Americans are willing to tolerate eavesdropping without warrants to fight terrorism, but are concerned that the aggressive antiterrorism programs championed by the Bush administration are encroaching on civil liberties, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. In a sign that public opinion about the trade-offs between national security and individual rights is nuanced and remains highly unresolved, responses to questions about the administration's eavesdropping program varied significantly depending on how the questions were worded, underlining the importance of the effort by the White House this week to define the issue on its terms.
President Bush said yesterday that he didn't seek congressional approval for a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program for one simple reason: He didn't need it. It is one of several explanations on the topic from Bush and his aides, who have provided at least two separate rationales for why they did not ask for statutory authority for the program. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said the administration had considered seeking legislation but determined it would be impossible to get, adding later in the same news conference that authorities did not want to expose the program's existence.
The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that it had reached a $15 million settlement with ChoicePoint Inc., the commercial data broker that disclosed last February that thieves had duped the company into turning over private data on more than 145,000 people. That revelation touched off a year of national debate over data privacy and security and generated a raft of tough new state laws on data security as well as several bills in Congress.
President Bush declared again on Thursday that his administration's program for eavesdropping without warrants was well within existing law, and said that efforts in Congress to write legislation expressly giving him authority for such a program were unnecessary and dangerous. He reiterated that the program, which intercepts international phone calls and e-mail messages of people in the United States suspected by the government of having links to Al Qaeda, was crucial to national security, and declared that he had the constitutional authority in wartime to order it.
Missouri is the latest state to introduce a do-not-mail bill, joining New York and Illinois. Missouri's bill, HB1531, sponsored by state Rep. Trent Skaggs, was reintroduced yesterday. It would set up a registry at the Missouri attorney general's office for people who wish not to receive commercial mail. A similar bill, HB834, died during the last session. The bill would let the attorney general seek an injunction and a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for every violation.
Cingular Wireless won an injunction Wednesday against an online merchant it says has been using con games to obtain consumer phone records, potentially exposing sensitive relationships and business contacts. Wireless carriers say that these scammers impersonate customers, cellular company employees or even law enforcement to persuade customer service representatives to relinquish the logs, which are then sent via e-mail, phone or fax.
As part of its effort to uphold an online pornography law, the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries. Google is resisting the request, but three of its competitors - Yahoo, MSN and America Online - have turned over similar information. The government's move is one of several recent episodes that have caused some people to think twice about the information they type into a search engine, or the opinions they express in an e-mail message.
President Bush and the nation's deputy national intelligence chief today defended the legality of a controversial domestic spying program, describing it as a vital tool in the war against terrorists and denying that it violates the civil liberties of Americans. Calling the effort a "terrorist surveillance program," Bush said in a speech at Kansas State University that he authorized the eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an effort to detect any continuing plots involving members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network overseas and persons operating inside the United States.
Airline passengers who buy a preapproved security pass could have their credit histories and property records examined as part of the government's plan to turn over the Registered Traveler program to private companies. In announcing the plan Friday, the Transportation Security Administration said the Registered Traveler card would let frequent fliers go through airport security lines more quickly if they pay a fee, pass a government background check and submit 10 fingerprints. The program will begin June 20.
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over
records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law. Google has been refusing the request since a subpoena was first issued last August. Google asserts that the request is unnecessary, overly broad,
would be onerous to comply with, would jeopardize its trade secrets and could expose identifying information about its users.
The Bush administration argued yesterday that the president has inherent war powers under the Constitution to order warrantless eavesdropping on the international calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens and others in this country, offering the administration's most detailed legal defense to date of its surveillance program. Many experts on intelligence and national security law have concluded that the president overstepped his authority, and that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act specifically prohibits such domestic surveillance without a warrant.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, led by Florida's Bill Nelson has moved to outlaw the sale of telephone records without consumers' knowledge, a practice that worries privacy experts and law enforcement agencies. New legislation, introduced by Nelson and five other senators, would make it a crime to steal and sell records for cell phones, traditional landlines and Internet-based phones.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group that advocates privacy rights, said on Wednesday it planned to sue the Justice Department to win the public release of documents related to President George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program. EPIC is the latest of a number of civil liberties organizations to take the federal government to court over the domestic spying program, which has caused an outcry among Republicans and Democrats alike.
In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month. But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
Online information brokers pried thousands of private cell-phone records from Verizon Wireless by posing as speech-impaired customers and company employees, court documents show. The charges, which appear in a civil suit filed by Verizon in Florida late last year, shed a rare light on the shadowy world of online phone-record vendors -- a cottage industry among private investigators that has operated below the radar for years but is now in the spotlight amid a flurry of private suits and calls for laws restricting phone-record sales.
Midway through Senate confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has deftly parried questions on hot-button issues ranging from abortion to the limits of presidential power. The most divisive issue - on both sides of the aisle - is the constitutional status of abortion rights. Most Democrats and moderate Republicans, including Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, support the principles of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. While agreeing that the Constitution protects a right to privacy - a point made by every nominee since Judge Bork - Alito did not agree that it was such settled law that its principles should not be reexamined.
Web sites and Internet forums are abuzz with news that a new feature recently added in version 6.0.2 may be communicating information on the song you are listening to Apple, raising privacy concerns from some users. A "Mini Store" pane has been added to the main iTunes window that provides more information on the song being played, as well as additional available tracks from the artist, and a list of other songs that users who own the track have bought.
Three in 10 Americans believe the federal government has made unjustified intrusions into personal privacy as it investigates terrorism. That's nearly double the level of concern shown a few years ago, but it's still far from a majority view. More broadly, the public still grants investigating terrorism a higher priority than guarding privacy rights, but by somewhat less of a margin than in the past.
The University of Texas was within its rights to block unsolicited e-mail coming into its system, even if the e-mail didn't break the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The high court let stand a federal appeals court's ruling that the University of Texas did not violate the constitutional rights of White Buffalo Ventures-- a company running an online dating service-- when the school blocked 59,000 of White Buffalo's e-mails in 2003.
The Justice Department held an unusual closed-door briefing Monday for judges on a secret foreign-intelligence court in response to concerns about President Bush's decision to allow domestic eavesdropping without warrants. A number of judges from around the country who serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which issues eavesdropping warrants in terror cases, flew to Washington to hear the administration's defense of the legality and use of the program, officials said.
Samuel A. Alito Jr. sought to reassure senators yesterday that divisive policies he once advocated as a government lawyer do not necessarily signal how he would rule if confirmed to the Supreme Court, saying a judge "can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case." In his first public statement since President Bush tapped him for the high court on Oct. 31, Alito indirectly responded to critics who say his writings from his years in the Reagan administration Justice Department show he is predisposed to outlaw abortion, restrict affirmative action and expand presidential authority, if given the chance.
Dozens of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy, a CNET News.com investigation shows. From the Air Force to the Treasury Department, government agencies are using either "Web bugs" or permanent cookies to monitor their visitors' behavior, even though federal law restricts the practice.
The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts. Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.
A U.K. resident has won landmark legal case against a spamming company. Nigel Roberts used the European Union's E-Privacy Directive law to win �300 (US$500) in compensation from Falkirk-based Media Logistics (UK) Ltd., becoming the first person in the country to use European legislation to defeat spammers.
Companies increasingly rely on background checks to ease security concerns and protect against costly lawsuits. But the burgeoning field lacks consistent standards, causing errors that can disqualify reputable job applicants, some industry experts and consumer advocates say. When criminals slip through with clean records, the consequences are more severe.
