Trevor Timm of the Guardian had a column today that describes the lengths that our Government agencies are going to hide the existence of their surveillance systems.
The government will hide its surveillance programs. But they won't eliminate them | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian
It is clear that many of our Government agencies "bent the law" in establishing and using their surveillance systems. There are so many overlapping systems collecting data and using information for "crime fighting" that I doubt the public will ever learn about all of them. They have gone to great lengths to hide the existence of the collection systems and have flaunted the law.
I think a lot of the databases are very useful for not just fighting crime, but also for forensic defense. If the Government can use evidence obtained by these systems to prosecute criminals, shouldn't citizens also be permitted to use evidence obtained by these systems to defend themselves? I think Prosecutors wouldn't want that to happen!
Again, it seems to me that the first task is to catalog all of the surveillance databases, and license them in some way. In addition to this sort of phone collection database, we should also include all of the roadside cameras, automated tolling systems, license plate readers on highways and parking lots, immigration & customs databases from entry & exits of the country or airport security checkpoints, utility consumption, search engine history, etc. For each database, the government needs to know who the owner is, what is collected, how long it will be kept, and how citizens or Government agencies can access the data.
The government will hide its surveillance programs. But they won't eliminate them | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian
It is clear that many of our Government agencies "bent the law" in establishing and using their surveillance systems. There are so many overlapping systems collecting data and using information for "crime fighting" that I doubt the public will ever learn about all of them. They have gone to great lengths to hide the existence of the collection systems and have flaunted the law.
I think a lot of the databases are very useful for not just fighting crime, but also for forensic defense. If the Government can use evidence obtained by these systems to prosecute criminals, shouldn't citizens also be permitted to use evidence obtained by these systems to defend themselves? I think Prosecutors wouldn't want that to happen!
Again, it seems to me that the first task is to catalog all of the surveillance databases, and license them in some way. In addition to this sort of phone collection database, we should also include all of the roadside cameras, automated tolling systems, license plate readers on highways and parking lots, immigration & customs databases from entry & exits of the country or airport security checkpoints, utility consumption, search engine history, etc. For each database, the government needs to know who the owner is, what is collected, how long it will be kept, and how citizens or Government agencies can access the data.
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I am interested in hearing other viewpoints or corrections to my posts