Homeland Security to Start Collecting Fingerprints at Airports

Under the guise of combating illegal immigration, the government is planning to implement yet another privacy-infringing policy and expand the surveillance state by scanning the fingerprints of non-US citizens as they exit the country. The pilot program begins in Atlanta soon.

File a FIOA request, get some of DHS's profile of you

A Newsweek reporter filed a FOIA request to obtain what the government, DHS specifically, was tracking about him (as any citizen is entitled to do). Here is the report and discussion on Slashdot. Nothing really surprising, but it is worth noting.

Man Foils DHS Dragnet via Name Change

A Canadian recently circumvented the crack teams at DHS by changing his name to avoid being flagged at airports because his name was (previously) on the no-fly list. It's a good thing that the barrier to not being flagged as a terrorist is so high... no terrorist would ever have the resources to change their name. As we've seen in the past, this kind of incompetence at DHS only prevents stupid terrorists from flying, and if these terrorists are so dumb, what's the worry?

What is the real reason lists like these exist?

Your laptop will be detained at the border, without reason, forever

The Washington Post does a nice job of translating DHS policy

The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period
of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent
individualized suspicion."

into plain English:

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an
off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of
wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland
Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's
contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data
decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued
by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.

Nevermind that any of this data can be transferred just as easily over the internet (which I highly advise for all travellers, btw), this is a scary and stupid policy. DHS is one-upping other sectors of government in the 'arbitrary and indefinite detention' genre by not even requiring suspicion to detain items. Michael Chertoff is the most dangerous man in America and needs to be stopped. Thank goodness there are a select few people in government (Sen. Russell Feingold, mentioned in the article) that still care about the Bill of Rights. See also Schneier's post.

Michael Chertoff wants your fingerprints

Michael Chertoff, head of DHS, wants to build a "server in the sky" of all fingerprints from all citizens of a variety of countries. When questioned about the potential for privacy invasions, he answered, "A fingerprint is hardly personal data because you leave it on glasses and silverware and articles all over the world, they’re like footprints. They’re not particularly private." Nevermind that fingerprints can be used as unique identifiers for a person, nor that government-managed databases have huge potential for misuse, theft, misidentification, leaks, etc. Great, this idiot is in charge of keeping us "safe?"

Via thinkprogress, Schneier

Government to collect DNA samples from arrested persons

More great news! It now seems that the DHS wants to to build a gigantic DNA database of everyone even arrested (not CONVICTED) relating to a crime, regardless of the person's innocence.

This has huge implications for privacy and presumption of guilt. As the Council for Responsible Genetics puts it:

DNA databanks are not required in order to use DNA testing to establish evidence of guilt or innocence when there is a known group of suspects for a crime: a DNA sample can be taken from each individual and compared directly with a crime scene profile. Few people have problems with this use of DNA.

The permanent retention of DNA in a database for use in future investigations, however, is another matter. An individual captured in a police database becomes an automatic suspect for all future criminal investigations where database searches are performed. This undermines the presumption of innocence that is central to criminal justice systems in the US, UK and most democracies around the world.

Setting aside this fundamental problem, benefits of the use and expansion of these databases must be weighed against their societal costs. While the temptation on the part of law enforcement to put more and more people into the database seems logical (i.e. one would assume the more inclusive the database, the more likely a positive identification can be made), in practice, the benefits of expansion may be limited. In the UK, despite the large number of people in the database, DNA profiles are obtained from the examination of less than 1% of crime scenes, so that in 2002/3 only 1.6% of all crime detections were attributed to DNA database matches (including only 0.3% of all detections for violent and sexual offenses). Such a small contribution to crime detection may not warrant the onerous financial costs of large DNA databases, not to mention the dilatory effect backlogs have on crime solving.

At the same time, there are many reasons to be concerned about the use and expansion of police databases.[11] These include: impacts on people's privacy, potential for misuse by governments, discrimination, and the possibility of error and wrongful conviction.

DHS and more domestic spying

Yet again, the government has decided that it's a good idea to spy on its own citizens. This time, it's not via wiretapping but by satellite. Apparently, DHS is going to be able to peer into my house via infrared technology whenever they want. My favorite quote from the story, however, is this irrelevant point:

The new plan explicitly states that existing laws which prevent the government from spying on citizens would remain in effect, the official said. Under no circumstances, for instance, would the program be used to intercept verbal and written conversations.

And I promise not to manufacture munitions with this banana. These satellites take pictures, they don't tap phone calls.

Imprisoned for life for "Piracy"?

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pushing a new bill, the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007. This bill has a number of ridiculous clauses, such as life imprisonment in certain circumstances for "piracy."

Additionally, it has provisions that would bring a tear of joy to any RIAA prosecutor's eye. These include expanding the rules by which wiretapping is allowed to detect copyright infringement, criminalizing attempting to infringe copyright, generally making punishments harsher for copyright infringement, and even having the department of homeland security notify the RIAA about "pirated" importing of CDs (it's notable that no other copyright holder qualifies for this kind of treatment).

There was a bill before congress like this last year and it didn't go anywhere. Hopefully this bill will suffer the same fate.