[Reader-list] Is the US Turning Into a Surveillance Society?

[Harsh Kapoor]

Is the US Turning Into a Surveillance Society?
ACLU Online
27 January 2003

The United States is at risk of turning into a full-fledged surveillance
society. A new ACLU report, Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an
American Surveillance Society provides an overview of the many ways in
which we are drifting toward a surveillance society, and what we need to do
about it.

There are two simultaneous developments behind this trend:

*       The tremendous explosion in surveillance-enabling technologies,
including databases, computers, cameras, sensors, wireless networks,
implantable microchips, GPS, and biometrics. The fact is, Orwell's vision
of "Big Brother"is now, for the first time, technologically possible.

*       Even as this technological surveillance monster grows in our midst,
we are weaking the chains that keep it from trampling our privacy ñ
loosening regulations on government surveillance, watching passively as
private surveillance grows unchecked, and contemplating the introduction of
tremendously powerful new surveillance infrastructures that will tie all
this information together.

The good news is that the drift toward a surveillance society can be
stopped. As the American people realize that each new development is part
of this bigger picture, they will give more and more weight to protecting
privacy, and support the measures we need to preserve our freedom.
Unfortunately, right now the big picture is grim. There are numerous
disturbing developments:

Video Surveillance

Surveillance video cameras are rapidly spreading throughout the public
arena, with new cameras being placed not only in some of our most sacred
public spaces, but on ordinary public streets all over America. And video
surveillance may be on the verge of an even greater revolution due to
advances in technology like Face Recognition Technology and new attempts to
build centralized monitoring facilities.

Data Surveillance

An insidious new type of surveillance is becoming possible that is just as
intrusive as video surveillance ñ what we might call "data surveillance."
As more and more of our activities leave behind "data trails," it will soon
be possible to combine information from different sources to recreate an
individual's activities with such detail that it becomes no different from
being followed around all day by a detective with a video camera.

*       The Commodification of Information. Today, any consumer activity
that is not being tracked and recorded is increasingly being viewed by
businesses as money left on the table.
*       Internet Privacy. On the Internet, our activities can be recorded
down to the last mouse click.
*       Financial privacy. The once-firm tradition of privacy and
discretion by financial institutions has collapsed, and financial companies
today routinely put the details of their customers' financial lives up for
sale.
*       New Data-Gathering Technologies. In the near future, new
technologies will continue to fill out the mosaic of information it is
possible to collect on every individual; examples include cell phone
location data, biometrics, computer "black boxes" in cars that "tattle" on
their owners, and location-tracking computer chips.
*       Medical & Genetic Privacy. Medical privacy has collapsed, and
genetic information is about to become a central part of health care.
Unlike other medical information, genetic data is a unique combination:
both difficult to keep confidential and extremely revealing about us.

Government Surveillance
The biggest threat to privacy comes from the government. Many Americans are
naturally concerned about corporate surveillance, but only the government
has the power to take away liberty.
*       Government Databases. The government's access to personal
information begins with the thousands of databases it maintains on the
lives of Americans and others.
*       Communications Surveillance. The government performs an increasing
amount of eavesdropping on electronic communications. Examples of the new
type of surveillance include the FBI's controversial "Carnivore" program
and the international eavesdropping program codenamed Echelon.
*       The "Patriot" Act. Just six weeks after the September 11 attacks, a
panicked Congress passed the "USA PATRIOT Act, an overnight revision of the
nation's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government's authority
to spy on its own citizens and reduced checks and balances on those powers
such as judicial oversight.
*       Loosened Domestic Spying Regulations. In May 2002, Attorney General
John Ashcroft issued 
      new guidelines that significantly increase the
freedom of federal agents to conduct surveillance on American individuals
and organizations.

The Synergies of Surveillance

Multiple surveillance techniques added together are greater than the sum of
their parts. The growing piles of data being collected on Americans
represent an enormous invasion of privacy, but our privacy has actually
been protected by the fact that all this information still remains
scattered across many different databases. The real threat to privacy will
come when the government, landlords, employers, or other powerful forces
gain the ability to draw together all this information. Several programs
now being discussed or implemented would advance this goal:

*       "Total Information Awareness." This Pentagon program aims at giving
officials easy, one-stop access to every possible government and commercial
database in the world.
*       CAPS II. A close cousin of TIA is also being created in the context
of airline security: Computer Assisted Passenger Screening, or CAPS, which
involves collecting a variety of personal information on airline travelers
in order to flag those deemed suspicious for special screening.

*       National ID Cards. Combinging new technologies such as biometrics
with an enormously powerful database, national ID Cards would become an
overarching means of facilitating the tracking and surveillance of Americans.

What We Must Do

If we do not take steps to control and regulate surveillance to bring it
into conformity with our values, we will find ourselves being tracked,
analyzed, profiled, and flagged in our daily lives to a degree we can
scarcely imagine today. We will be forced into an impossible struggle to
conform to the letter of every rule, law, and guideline, lest we create
ammunition for enemies in the government or elsewhere.
Our transgressions will become permanent Scarlet Letters that follow us
throughout our lives, visible to all and used by the government, landlords,
employers, insurance companies and other powerful parties to increase their
leverage over average people.

Four main goals need to be attained to prevent this dark potential from
being realized:

Change the Terms of the Debate. We are being confronted with fundamental
choices about what sort of society we want to live in, but unless the terms
of the debate are changed to focus on the big picture instead of individual
privacy stories, too many Americans will never even recognize the choice we
face, and a decision against preserving privacy will be made by default.

Enact Comprehensive Privacy Laws. The US has an inconsistent, patchwork
approach to privacy regulation, and we need to develop a baseline of simple
and clear privacy protections that crosses all sectors of our lives and
give it the force of law.

Pass New Laws For New Technologies. Laws must also be developed to rein in
particular new technologies such as surveillance cameras, location-tracking
devices, and biometrics. Surveillance cameras, for example, must be subject
to force-of-law rules covering important details like when they will be
used, how long images will be stored, and when and with whom they will be
shared.
Revive the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment, the primary
Constitutional bulwark against Government invasion of our privacy, is in
desperate need of a revival. The Fourth Amendment must be adapted to new
technologies; the Framers never expected the Constitution to be read
exclusively in terms of the circumstances of 1791.
Links:
ACLU Report: Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American
Surveillance Society [http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11573&c=39]

"Big Brother" is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report
(1/15/03) [http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11612]

Feature on Total Information Awareness program
[http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=130]

What's Wrong With Public Video Surveillance?
[http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/CCTV_Feature.html]

Feature on USA PATRIOT Act
[http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/USAPA_feature.html]

5 Reasons Not to Create A National ID Card
[http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/FaceRec_Feature.html]

Feature on Face Recognition Technology Protecting Financial Privacy
[http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/Financial_privacy_feature.html]







URL: http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=39