Privacy is eroding fast as
technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. The
Washington Post reported there are 3,984 federal, state and local
organizations working on domestic counterterrorism. Most collect information on
people in the US
One. The National Security Agency (NSA) collects hundreds of millions of emails, texts and phone calls every day and has the ability to collect and sift through billions more. WIRED just reported NSA is building an immense new data center which will intercept, analyze and store even more electronic communications from satellites and cables across the nation and the world. Though NSA is not supposed to focus on US citizens, it does.
Two. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) has more than 1.5 billion government and private sector records about
Three. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New
York Times recently reported that cellphones of private individuals in
the US
Four. More than 62 million people in the US
Five. Over 126 million people have their
fingerprints, photographs and biographical information accessible on the US
Department of Homeland Security Automated Biometric Identification System
(IDENT). This system conducts about 250,000 biometric transactions each day.
The goal of this system is to provide information for national security, law
enforcement, immigration, intelligence and other Homeland Security Functions.
Six. More than 110 million people have their visas
and more than 90 million have their photographs entered into the US Department
of State Consular Consolidated Database (CCD). This system grows by adding
about 35,000 people a day. This system serves as a gateway to the Department of
State Facial Recognition system, IDENT and IAFSIS.
Seven. DNA profiles on more than 10 million people are
available in the FBI coordinated Combined DNA index System (CODIS) National DNA
Index.
Eight. Information on more than 2 million people is
kept in the Intelligence Community Security Clearance Repository, commonly
known as Scattered Castles. Most of the people in this database are employees
of the Department of Defense (DOD) and other intelligence agencies.
Nine. The DOD also has an automated biometric
identification system (ABIS) to support military operations overseas. This
database incorporates fingerprint, palm print, face and iris matching on 6
million people and is adding 20,000 more people each day.
Ten. Information on over 740,000 people is included
in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) of the National Counterterrorism Center US US
Eleven. Tens of thousands of people are subjects of
facial recognition software. The FBI has been working with North Carolina
Department of Motor Vehicles and other state and local law enforcement on
facial recognition software in a project called “Face Mask.” For example, the
FBI has provided thousands of photos and names to the North Carolina DMV which
runs those against their photos of North
Carolina
Twelve. The FBI operates the Nationwide Suspicious
Activity Reporting Initiative (SAR) that collects and analyzes observations or
reports of suspicious activities by local law enforcement. With over 160,000
suspicious activity files, SAR stores the profiles of tens of thousands of
Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime but who are
alleged to have acted suspiciously.
Thirteen. The FBI admits it has about 3,000 GPS tracking
devices on cars of unsuspecting people in the US
The Future
The technology for tracking
and identifying people is exploding as is the government appetite for it.
Soon, police everywhere will
be equipped with handheld devices to collect fingerprint, face, iris and even
DNA information on the spot and have it instantly sent to national databases
for comparison and storage.
Bloomberg News reports the
newest surveillance products “can also secretly activate laptop webcams or
microphones on mobile devices,” change the contents of written emails
mid-transmission, and use voice recognition to scan phone networks.
The advanced technology of
the war on terrorism, combined with deferential courts and legislators, have
endangered both the right to privacy and the right of people to be free from
government snooping and tracking. Only the people can stop this.
Bill Quigley is Associate
Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University
New Orleans Haiti Haiti
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