| |
|
Friday, March 9, 2007
|
|
The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who oversees the FBI, described the problems cited in the report as unacceptable and left open the possibility of criminal charges. He ordered further investigation. "Once we get that information, we'll be in a better position to assess what kinds of steps should be taken," Gonzales told reporters following a speech to privacy officials. [...]
The FBI also used so-called "exigent letters," signed by officials at
FBI headquarters who were not authorized to sign national security
letters, to obtain information. In at least 700 cases, these exigent
letters were sent to three telephone companies to get toll billing
records and subscriber information.
"In many cases, there was no pending investigation associated
with the request at the time the exigent letters were sent," the audit
concluded.
In a letter to Fine, Gonzales asked the inspector general to
issue a follow-up audit in July on whether the FBI had followed
recommendations to fix the problems.
"To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in
this report would be an enormous understatement," Gonzales told the
privacy officials. "Failure to adequately protect information privacy
simply is a failure to do our jobs."
Senators outraged over the conclusions signaled they would provide tougher oversight of the FBI -- and perhaps limit its power.
"The report indicates abuse of the authority" Congress gave the FBI, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt. "You cannot have people act as free agents on something where they're going to be delving into your privacy."
The committee's top Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record),
said the FBI appears to have "badly misused national security letters."
The senator said, "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process
where the federal authorities are not really sensitive to privacy and
go far beyond what we have authorized."
Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., another member on the panel that oversees the FBI, said the report "proves that 'trust us' doesn't cut it."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the audit proves Congress must amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants access to sensitive personal information. "The Attorney General and the FBI are part of the problem and they cannot be trusted to be part of the solution," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director.
4:34:53 PM 
|
|
Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act. happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes." [Slashdot]
4:27:43 PM
|
|
Deputy prime minister Maud Olofsson
has added a new twist to Sweden's divisive surveillance debate. The
Centre Party leader claims that defence minister Mikael Odenberg's
proposed legislation would merely codify practices that have already
been in operation for decades.
Previously, at a time when all telecommunications were state-operated, Sweden's National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets Radioanstalt - FRA) regularly tapped telephone lines in and out of the country, says Olofsson.
4:23:29 PM
|
|
A far-reaching wiretapping programme proposed by Sweden's government to
defend against foreign threats, including monitoring emails and
telephone calls, has stirred up a fiery debate in the past few weeks,
with critics decrying the creation of a "big brother" state.
The new legislation, to be presented to parliament on Thursday, would
enable the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) to tap all
Internet and telephone communication in and out of Sweden.
4:21:39 PM
|
|
FTC Finalizes Landmark Adware Settlement. The Federal Trade Commission today finalized its landmark settlement requiring adware distributor Zango Inc. (formerly 180solutions) to hand over $3 million and change some of its most egregious practices. The settlement bars Zango from contacting the computers of people who installed Zango software before Jan. 1, 2006. After the proposed settlement was announced in November 2006, CDT submitted recommendations to the FTC highlighting the challenges that will come with enforcing it. In a letter to CDT, the FTC today acknowledged that it would need to remain vigilant to ensure that Zango abides by the terms of the settlement. The commission also urged CDT to pass along any evidence of future offenses by Zango stemming from CDT's ongoing forensics work in the adware/spyware arena. [Center for Democracy and Technology]
4:08:24 PM
|
|
The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the
Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing
the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order,
according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice
Department's Inspector General.
The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely
held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it
documents "numerous lapses" and describe it as "scathing" and "not a
pretty picture for the FBI."
FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to brief Congress on the report at noon.
The officials say the inspector general found the FBI underreported
by at least 20 percent the use of the controversial provision, known as
National Security Letters, NSLs, in required disclosures to Congress.
The Patriot Act gave FBI agents the ability to demand telephone,
bank, credit card and library records by issuing an administrative
letter, bypassing the need to seek a warrant from a federal judge.
1:02:02 PM
|
|
LITTLE
ROCK - Scaling back the scope of a statewide database to monitor some
prescription drug purchases gained Senate approval of the measure
Thursday. The bill's sponsor said the amendments were intended to
address concerns about patient privacy.
[...]
By a 20-7 vote, the Senate approved
a bill by Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, that would allow the state
Board of Pharmacy to establish standards for setting up the database on
drug purchases. The database would track schedule II and schedule III
narcotics, such as morphine or OxyContin.
"I think we've amended
this about six times now," Altes said before the vote. "I think these
changes should address all the concerns that were raised."
Altes
originally called for a database to track virtually all prescription
drug purchases in the state. The measure passed by the Senate allows
the Board of Pharmacy to set the criteria for the information to be
tracked by the database.
Sen.
Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, said he still believed the database could be
subject to abuse and could harm the privacy of some patients.
"There
is no evidence that a database like this works, but there is evidence
that databases like this could be violated," Argue said.
12:33:58 PM
|
|
Video: the New Kid for the Block. It looks like video sites are the new flashpoint in the battle against
free speech online. Perhaps it is that many states control television
broadcasts far more tightly than they control the press. Judges across
the world clearly think they understand how to censor television - and
are surprised when their attempts to do the same to video online don't
work as effectively.
In January it was Brazilian judges who found themselves caught in a hailstorm
of criticism when attempting to prevent all Brazilians from downloading a
salacious video of a Brazilian celebrity. When the only method of obeying the
order at local ISP's disposal was blocking all of YouTube from Brazil,
Brazilian net users rose up and complained. The decision was overturned three
days later.
This week, it was Turkey, whose Istanbul First Criminal
Court ordered Turk Telekom to redirect its users away from YouTube to
prevent them seeing a video that poured scorn on Turkey and the country's
founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
As in so many cases of government internet censorship, Turkey's reaction
has affected the free speech rights of thousands of innocent parties,
and done nothing to stop what they want to stop. The growing
legions of Turkish net users were denied access to tools to share
their own stories, while anti-Ataturk commentary still exists on YouTube
and elsewhere. Meanwhile, nationalists inside Turkey found themselves
unable to post their own responses to the video, meaning that the ratio
of Turkey critics and supporters on YouTube no doubt lurched towards the
critics. Those who agreed with the judges that this video was outrageous
found themselves as effectively silenced as the video's maker. As one of
the four college students who bravely
petitioned the court Thursday, Kursat Cetinkoz, said:
"Banning access to the Website does not punish those who
did that (posted the videos) but the citizens of the Turkish Republic."
It looks as if the court will now restore access now that the one video
has been removed. To YouTube's credit, the company did not remove the
video itself. Then again, it didn't have to: the original user appears
to have deleted it from his or her account.
The reaction in Turkey, and fear of discovery and retribution by the creator
may have played its part in that personal decision. For free speech online to
grow, we need to have not only network operators that cannot be intimidated,
but we also need safety through anonymity for speakers. Tor, and services like it, work for both
viewers and writers. With Tor and other anti-censorship programs, bypassing
the court's censorship was straightforward - and publishing via anonymizers
helps give intimated speakers the confidence to stand their ground.
[EFF: Deep Links]
12:13:14 PM
|
|
Sweden: Monitor Communications. A Swedish government security plan would allow a defense intelligence agency to monitor -- without a court order -- e-mail traffic and phone calls crossing the nation's borders. By the Associated Press. [Wired News: Top Stories]
12:35:34 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 3/18/07; 6:02:33 PM.
|
|
|
