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Tuesday, March 6, 2007
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In France, Only Journalists Can Film Violence.
BostonBTS sends word that the French Constitutional Council has just made it illegal to film violence unless you are a professional journalist
(or to distribute a video containing violence). The law was approved
exactly 16 years after amateur videographer George Holliday filmed Los
Angeles police officers beating Rodney King. The Council was tidying up a body of law about offenses against the public order, and wanted to ban "happy slapping."
A charitable reading would be that the lawmakers stumbled into
unintended consequences. Not according to Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for
French online civil liberties group Odebi: --- "The broad drafting of
the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists
unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but
rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said [Cohet]. He is
concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to
the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication
of information on the Internet." a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/">Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
10:07:13 PM 
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In that vein, in August the Senate ratified the Convention on
Cybercrime, drafted by the Council of Europe with considerable input
from the United States. So far, 43 nations have signed on. The
Convention includes many sensible provisions aimed at unifying global
computer-crime laws, and closes loopholes that make it possible for
criminals to escape prosecution by locating their activities offshore.
But civil libertarians, along with leading telecommunications
companies, strongly oppose the treaty. Civil libertarians are
especially concerned about the sweeping authority given to
participating countries to seize information from private parties as
they investigate cybercrimes, even when the activity being investigated
isn't a crime in the country where the data is located. If France is
investigating a sale of Nazi memorabilia on eBay, the U.S. must
cooperate, even though such transactions are not illegal in the U.S.
Telecommunications companies object to provisions that require member
countries to establish and enforce potent data-retention policies for
network traffic, and require any operator of a computer network to
respond to requests for information from any participating country
without compensation of any kind.
These are potentially serious problems, especially given that the
Convention is open to any country that wants to join. But there are
more practical reasons U.S. businesses should be concerned. The
provisions for data retention and production apply to any operator of a
computer network, not just telecoms. Worse, Article 12 attaches
liability to businesses for "lack of supervision or control" of
employees who commit criminal offenses covered by the Convention.
Businesses must worry about employee activities that may be legal here,
but illegal elsewhere, risking administrative, civil, or even criminal
penalties.
These investigative and supervision costs will invariably be
imposed on businesses without any real controls. Worldwide
law-enforcement agencies, in other words, may now avail themselves of
the opportunity to outsource their most expensive problems to you.
9:53:57 PM
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Cybercrime Treaty [~] Hidden Costs For All. linuxtelephony writes in with an article at CIO Insight about a cybercrime treaty drafted in Europe with help from the US. It has implications for just about everyone with a network. From the article: "Civil libertarians are especially concerned about the sweeping authority given to participating countries to seize information from private parties as they investigate cybercrimes, even when the activity being investigated isn't a crime in the country where the data is located... Telecommunications companies object to provisions that require member countries to establish and enforce potent data-retention policies for network traffic, and require any operator of a computer network to respond to requests for information from any participating country without compensation of any kind... The provisions for data retention and production apply to any operator of a computer network, not just telecoms... Worldwide law-enforcement agencies, in other words, may now avail themselves of the opportunity to outsource their most expensive problems to you." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
9:48:08 PM
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Action Alert: Repeal the REAL ID Act! The federal government has taken another step towards forcing you to carry a national ID in order to get on airplanes, open a bank account, enter federal buildings, and much more. But with state legislatures and Congressional representatives increasingly turning against the REAL ID Act, you can help stop this costly, privacy-invasive mandate -- voice your opposition now.
On March 1, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released draft regulations [PDF] for implementing REAL ID, which makes states standardize drivers licenses and create a vast national database linking all of the ID records together. Once in place, uses of the IDs and database will inevitably expand to facilitate a wide range of tracking and surveillance activities. Remember, the Social Security number started innocuously enough, but it has become a prerequisite for a host of government services and been co-opted by private companies to create massive databases of personal information.
REAL ID won't just cost you your privacy. The states and individual taxpayers bear the estimated 23 billion dollar burden of implementing the law, and that figure is probably low given that the necessary verification systems don't exist yet.
And what will you get in return? Not improved national security, because IDs do little to stop those who haven't already been identified as threats, and wrongdoers will still be able to create fake documents.
REAL ID is fundamentally flawed, and DHS' proposed regulations do nothing to change that. Thankfully, the tide is turning against REAL ID in a big way -- state legislatures around the country are passing or considering legislation rejecting its implementation, and Congress is considering repealing it.
The DHS regulations mean that states must have an implementation plan ready by October 2007. Make sure your Congressional representatives support the repeal of REAL ID before it's too late.
For more information, check out San Jose Mercury News' recent editorial opposing REAL ID as well as the ACLU's Realnightmare.org. [EFF: Deep Links]
9:24:48 PM
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Credit information companies will have the power to sell
detailed records about responsible borrowers, not just those in
serious debt, as part of a current review of privacy laws in New
Zealand and Australia.
Veda Advantage chief executive Andrew Want says a sweeping
review of privacy laws could see the company introduce a service by
2009 providing information about consumers who are a good credit
risk.
Currently, it is illegal to sell such information.
But work by the Privacy Commission in Australia to streamline
privacy rules between federal and state governments, and to bring
them in line with the current developments with technology, could
change that.
12:15:46 PM
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The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations.The new program, similar to a Pentagon program that Congress killed in 2003 over concerns about civil liberties, could take effect as soon as next year. But system testers probably already have violated privacy laws by reviewing real information, instead of fake data, a source familiar with a congressional investigation into the $42.5 million program told The Washington Post. The program, called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE), is on the cutting edge of analytical technology that applies mathematical algorithms to uncover hidden relationships in data. The idea is to troll a vast sea of information and extract suspicious people, places and other elements based on their links and behavioral patterns. The privacy violation is described in a Government Accountability Office report due out soon. "Undoubtedly there are likely to be more," GAO Comptroller David Walker said recently.
12:13:09 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 3/18/07; 7:43:25 PM.
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