29 May 2012 By Bill Quigley Privacy is eroding fast as
technology offers government increasing ways to track
and spy on citizens. The Washington Post reported
there are 3,984 federal, state and local organizations
working on domestic counterterrorism. Most collect
information on people in the US. Here are thirteen
examples of how some of the biggest government
agencies and programs track people. One. The National Security
Agency (NSA) collects hundreds of millions of emails,
texts and phone calls every day and has the ability to
collect and sift through billions more. WIRED just
reported NSA is building an immense new data center
which will intercept, analyze and store even more
electronic communications from satellites and cables
across the nation and the world. Though NSA is not
supposed to focus on US citizens, it does. Two. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) National Security Branch Analysis
Center (NSAC) has more than 1.5 billion government and
private sector records about US citizens collected
from commercial databases, government information, and
criminal probes. Three. The American Civil
Liberties Union and the New York Times recently
reported that cellphones of private individuals in the
US are being tracked without warrants by state and
local law enforcement all across the country. With
more than 300 million cellphones in the US connected
to more than 200,000 cell phone towers, cellphone
tracking software can pinpoint the location of a phone
and document the places the cellphone user visits over
the course of a day, week, month or longer. Four. More than 62 million
people in the US have their fingerprints on file with
the FBI, state and local governments. This system,
called the Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS), shares information with
43 states and 5 federal agencies. This system
conducts more than 168,000 checks each day. Five. Over 126 million people
have their fingerprints, photographs and biographical
information accessible on the US Department of
Homeland Security Automated Biometric Identification
System (IDENT). This system conducts about 250,000
biometric transactions each day. The goal of this
system is to provide information for national
security, law enforcement, immigration, intelligence
and other Homeland Security Functions. Six. More than 110 million
people have their visas and more than 90 million have
their photographs entered into the US Department of
State Consular Consolidated Database (CCD). This
system grows by adding about 35,000 people a day.
This system serves as a gateway to the Department of
State Facial Recognition system, IDENT and IAFSIS. Seven. DNA profiles on more than
10 million people are available in the FBI coordinated
Combined DNA index System (CODIS) National DNA Index. Eight. Information on more than
2 million people is kept in the Intelligence Community
Security Clearance Repository, commonly known as
Scattered Castles. Most of the people in this
database are employees of the Department of Defense
(DOD) and other intelligence agencies. Nine. The DOD also has an
automated biometric identification system (ABIS) to
support military operations overseas. This database
incorporates fingerprint, palm print, face and iris
matching on 6 million people and is adding 20,000 more
people each day. Ten. Information on over 740,000
people is included in the Terrorist Identities
Datamart Environment (TIDE) of the National
Counterterrorism Center. TIDE is the US government
central repository of information on international
terrorist identities. The government says that less
than 2 percent of the people on file are US citizens
or legal permanent residents. They were just given
permission to keep their non-terrorism information on
US citizens for a period of five years, up from 180
days. Eleven. Tens of thousands of
people are subjects of facial recognition software.
The FBI has been working with North Carolina
Department of Motor Vehicles and other state and local
law enforcement on facial recognition software in a
project called "Face Mask." For example, the FBI has
provided thousands of photos and names to the North
Carolina DMV which runs those against their photos of
North Carolina drivers. The Maricopa Arizona County
Sheriff's Office alone records 9,000 biometric mug
shots a month. Twelve. The FBI operates the
Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative
(SAR) that collects and analyzes observations or
reports of suspicious activities by local law
enforcement. With over 160,000 suspicious activity
files, SAR stores the profiles of tens of thousands of
Americans and legal residents who are not accused of
any crime but who are alleged to have acted
suspiciously. Thirteen. The FBI admits it has
about 3,000 GPS tracking devices on cars of
unsuspecting people in the US right now, even after
the US Supreme Court decision authorizing these only
after a warrant for probable cause has been issued. The technology for tracking and identifying people is exploding as is the government appetite for it. Soon, police everywhere will be equipped with handheld devices to collect fingerprint, face, iris and even DNA information on the spot and have it instantly sent to national databases for comparison and storage. Bloomberg News reports the newest surveillance products "can also secretly activate laptop webcams or microphones on mobile devices," change the contents of written emails mid-transmission, and use voice recognition to scan phone networks. The advanced technology of the war on terrorism, combined with deferential courts and legislators, have endangered both the right to privacy and the right of people to be free from government snooping and tracking. Only the people can stop this. Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights. A longer version of this article with sources is available. Quigley77@gmail.com Comments 💬 التعليقات |