EFFector Vol. 17, No. 1 January 20, 2004 donna@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In the 276th Issue of EFFector:

* EFF Action Alert: Airlines and Government Violate Your Privacy Again:
Call for Hearings Now!
* Update on CAPPS II: What's Next?
* Guest Op-ed: "Your Finances, Your Liberties"
* Nominate a Pioneer for EFF's 2004 Pioneer Awards!
* Deep Links (11): SCO Sues Novell for Slander
* EFF Court Docket: 02.03.04 - MGM v. Grokster; 02.09.04 - OPG v.
Diebold
* Staff Calendar: 01.22.04 - Fred von Lohmann speaks at "Washington
in the West" Conference, Long Beach, CA.; 01.25.04 - Gwen Hinze
speaks on file-sharing, Berkeley, CA.; 01.26.04 - Lee Tien
speaks on privacy, Battle Creek, MI
* Administrivia

For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
<www.eff.org/>

To join EFF or make an additional donation:
<secure.eff.org/>

EFF is a member-supported nonprofit. Please sign up as a member today!

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* Airlines and Government Violate Your Privacy Again

Call for Hearings Now!

Only four months ago, the news broke that JetBlue secretly handed
over personal data on millions of air travelers to a government
contractor. Now, Northwest Airlines has admitted to doing the
very same thing, violating the privacy of more than ten million
people by secretly providing NASA with passenger records that
include names, addresses, itineraries, credit card information
and more. But the bad news doesn't stop there: last week, the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced plans
for "live testing" and implementation of CAPPS II, a
passenger-profiling system that would make privacy violations of
this kind routine for air travel. To top it off, TSA has
threatened to issue a government "security directive" forcing
the airlines to use their passengers as guinea pigs for the
system.

Enough is enough. Congress must halt all current CAPPS II
testing and hold public hearings to find out who is providing
American travelers' personal data to the government and
exactly what the information is being used for. Send this
letter and urge Congress to get the answers now!

Make your voice heard with the EFF Action Center:
<action.eff.org/action/index.asp

Join EFF Today:
<secure.eff.org/>

Washington Post story on Northwest and NASA:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(Registration unfortunately required.)

EPIC press release and FOIA documents:
<www.epic.org/privacy/air....18.04.html>

Discussion of Northwest Scandal and EU at Edward
Hasbrouck's weblog,"The Practical Nomad":
<hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000114.html>

EFF's CAPPS II backgrounder:
<www.eff.org/Privacy/cappsii/>

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* Update on CAPPS II: What's Next?

As noted in the Action Alert above, the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) last week confirmed plans to test and
implement CAPPS II, a controversial passenger-profiling system
that uses information in government and commercial databases
to "tag" each passenger with a color-coded score indicating the
level of security risk that he or she appears to pose.

EFF strongly opposes CAPPS II and is working to stop both
testing and implementation. In addition to sounding the call
for a Congressional investigation and hearings on CAPPS II, we
will be monitoring developments in the next few months that
may prove pivotal to the program's future:

--TSA will shortly issue its third Privacy Act notice
on CAPPS II.

--The General Accounting Office (GAO) is scheduled to report on
the privacy impacts of CAPPS II on February 15, as required by
Section 519 of H.R. 2555, Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) Appropriations Act of 2004, Public Law 108-90.

--The DHS Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security
is expected to "certify" that CAPPS II has adequate privacy
protections under Section 607 of H.R. 2115, Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2004, Public Law
108-176. The GAO is scheduled to report (again) on the privacy
impacts of CAPPS II within 90 days of this "certification."
Unfortunately, there is no deadline for the "certification," so
we do not know when it will be be issued.

--Finally, the DHS is also scheduled to produce its own privacy
impact assessment of CAPPS II around March 12, as required by
Section 608 of the FAA Reauthorization Act.

"The JetBlue and Northwest scandals have given us a glimpse of
what the future would be like with CAPPS II in place," said EFF
Attorney and Equal Justice Works/ Bruce J. Ennis Fellow Kevin
Bankston. "Millions of people have already been stripped of
their privacy without even knowing it. If we don't stop CAPPS II
now, that's only the beginning."

