Privacy Digest

Ominous Signs of a Forthcoming "Compromise" on Telco Immunity - Tell the House To Stand Firm - Via EFF: Deep Links:

This morning, CongressDaily reported that Senator Jay Rockefeller is now privately circulating a new "compromise" proposal on surveillance legislation, only a day after it was reported that the telecoms themselves have begun shopping their own "compromise" proposals around the Hill. You may remember Sen. Rockefeller as the force behind the surveillance bill passed by the Senate in February, which included blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies like AT&T that are alleged to have participated in the National Security Agency's illegal warrantless wiretapping program.

Although the details of the Rockefeller proposal are still unclear, indications are that the so-called "compromise" on telco immunity may well be nearly identical to the original Senate immunity provision, with only a few cosmetic changes.  read more »

Daily Kos: Another victory for the anti-Real ID rebels - Via ACLU's diary in Daily Kos:

By Larry Frankel, State Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

The anti-Real ID movement just took a big step forward, with the Arizona Senate’s 21-7 vote to bar implementation of Real ID in Arizona. The bill (H.B. 2677) still has to go back to the Arizona House for another vote and then on to Governor Janet Napolitano for her signature. But as of this writing, Arizona is poised to join the growing number of states who have recognized that Real ID is an expensive and unworkable invasion of our privacy.

The good work of a bipartisan group of Arizona legislators contrasts with what happened last week in Minnesota. Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a transportation bill that passed the Minnesota legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support because the members of the Minnesota legislature had the audacity to say no to the federal Real ID Act. The governor’s veto message reads like a set of talking points from the Department of Homeland Security.  read more »

No-go on GOFA - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:

Today, CDT posted an updated memorandum on the most recent version of the Global Online Freedom Act (”GOFA”). GOFA was first introduced by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) several years ago in response to troubling reports of company complicity in Internet censorship and cooperation in prosecutions of dissidents who posted political material online. The late Rep. Tom P. Lantos, (D-Ca) took up the cause last year and the bill was reported out of the Committee on Foreign Affairs late last year. Industry opposition to the bill has been fierce and efforts to bring the bill to the floor on suspension have thus far been thwarted.

CDT strongly believes that technology companies doing business in countries that broadly surveil and censor the Internet must take serious steps to identify and minimize the human rights risks associated with providing services and technology solutions in those countries. For several years, we have been co-facilitating a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at developing global principles to guide ICT companies facing free expression and privacy challenges.  We remain hopefully that these principles will grow into a global industry standard that will give the industry a road map for collective action in this area.

We also believe that companies must not hide from these challenges. They should advocate for changes in public policy that protect the rights of their users, challenge laws where possible and collaborate with human rights groups and other stakeholders to build support for an open Internet that supports human rights.  read more »

Backroom FISA Deal in the Making? - Via ACLU Blog - Government Spying:

There was chatter on the blogs last week that FISA compromise was in the works, but it wasn't until late Friday night that our lobbyists confirmed that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is working on a compromise bill with Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) — yes, the same senator known for taking thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from the telecom companies he's angling to protect with immunity. Hoyer and Rockefeller may try to lock in a deal within the next few days.  read more »

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Genetic Privacy - Via ACLU Blog - Privacy & Technology:

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 493, the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and the bill is now headed to President Bush for his signature.
This is a victory for all Americans who value their genetic privacy: GINA prevents employers and health insurance companies from discriminating against applicants based on their genetic code, which, thanks to modern science, reveals a lot about your body's predisposition towards illness and disease.  read more »

ACLU Urges Senate Committee to Pass Strong State Secrets Bill - Via American Civil Liberties Union:

Washington, DC – As the Senate Judiciary Committee meets today to mark up key legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the body to pass a bill that would allow Americans to hold their government accountable. The bill, introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), would limit the scope of the state secrets privilege. The Bush administration, which has threatened to veto Senator Kennedy’s bill, has used the privilege to halt several important lawsuits against the government, including an ACLU case involving the extraordinary rendition of an innocent German citizen, Khaled El-Masri.

"The administration’s frequent and broad use of the state secrets privilege goes to the very root of its abuse of power," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "The privilege has been misused and abused for long enough. Senator Kennedy’s legislation will allow for a court to review the government’s national security claims and will rightly reinstate the role of the judiciary."  read more »

Congress Expected to Pass Health Privacy Protections - Via ACLU - Privacy:

ACLU Urges President to Sign 1st Civil Rights Bill of 21st Century

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON DC - After more than a decade of debates, hearings and votes, Congress is expected to pass legislation referred to as the first civil rights bill of the 21st century that is a critical step toward securing civil liberties in the emerging field of medical technology.

