Bipartisan Data-Mining Bill
Senators Feingold and Sununu have introduced a bill seeking disclosure of federal data-mining activities. The legislation:
...requires all federal agencies to report to Congress, in classified form if need be, within 180 days and every year thereafter on certain data mining programs and how these programs impact the civil liberties and privacy of Americans.While we at FGI would prefer a public report, or at least one that included all 435 Members of Congress, this is a good start towards better oversight of the administrations many reported surveillance programs. This bill is similar to legislation that died in the last Congress, but will hopefully have a better chance with a Democratic majority in both houses. Of course if it passes, the President may well try to void the reporting requirements with a Presidential Signing Statement. If that happens, perhaps it will finally provoke judicial scrutiny of such statements. Continue reading
Vista (Update): Powered by NSA?
As a followup to our previous story on Microsoft Vista and how it might affect government information, we at FGI are concerned to note that the National Security Agency helped Microsoft build it. No kidding. Security expert Bruce Schneier has the story on his blog, complete with a link to the Washington Post. Mr. Schneier credibly explains that NSA would find advantages in either making Vista more robust OR in making it easier to monitor computer users. We are in agreement with Mr. Schneier that given the governments track record since 9/11, it is far more likely that NSA's "help" is one more way that the government will be able to monitor the activities of users everywhere. We have no proof of this, but we won't be surprised if it is true. Continue reading
One Terabyte for $400
Whatever problems there are with creating local digital collections of government documents, affordable storage capacity WON'T be one of them. Walt Crawford reports on a one terabyte hard drive from Hitachi that will go on sale in March. The price? $400. And how much is a terabyte? At the current DVD size of 4.7GB, a terabyte hard drive could store 212 DVDs. I imagine that would easily work out to tens of thousands of average sized government documents. Combine terabyte hard drives with LOCKSS and you have a virtualy maintanance free network of geographically disbursed collections capable of holding large volumes of publications. Why not? Continue reading
Last Time Gov’t Opened First Class Mail
Thanks to vigorous Congressional oversight in the 1970s and the distribution of reports to many outlets, including Federal Depository Libraries, we know what happened the last time the Intelligence Community opened mail without warrants (emphasis mine):
DOMESTIC CIA AND FBI MAIL OPENING PROGRAMS PART I: SUMMARY AND PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS Between 1940 and 1973, two agencies of the federal government -- the CIA and the FBI -- covertly and illegally opened and photographed first class letter mail within the United States. These agencies conducted a total of twelve mail opening programs for lengths of time varying from three weeks to twenty-six years. In a single program alone, more than 215,000 communications were intercepted, opened, and photographed; the photographic copies of these letters, some dated as early as 1955, were indexed, filed, and are retained even today. Information from this and other mail opening programs -- "sanitized" to disguise its true source -- was disseminated within the federal establishment to other members of the intelligence community, the Attorney General, and to the President of the United States. The stated objective of the CIA programs was the collection of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information; that of the FBI programs was the collection of counterespionage information. In terms of their respective purposes, seven of the twelve mail opening programs were considered to have been successful by Agency and Bureau officials. One CIA project and three of the FBI programs concededly failed to obtain any significant relevant information. Another CIA operation -- clearly the most massive of all the programs in terms of numbers of letters opened -- was believed to have been of value to the Agency by some officials, but was criticized by many others as having produced only minimally useful foreign intelligence. Despite two unfavorable internal reviews, this program nonetheless continued unabated for twenty years. While all of these programs responded to the felt intelligence needs of the CIA and the FBI during the "cold war" of the 1950's and early 1960's, once in place they could be -- and sometimes were -- directed against the citizens of this country for the collection of essentially domestic intelligence. In the 1960's and early 1970's, large numbers of American dissidents, including those who challenged the condition of racial minorities and those who opposed the war in Vietnam, were specifically targeted for mail opening by both agencies. In one program, selection of mail on the basis of "personal taste" by agents untrained in foreign intelligence objectives resulted in the interception and opening of the mail of Senators, Congressmen, journalists, businessmen, and even a Presidential candidate.For an official printed version of the report, see: Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate : together with additional, supplemental, and separate views. by United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities.; Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. (1976) We don't need to see this movie again. Tell your Congressperson and the White House. Continue reading
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