|
Report: Easier than ever to be spied upon
|
Alpha-Omega
|
Jul 30, 2003 16:09 PDT
|
Report: Easier than ever to be spied upon
New laws pitch national security vs. personal privacy
September 4, 2002 Posted: 12:29 PM EDT (1629 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Governments worldwide have made it easier for
authorities to augment citizen databases and eavesdrop on telephone and
online conversations in order to fight terror, according to a new survey
of privacy regulations.
The report, written by privacy activists Electronic Privacy Information
Center and Privacy International, show the United States was not alone
in passing new laws that value increased security over personal privacy.
"It's a general theme toward total identification," said Sarah Andrews,
an author of the report released Tuesday. "When you're outside in public
or when you're online, you can be identified."
That dismays privacy groups, who worry about free speech restrictions
and abuses of power. They have fought new laws like the U.S. anti-terror
legislation that lowered the bar on surveillance requirements by
authorities.
MORE STORIES
Who's watching you? A surveillance society
• TechWeb: Microsoft gives Passport a privacy makeover
• Business 2.0: Eyes are everywhere
"They haven't been backed up by evidence that law enforcement and
intelligence agencies were hampered before because they didn't have
these powers," Andrews said.
Stewart Baker, a former general counsel for the National Security
Agency, said increased data sharing might have helped identify the
September 11 hijackers.
He said many surveillance proposals were already moving toward passage,
and speeded up by legitimized fears of a terrorist threat.
"They're really complaining about changes in the world rather than
changes in the law," said Baker, now a lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson in
Washington.
A global reach
In addition to the United States, the report listed new anti-terrorism
legislation in Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, India, Singapore and Sweden.
In June of this year, the European Union allowed its member states to
require that Internet providers retain traffic and location data of all
people using any electronic communications device, like mobile phones,
faxes, e-mails, chat rooms or the Internet.
The Russian internal security service recently tried to order all
Internet providers to install surveillance software, at the company's
cost, so that police could perform instant searches without a warrant.
After an Internet company sued, a Russian court decided the rule was
unconstitutional.
There also is increased interest in personal surveillance through
biometric technology and spy cameras. The report lists the use of
cameras at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, to search for suspected
terrorists. Perhaps no country likes such cameras more than Britain,
where an estimated 1.5 million cameras watch public streets and parks.
The report found that governments also want to merge their existing
databases, such as those for social programs and traffic infractions, to
create profiles to catch suspected terrorists.
'People weren't asking the same questions anymore'
Many of the proposals, the report notes, had been proposed and rejected
for years. Only after the terror attacks, it said, did they gain
acceptance.
"The environment was ripe for these things to go through without the
necessary debate," Andrews said. "People weren't asking the same
questions anymore."
The report doesn't just show invasions of privacy, however. Several
countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America have new laws to
protect personal data from unauthorized disclosure. Finland, Sweden and
Russia are working on regulations to protect privacy in the workplace.
The United States recently has brought action against companies that
inadvertently leak personal information.
Magazine publisher Ziff-Davis last month agreed to pay three states a
total of $100,000 after an Internet security breach that exposed
subscriber information, and Microsoft recently made changes to its
Internet services after the Federal Trade Commission worried that its
security was too loose to protect customer data.
"Before, people were barely held to account for things they were doing
deliberately," Andrews said. "Now, there is more accountability for even
accidental disclosures."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
|
 |
|
