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Privacy Activism and eight other privacy organizations ask FTC for a 'Do Not Track' list
WASHINGTON—A group of nine privacy organizations – the Center for Democracy and Technology, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Activism, Public Information Research, Privacy Journal, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and World Privacy Forum – asked the Federal Trade Commission today to provide needed consumer protections in the behavioral advertising sector. The groups have asked the FTC to implement a “Do Not Track List” intended to protect consumers from having their online activities unknowingly tracked, stored, and used by marketers and advertising networks.
The Do Not Track List, which would function much like the national “Do Not Call” list, is one of several consumer privacy protections the group asked the FTC to adopt as part of a broad effort to correct a privacy imbalance that has deprived Americans of the ability to control their own valuable personal information. The groups offered the recommendations in a letter to the Commission in advance of its two-day town hall, “Ehavioral Advertising: Tracking, Targeting, and Technology,” slated to start November 1.
See the full story at <http://privacyactivism.org/Item/243>.
More information is available at <http://www.cdt.org/privacy/20071031consumerprotectionsbehavioral.pdf>.
Last updated October 31, 2007 - Link to this article
PrivacyActivism submits comments to DHS on Real ID
In conjunction with Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and the Fairfax County Privacy Council (FCPC), PrivacyActivism has submitted official comments to the Department of Homeland Security calling for the draft rule to be withdrawn. From the overview:
The draft rules proposed by DHS to implement the Real ID Act are fatally flawed. Focusing on how to best implement an Act as deeply flawed as this one is not in the best interests of individuals or the states; therefore we recommend that the proposed rule be withdrawn. Ultimately, Privacyactivism believes that the Real ID Act should be repealed, but understands that this is outside of the scope of this rulemaking process. Privacyactivism’s comments will therefore focus on the lack of privacy protections in the proposed rule, and why the lack of these protections require the withdrawal of the proposed rule.
Specifically, our comments will cover these areas: 1) The general lack of privacy and security protections; 2) the difficulty of compliance; 3) exceptions in the draft rule that lead to inadequate security; 4) the cost involved.
More information is available at <http://stoprealid.privacyactivism.org/docs/Real%20ID%20comments-final.htm>.
Last updated May 8, 2007 - Link to this article
Real ID: Comments due to DHS today by 5 p.m. EST
DHS announced on Monday that they're accepting comments via email.
oscomments@dhs.gov is the address. Emails must have “DHS-2006-0030” in the subject line.
For options to file online, via fax, or by mail, pleae see the Privacy Coalition's site.
More information is available at <http://stoprealidnow.blogspot.com/>.
Last updated May 8, 2007 - Link to this article
Privacy Activism Joins Over 40 Groups Announcing Anti-Real ID Public Comment Campaign
San Francisco -- Today forty-three organizations representing transpartisan, nonpartisan, privacy, consumer, civil liberty, civil rights, and immigrant organizations have joined to launch a national campaign to solicit public comments to stop the nation's first national ID system: Real ID.
"The breadth and diversity of the opposition is real testimony to how harmful Real ID is to so many different communities," said Deborah Pierce, Executive Director of PrivacyActivism.org and one of the founders of the Stop Real ID Now! activism campaign. "By getting people and groups who are usually excluded from the debate involved at the grassroots level, we can stop Real ID."
See the full story at <http://privacyactivism.org/Item/240>.
More information is available at <http://www.privacycoalition.org/stoprealid/>.
Last updated October 31, 2007 - Link to this article
Stop Real ID Now blog is up!
The Stop Real ID Now! blog is now up -- and ready for comments. We'll be using the blog to get the word out broadly, along with the discussion groups on MySpace, Yahoo, tribe.net, and free-association.
We're going to be spending the next week getting the word out and recruiting more volunteers -- so any of you who blog, please look for a way to mention it. If you want to give people an idea of what's currently going on, here's probably the best page; if you'd be kind enough to solicit volunteers, the Help Wanted page is a good place to point them to -- we'll keep it updated with our top priorities.
More information is available at <http://stoprealidnow.blogspot.com/>.
Last updated April 1, 2007 - Link to this article
Analysis of Real ID regulations posted
We've posted a short analysis of the Department of Homeland Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) on the Real ID Act.
The draft regulations pass the buck on several issues that will be discussed with each bulleted item. These items include privacy, how personal information gets verified, and who’s going to pay for it, among other things.
Our analysis uses the bullet points from the ACLU’s March 1 2007 press release, which highlights some of the more important aspects of the implications of implementing the Real ID Act.
More information is available at <http://privacyactivism.org/docs/Real%20ID%20Analysis.htm>.
Last updated March 11, 2007 - Link to this article
Stop Real ID Now!