The ACLU urges President Bush to live by his words in support of health privacy protections and sign the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007 – known as GINA, into law.

GINA would provide a national framework to direct companies and states on how to protect information acquired by genetic tests and protect against genetic discrimination. It will also regulate appropriate use of such information so employers and health insurers do not misuse it in a discriminatory way.  read more »

Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests - Via New York Times :

The first, much-anticipated benefits of personalized medicine are being lost or diluted for many Americans who are too afraid that genetic information may be used against them to take advantage of its growing availability.

In some cases, doctors say, patients who could make more informed health care decisions if they learned whether they had inherited an elevated risk of diseases like breast and colon cancer refuse to do so because of the potentially dire economic consequences.  read more »

Privacy Fears Send DNA Tests Underground - Via Slashdot:

biobricks writes "The New York Times is reporting that people who could benefit from genetic testing are too afraid their health insurance companies are going to raise their rates or deny them coverage to find out the health information contained in their own genes. There is a growing "genetic underground" where people pay for their own tests so they won't have to share the results with insurers, and beg doctors not to divulge their genetic status in medical records. A bill that would ban genetic discrimination by insurers and employers — and presumably make people feel safer about taking care of their health — is stalled in the Senate. We've discussed these types of personal DNA tests in the past."

(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)

Annals of Surveillance: State Secrets - Via Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker:

One Friday afternoon in August, 2004, a Washington, D.C., attorney named Lynne Bernabei received a package from the Department of the Treasury. The government was investigating one of her clients, the American branch of a Saudi charity called the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, which had been active in fifty countries. Al Haramain had come under scrutiny, as had many other Islamic charities, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and Treasury Department investigators believed that Al Haramain’s American branch, which was based in Oregon, had connections to Al Qaeda. In response to a request from Bernabei for evidence against her client, the government had turned over two sets of documents, primarily media reports that referred to other branches of Al Haramain. None of the materials demonstrated a direct connection between the Oregon branch and Al Qaeda.  read more »

Senate Proposal To Clarify 'State Secrets' Doctrine - Via Slashdot:

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and other lawmakers are pushing legislation to limit the power of the state secrets doctrine in blocking lawsuits. The doctrine has been used as a 'get out of jail free' card in cases like the EFF's warrantless wiretapping lawsuit. This new legislation would make it harder for the administration to invoke the doctrine, and provide new allowances, such as using attorneys with security clearances to enable the lawsuits to go forward even when the issue is appropriately raised." --- Update: 04/28 16:58 GMT by KD : The New Yorker is running a detailed piece, State Secrets, by Patrick Radden Keefe, about how the use of the state secrets doctrine is playing out in one particular case.

(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)

Senate Poised To Tighten Broadcast Ownership Rules - Via American Civil Liberties Union:

Washington, DC – Today, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to approve a bipartisan resolution, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), which would restore a media ownership rule recently rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The old rule generally restricted a company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same city, unless the FCC granted a waiver.

Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office said, “Senator Dorgan’s resolution aims to protect the airing of a multiplicity of voices, which fuels our democracy. Democracy is not served well by a media oligarchy where five or six corporations decide what Americans see in the news. We urge the Commerce Committee to also take up S. 2332, Senator Dorgan’s bill to reverse the media ownership rules to ensure the FCC does not go down this road again.”  read more »

Defending Anonymity Online: Legislation Would Give Does a New Weapon in Battle Against Frivolous Lawsuits - Via EFF: Deep Links:

The California Assembly took a crucial first step yesterday towards closing a significant gap in protection for anonymous speech online. One of the most pernicious threats to anonymity is the filing of bogus lawsuits as an excuse to force ISPs to reveal speakers’ identities. Once such a lawsuit is filed, speakers who want to protect their anonymity must find a way to pay a lawyer to go to court and prevent disclosure of their personal information. That can be a real hardship—in fact, even the threat of having to go to court may intimidate many people from speaking out in the first place.

Fortunately, Assembly member Paul Krekorian with co-authors Sally Lieber and Anthony Portantino introduced AB 2433 to help answer this problem.  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 »