacks.  In fact, this approach
has been thoroughly debunked by security experts.  (See
<http://www.schneier.com/essay-052.html>.)  What is clear is that the
system will create fertile ground for constitutional violations and the
abuse of private information.  The latest Privacy Act notice on Secure
Flight shows that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
still doesn't have a plan for how long the government will keep your
private information, nor has it mapped out adequate procedures for
correcting your "file" if you are wrongly flagged as a terrorist.

~ Section 6001 - a.k.a. "PATRIOT III" ~

Straight from the infamous "PATRIOT II" draft legislation leaked to the
public last year comes a provision that allows the government to use
secret foreign intelligence warrants and wiretap orders against people
unconnected to any international terrorist group or foreign nation.
This represents yet another step in the ongoing destruction of even the
most basic legal protections for those whom the government suspects are
terrorists.

~ Sections 7208-7220 - a.k.a. "Papers, Please" ~

Just as EFF, the ACLU, and a number of other civil liberties groups
feared, IRTPA creates the basis for a de facto national ID system using
biometrics.  Driven by misguided political consensus, the law calls for
a "global standard of identification" and minimum national standards
for birth certificates, driver's licenses and state ID cards, and
Social Security cards and numbers.  It also directs the Secretary of
Homeland Security to establish new standards for ID for domestic air
travelers.

Identification is not security.  Indeed, the 9/11 Commission report
revealed that a critical stumbling block in identifying foreign
terrorists is the inability to evaluate *foreign* information and
records.  Yet we are placing disproportionate emphasis on domestic
surveillance, opening the door to a standardized "internal passport" -
the hallmark of a totalitarian regime.

For this piece online:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/002172.php>

For the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004
(IRTPA):
<http://news.findlaw.com/usatoday/docs/terrorism/irtpa2004.pdf>

If you care about preserving your privacy and basic constitutional
freedoms, help us fight the good fight by joining EFF today:
<https://secure.eff.org/>

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