Privacy Digest

Court Ruling on Voter ID Law May Encourage Tighter State Regulation - Via NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS:

The Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 Monday to uphold an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification at polling stations. The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle examines the impact of the Supreme Court decisions on voters and state regulations.

(Read Original Article - Via NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS.)

DNA database constitutional, high court rules - Via The Burlington Free Press :

Law-enforcement authorities have the right to collect, analyze and store DNA samples from people convicted of nonviolent felonies, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday.

In a narrow 3-2 opinion, justices determined the government's interest in monitoring forensic profiles of criminals outweighs their privacy rights.

Police and government lawyers argued they need the DNA database to identify the perpetrators of crimes, to exclude the innocent from suspicion, to deter crime and to help find missing people. The high court agreed those goals allow police to swab a convict's mouth, laboratory personnel to analyze and store the data, and local authorities to transmit the information to federal law enforcement.  read more »

ACLU Commends Senator Feingold for Hearing on Secret Law - Via American Civil Liberties Union:

Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded a Senate subcommittee for holding a hearing on the Bush administration’s use of secrecy to institute government policy. During the hearing, entitled "Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government," the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and its chairman, Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI), heard testimony from legal experts and open government advocates. The hearing focused on the administration’s broad interpretation of the law as it relates to government secrecy and counterterrorism policies – including a legal opinion written by former Justice Department Official John Yoo on the use of torture in interrogations. That memo was made public through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by the ACLU.

"Government transparency is the cornerstone of democracy," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "This administration has been rewriting the Constitution memo by memo. From what we’ve seen of the self-serving opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel, we can only believe that those that remain secret must equally distort the law in favor of President Bush’s agenda. An agenda built on secrecy and overclassification is antithetical to our country’s ideals."  read more »

EFF and Sheppard Mullin Defend Wikipedia in Defamation Case - Via EFF: Breaking News:

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the operator of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, arguing that federal law immunizes it against suits over statements made by its users.

Literary agent Barbara Bauer filed a complaint in New Jersey Superior Court in January against Wikipedia posters as well as the site itself, claiming in part that the Wikimedia Foundation was liable for statements identifying her as one the "dumbest of the twenty worst" agents and that she had "no documented sales at all." In court papers filed Thursday, Wikimedia argues that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, operators of "interactive computer services" such as Wikipedia cannot be held liable for users' comments. In addition, Wikimedia argues that the statements are protected speech under the First Amendment and New Jersey law.  read more »

Happy Law Day! - Via ACLU Blog - Government Spying:

As you might have heard, today is 50th anniversary of Law Day, and to show that President Bush is taking today seriously, he's even given Law Day a theme this year!

The theme of this year's Law Day, "The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity," recognizes the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in preserving liberty in our Nation and in all free societies. We pay tribute to the men and women in America's legal community. Through hard work and dedication to the rule of law, members of the judiciary and the legal profession help secure the rights of individuals, bring justice to our communities, and reinforce the proud traditions that make America a beacon of light for the world.

Not a bad sentiment, I know. I agree with it, actually. But when it comes from mouth of one George Walker Bush, the words, “Today, we are reminded of that past and look toward a hopeful future as we work to secure the liberty that is the natural right of every man, woman, and child” one cringes a bit. Securing liberty, he says, on a day where the U.S. prepared to conduct a trial against an empty chair at Guantánamo? Celebrate free society on a day that it’s announced that a secret court has more than doubled the number of secret warrants approved in the last seven years?  read more »

ACLU Urges House to Remain Firm as FISA Stalemate Continues - Via American Civil Liberties Union:

Washington, DC – In response to reports that Republicans in the House of Representatives have filed a discharge petition in order to force a vote on a Senate-passed update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the American Civil Liberties Union released the following statement.

The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:  read more »

ACLU Testifies before Senate against Real ID - Via ACLU - Privacy:

WASHINGTON – Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office testified today about the privacy and security concerns with creating a federal identity document every American will need in order to fly on commercial airlines, enter government buildings, or open a bank account. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia held an oversight hearing on the Real ID Act and the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, examining the federal government’s capacity to implement the new identification systems.  read more »

Senate Approves Vital Health Privacy Bill - Via Center for Democracy and Technology:

CDT applauds the Senate's passage of HR 293, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007 (GINA) by unanimous consent. The House is expected to quickly pass the measure. The bill represents a significant step forward in protecting health privacy because it prohibits the use of genetic information by employers when making hiring decisions or by health insurers when making coverage decisions or adjusting premiums. Under GINA, employers and insurers also would not be allowed to impose genetic testing requirements. CDT is urging the President to quickly sign the bill into law.

(Read Original Article - Via Center for Democracy and Technology.)

Federal Legislation Considers New Approach to Marijuana Possession - Via ACLU Blog:

For the first time in a quarter of a century, legislation has been introduced in Congress that would eliminate federal criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Considering that 89 percent of the mind-boggling 829,625 people arrested for marijuana law offenses in 2006 — the most recent year for which data is available — were arrested for mere possession, the bi-partisan “Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008” would go a long way toward increasing public safety by freeing up our federal law enforcement resources to focus on serious, violent crime. Taxpayers are stuck with the multibillion dollar bill for these hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests, which consume 4.5 million law enforcement hours — the equivalent of taking 112,500 law enforcement officers off the streets.