The Real ID Act of 2005 would turn our state driver’s licenses into a national identity card, infringe privacy, cost over $20 billion dollars, and impose major burdens on citizens, immigrants, and state governments – while doing nothing to protect against terrorism.
The 60-day commenting period on recently-published draft regulations offers a great opportunity to stop the Real ID Act in its tracks, by combining a national campaign to solicit comment with state-by-state battles -- Maine and Idaho have already decided not to participate.
The Stop Real ID Now! activism campaign will leverage social networks, events, and art -- with a goal of submitting over 100,000 comments, collaborating with the ACLU's Real Nightmare campaign and many other groups. Find out more on our wiki ... and get involved!
More information is available at <http://stoprealid.privacyactivism.org/wiki>.
Last updated March 11, 2007 - Link to this article
Real ID draft regulations posted -- 60 days for comments
The draft regulations for implementation of the Real ID act have been published, with the standard 60-day deadline for comments. The ACLU's response highlights concerns like the absence of privacy protections, the onerous verification requirements combined with exemptions that introduce security vulnerabilities, and the (unfunded) cost to states and individuals -- now estimated at to $23 billion. Articles in Wired News and the Washington Post have more details. The ACLU's Real Nightmare site has been tracking this issue for a while, and is a good place to go to learn more.
PrivacyActivism is working with other organizations to put together a major activist campaign ... stay tuned!
More information is available at <http://www.realnightmare.org/>.
Last updated March 2, 2007 - Link to this article
HELP STOP ILLEGAL NSA SURVEILLANCE . . . before Congress legalizes it.
“We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens.”
--Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)
Since taking office, President George W. Bush has acted as if he had a blank check to do as he pleases. Congress has done nothing to contradict Bush’s assumptions. This week Congress is preparing to act on several bills that would effectively legalize warrantless and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans’ communications. Passage of any of this legislation would radically undermine the foundational civil liberties of our democracy. It would allow the executive branch of government to spy on American citizens without having to justify itself to any judge and with minimal or no congressional oversight.
Not only is Congress willing to pass legislation to authorize unconstitutional surveillance, it is prepared to do so with no inquiry or investigation into what the National Security Agency, at the behest of the president, is actually doing.
WE URGE YOU TO SPEAK UP AGAINST THIS MIND-BOGGLING ABDICATION OF CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
See the full story at <http://privacyactivism.org/Item/229>.
Last updated March 2, 2007 - Link to this article
Bill of Rights Defense Committee's National Call-In Day
Last December President Bush acknowledged that he had authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans' communications shortly after 9/11. Bush claimed he has authority to conduct massive warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens and said he would continue to do so. In fact, his actions violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was passed specifically to establish a process for obtaining warrants for secret surveillance, and Fourth Amendment prohibitions against warrantless search and seizure. Now it is likely that Congress will pass legislation to legalize the NSA's spying, without ever conducting an investigation into what the agency is actually doing.
We ask you to take a few minutes on May 17th, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's national call-in day, to phone your senators and representatives to let them know you want an investigation of what is going on, not legislation that will nullify FISA and push the Fourth Amendment even further into irrelevance.
Call-in information is here: http://www.bordc.org/callin_060517.php
Last updated May 16, 2006 - Link to this article
The Many Faces of the Real ID Act
PrivacyActivism begins a multi-part series on the Real ID Act. The Act won't protect us against terrorism, but it will add layers of bureaucracy, increase the costs in time and money for us to obtain a driver's license.
See the full story at <http://privacyactivism.org/Item/226>.
Last updated May 1, 2006 - Link to this article
PrivacyActivism submits comments against the CDC's proposal to create a massive passenger surveillance database
The Centers for Disease Control has proposed the creation of a massive new database of airline and cruise passengers that is intended to assist in controlling the spread of epidemics. In addition to a name, date of birth, passport number and multiple points of contact information, passengers would also be required to supply the names and contact information of the individuals or group they're traveling with. The CDC and Department of Health and Human Services have already agreed to share the passenger database with the Department of Homeland Security.
Privacy Activism submitted comments on the CDC's proposal that criticize all aspects of the passenger database--its invasiveness, overbreadth, and the likelihood of mission creep that has already occurred with the agreement to share the information with DHS. We also take issue with provisions of the regulations that base passenger quarantine decisions on the judgment of entirely unqualified airline personnel and on the specification of a three-business-day quarantine with no recourse to a hearing or any process by which one can question the imposition of quarantine.
More information is available at <privacyactivism.org/docs/CDC.comments.Final.060130>.
