There are about 300 people world-wide the U.S. considers so dangerous to civil aviation it has them on a "No Fly List." Documents uncovered by EPIC's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the TSA showed that innocent people were swept up by a poorly operated list and denied due process rights and a simple way to get off the list. The Wall Street Journal investigated airline practices concerning the operation of the No Fly watch list. EPIC FOIA documents also uncovered the existence of a selectee list, which subjects those travelers to additional screening at the airport. The proposed Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS-II) will search through several commericial and government databases to risk profile all airline passengers. The TSA has yet to describe how it will protect due process rights, comply with the Privacy Act, and whether it is an effective security measure.
Why a 'No Fly List' Aimed At Terrorists Delays Others Wall Street Journal (subscription required), April 21, 2003.
EPIC Watch list FOIA Analysis, April 2003.
I.B.M., known as "Big Blue", announced last month that it would offer a new package of consulting and system-design services for digital network-based video surveillance systems. I.B.M. wants retail stores, corporations and government agencies to abandon older analog videotape systems and move the management of these surveillance operations to corporate information technology departments. Unlike videotape systems, digital images stored on DVD's or CD's can be indexed and searched easily. Using digital video, investigators can, for instance, nearly instantly retrieve images of every person who passed through a door on a certain day.
Digital video's other feature is that its images can be quickly transmitted over networks. Police officers responding to a robbery can view surveillance images in their squad cars. And digital video systems can be used in conjunction with other corporate security systems, like badge readers and alarms. With criminal databases and pattern-matching algorithms, new digital equipment can analyze activity caught on camera, even as it is taking place, and can detect the presence of weapons.
Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze New York Times, April 21, 2003
EPIC Video Surveillance page
On April 3, 2003, Privacy International announced the winners of the 5th Annual US "Big Brother" awards to the government and private sector organizations that have done the most to invade personal privacy in the United States. The winners were: for Most Invasive Proposal, Total Information Awareness; for Greatest Corporate Invader, Delta Airlines; for Worst Public Official, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh; and the recipient of the Admiral John M. Poindexter Lifetime Menace Award was Osama Bin Laden.
"Brandeis" awards were also given to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the protection of privacy. This year's Brandeis recipients were Edmund Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director; James Kasper, Representative to the North Dakota State Legislature; Charlene Nelson, a North Dakota farmer who led a successful referendum in her state to reestablish opt-in privacy rules; and Joyce Meskis, the owner of the Denver-based Tattered Cover bookstore who successfully challenged a law enforcement request for book purchaser records.
Privacy International also announced the results of its competition to find the worlds most pointless, intrusive and egregious security measures. The competition, launched in February, attracted almost 5,000 nominations from 35 countries. While the air security sector dominated the competition, nominations arose from almost all areas of private and public sector activity.
The winners were: for Most Egregiously Stupid Award, The Australian Government for a litany of pointless, irritating and self-serving security measures; for Most Inexplicably Stupid Award, Philadelphia International Airport for over-reaction to a bottle of cologne; for Most Annoyingly Stupid Award, T-Mobile (UK) for pointless and idiotic financial security measures; for Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award, Delta Terminal at JFK Airport for forcing a nursing mother to drink her own breast milk; and for Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award, San Francisco General Hospital for blind idiocy in its identity checking procedures.
US Big Brother Awards, Privacy International.
Stupid Security Awards, Privacy International.
Photographs from the Big Brother Awards, Declan McCullagh's Politechbot.com.