Unfortunately, it will be an uphill battle for the bill’s co-sponsors, Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), to move it through the current Congress.  read more »

No Cause Needed to Search Laptops at the Border - Via EFF: Deep Links:

On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to argue that almost every property search at the border is constitutionally acceptable.

EFF filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that laptop searches are so revealing and invasive that the Fourth Amendment requires agents to have some reasonable suspicion to justify the intrusion. Not only are laptops capable of storing vast amounts of information, the information tends to be of the most personal sort, including letters, finances, diaries, photos, and web surfing histories. Prior border search cases distinguished between "routine" suspicionless searches and invasive "non-routine" searches that require reasonable suspicion. Our amicus brief and the lower court opinion relied on these cases to say that the government must also have some cause to search laptops. The Ninth Circuit panel rejected our argument that the privacy invasion resulting from searching computers is qualitatively different from, and requires higher suspicion than, searching luggage or other physical items.  read more »

Adding More Hay to the DNA Haystack - Via ACLU Blog:

Last Friday, the Justice Department released proposed regulations to implement the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, which allows the federal government to collect and permanently store DNA samples from anyone arrested for a federal crime, and from any non-U.S. person detained by federal authorities. The act passed as an amendment to the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2005.

So even if you're just arrested — and who knows how many arrests that never lead to convictions take place across the country every single day — the Feds can now take your DNA, no matter how minor the crime. If you're not a U.S. citizen, no need to stand on ceremony — your DNA can be taken the next time you’re stopped at JFK.  read more »

'Outrageous' REAL ID affront to Americans' privacy concerns ( by Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina ) - Via The Post and Courier of Charleston, SC :

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that most people haven't followed the debate on REAL ID. If you indeed missed it, I would ask that you take the time to learn about what I consider the most troubling piece of legislation I've seen come from Washington since I've been governor.

REAL ID would surreptitiously require all fifty states to change their driver's licenses to act as de-facto national ID cards. It's outrageous, and not just because it was a back door way of doing something proponents in Washington have never been able to pull off in the past.

I say "outrageous" because REAL ID was never really debated in Congress because the cost of its implementation is handed down to states and individuals, and because it is an affront to Americans' privacy concerns.

Let's look more closely at a few of those concerns:  read more »

British Litterbugs Fork Over DNA - Via ACLU Blog - Privacy & Technology:

This morning, NPR covered the U.K.'s use of anti-terrorism surveillance tools to nab the perpetrators of petty crimes, like litterbugs and people who don't curb their dogs. In their profile, they described the case of two parents who were surveilled by the local town council to see if they were cheating on the residency requirements needed to gain admission to a local public school for their three-year-old.

NPR's Vicki Barker expanded on the subject of privacy rights by interviewing Simon Davies, head of ACLU partner Privacy International (PI), for the story.  read more »

Wi-Fi users to be monitored in Russia - Via Network World on Privacy:

Business travellers to Russia might want to keep their laptops and iPhones well-concealed - not from muggers,necessarily, but from the country's recently formed regulatory super-agency, Rossvyazokhrankultura (short for the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service).

In the U.K., Ofcom made deregulation one of its first priorities upon coming into existence, but the Russian equivalent is doing just the reverse, including an ominous-sounding policy of requiring registration for every Wi-Fi device and hotspot, according to a report this week from news agency Fontanka.

Rossvyazokhrankultura's interpretation of current law holds that users must register any electronics that use the frequency involved in Wi-Fi communications, said Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency's communications monitoring division, according to an English commentary provided by website The Other Russia.  read more »

Suit accuses Blockbuster, Facebook of privacy law violations - Via Ars Technica :

A class-action lawsuit is brewing over Facebook's controversial Beacon tool and Blockbuster's involvement with it. Texas native Cathryn Elaine Harris has filed a lawsuit against Blockbuster, alleging that the company is actively and knowingly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act by reporting users' activities back to Facebook. The suit seeks to be certified as a class action, and asks that Blockbuster pay out $2,500 per incident in which it disclosed personally identifiable information.  read more »

Idaho Joins the Ranks of the Anti-Real ID States - Via ACLU - Privacy:

WASHINGTON – This week, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed into law legislation that prohibits the Idaho Department of Transportation from complying with the Real ID Act of 2005, a federal law requiring the states to implement a national identification card. The bill landed on the governor’s desk after receiving overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Idaho House and Senate, not receiving a single vote against passage. Idaho now joins Georgia, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington as states that have passed laws prohibiting compliance with Real ID.

"Governor Otter heeded the will of the people this week when he rejected the invasive and problematic Real ID Act," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. "Idaho overwhelmingly rejected the Department of Homeland Security’s national ID program, with not a single legislator voting to support Real ID.  read more »