Last updated May 1, 2006 - Link to this article
How to create a forum to discuss surveillance and the NSA
In December 2005, the New York Times-after holding the story for more than a year-revealed that starting in October 2001, President Bush had ordered the National Security Administration to conduct warrantless searches and seizures of telephone and internet communications of American citizens inside the United States.
Since then, the administration has provided shifting and unconvincingrationalizations for the president's authority to order such searches.
The issues are complex and should be discussed by students, professors, activists, and anyone else who wants to get involved. To help you getstarted, PrivacyActivism has put together an "NSA toolkit" that includes resourcesfor understanding the legal, constitutional and governmental implications of Bush's surveillance and suggestions for how to become active in opposing it.
More information is available at <http://www.privacyactivism.org/docs/nsa-surveillance-forum-toolkit.html>.
Last updated March 30, 2006 - Link to this article
The Report TSA Is Trying to Bury
"Based on the limited test results presented to us, we cannot assess whether even the general goal of evaluating passengers for the risk they represent to aviation security is a realistic or feasible one or how TSA proposes to achieve it. We do not know how much or what kind of personal information the system will collect or how data from various sources will flow through the system. Until TSA answers these questions, it is impossible to evaluate the potential privacy or security impact of the program..."
The Secure Flight Working Group (SFWG) was convened in January 2005 by the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Privacy Officer Lisa Dean. The nine-member group, representing the information security and privacy communities, included Linda Ackerman (Privacy Activism), Bruce Schneier (Counterpane), Lauren Gelman (Stanford Center for Internet and Society), Martin Abrams (Hunton and Williams), Dan Gallington (Potomac Institute), Steve Lilienthal (Free Congress Foundation), Anna Slomovic (SRA International), Ed Felten (Princeton University), and Jim Dempsey (Center for Democracy and Technology).
The SFWG was tasked with evaluating the security and privacy elements of Secure Flight, the current iteration of the TSA's airline passenger screening system, and of submitting a report to the Department of Homeland Security's Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC).
After nine months, based on the limited and dated information it had received, and on the absence of any consistently articulated plan describing the architecture or operating policies of Secure Flight, the SFWG concluded that there was little to say about it from the standpoint of privacy and security.
On September 19, 2005, the SFWG report was submitted to ASAC and was posted on the TSA web site. It was delinked sometime in October, although it remains on the TSA's servers. The rest of the story, including TSA efforts at counter-spin, is summarized by Ryan Singel at Secondary Screening (TSA 'Refreshes' Web Site, Removes Critical Report) and Lauren Gelman at Center for Internet and Society (TSA Censors SecureFlight Working Group Report).
Update: the report appears to have been removed from the TSA's web site, but is still available on a Stanford University server.
More information is available at <http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/gelman/archives/SFWG_Report_September_19_2005_Final_V_1_.4.pdf>.
Last updated February 4, 2006 - Link to this article
PrivacyActivism study finds new problems for ChoicePoint, Acxiom
San Francisco, CA -- Results of a study conducted by PrivacyActivism show that data aggregators have significant problems with accuracy and responsiveness, potentially serious issues for an industry already under fire for massive security breaches.
100% of the eleven participants in the study discovered errors in background check reports provided by ChoicePoint. The majority of participants found errors in even the most basic biographical information: name, social security number, address and phone number (in 67% of Acxiom reports, 73% of ChoicePoint reports). Moreover, over 40% of participants did not receive their reports from Acxiom -- and the ones who did had to wait an average of three months from the time they requested their information until they received it.
See the full story at <http://privacyactivism.org/Item/220>.
Last updated May 19, 2005 - Link to this article
CFP 2005 Highlights
More information is available at <http://www.cfp2005.org>.
Last updated May 18, 2005 - Link to this article
ChoicePoint files found riddled with errors
An MSNBC story today features PrivacyActivism Executive Director Deborah Pierce and her experiences with her ChoicePoint file:
Deborah Pierce held a rare and precious document in her hands. It was the story of her life, as told by ChoicePoint Inc. She wasn't supposed to see it; an anonymous source had smuggled the report to her. But there it was, her "National Comprehensive Report," 20 pages long, a complete dossier of all the digital breadcrumbs she's left behind during her adult life....
Pierce, a privacy advocate, obtained her report nearly two years ago, long before the current controversy. Thanks to the unknown source -- perhaps a company employee, Pierce said, but she has no way of knowing -- she got a rare privilege most consumers don't: a chance to see what ChoicePoint knows about her.
She didn't like what she saw.
More information is available at <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7118767/>.
Last updated March 9, 2005 - Link to this article
Contacting PrivacyActivism
The best way to contact us is via email at info@privacyactivism.org -- just click on the "Contact Us" link on the left hand side of every PrivacyActivism web page!
Last updated February 18, 2003 - Link to this article
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