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* Guest Op-ed: "Your Bank Account, Your Liberties"

By George Paine

(Note: this op-ed was previously published in a longer form
on January 2 at Warblogging.com>)

On New Year's Eve, my debit and ATM card stopped functioning. When
I got in touch with my bank the following Saturday I was told that
it was disabled due to "possible fraud" and that I would have to
visit the bank personally to review my account history and
certify that no fraud occurred before my card could be reactivated.

I went to the bank that day and met with my banker, who greeted
me by name as I arrived. He pulled up my account on his computer
and scrolled through my financial history for the past several
months. Together we set out to find anything suspicious. As the
pages - the days - rolled by on-screen, I realized that these
transactions brought back memories.

I mentioned this to him and he gave me a knowing smile. He began
to extrapolate details of my life from the transactions. "So,
here, on December 13th, you got a cup of coffee with a friend.
Then you guys got some sushi...Is that place good? You took in a
show. Had a couple of drinks afterward..."

He was right. That was exactly what I'd done that day. Eventually
we got to my Christmas purchases. He asked if someone had liked
a particular gift. I said that she did. He gave me a friendly
wink.

It struck me then that this man knows where I eat, where I get my
coffee, when and where I drink, when and where I travel. He knows
where I buy books. He knows what political campaigns I've
contributed to, and how much.

After we ruled out fraud, he reactivated my ATM card and I thanked
him for the service. It was then that I noticed a small sign on his
desk, an advertisement from a banking services company. It was
designed to appear as patriotic as possible, right down to the
American flag in the background. It read "USA PATRIOT
Act compliance by..."

While I don't remember the name of the company that provided the
advertisement to my banker, a quick Google search reveals many such
companies. One of them is Aquilan, which offers a product called
Aquilan Patriot Manager (APM). The APM tagline: "Know Your
Customers. 'Red Flag' Suspicious Activity. Prevent Money
Laundering."

My time with the banker was innocuous. But the PATRIOT Act
requires banks to report any "suspicious activity" to the
government. According to the Aquilan website, the complexity of
the banking business these days makes correctly identifying
such activity "nearly impossible," so banks use software like
APM to make the impossible possible. But is it?

APM probably works much the same way as the fraud detection
software that prevented me from accessing my own bank account.
This means that it's just as likely to be flawed, just as likely
to yield false positives. And just as likely to bring the FBI to
my door as the fraud detection software was to bring me to
the bank.

On December 13th, President Bush signed into law the "Intelligence
Authorization Act for FY 2004." This bill contains a section
that expands the FBI's power to access our bank records, and our
interactions with most other businesses, without first obtaining
permission from a judge.

No longer can a judge say, "You're on a fishing expedition.
You can't see George Paine's banking information."

If this doesn't concern you, it should. Think back to the skeleton
or two in your closet. Think about all the information that your
bank records share about you.

The Fourth Amendment is written as it is for a reason - to prevent
the abuse of power. The Constitution's framers understood that
"power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

If you don't take the threat of abuse seriously, you need look no
further than the FBI itself. Take, for example, COINTELPRO, a
program conceived "to neutralize political dissidents" by
"discrediting and publicly destroying" them.

Or consider the DEA's Kevin Tamez, Associate Special Agent in
Charge of the New York office. On December 15th, Tamez was
indicted for "illegally obtaining information from law enforcement
[databases]" and using it to conduct his own private
investigations.

It isn't wise to imagine that your status as a loyal and
law-abiding citizen will protect you from having your personal
records used against you. Dr. Martin Luther King was a loyal
American citizen, yet was a target of COINTELPRO.

When the rubber hits the road things like loyalty and good
citizenship don't matter. What matters is whether the people
in power have been given the tools to abuse that power.
Under PATRIOT and the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY
2004, they have them.

-end-

George Paine is the founder of Warblogging.com, a website
"providing another voice in the chorus of Americans calling for a
balanced and reasonable foreign policy and a domestic policy
that respects the United States Constitution and the rule of
law." For further details, see
<www.warblogging.com/about/>.

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* Nominate a Pioneer for EFF's 2004 Pioneer Awards

EFF established the Pioneer Awards to recognize leaders on the
electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation
in the realm of information technology. This is your opportunity
to nominate a deserving individual or group to receive a Pioneer
Award for 2004.

The International Pioneer Awards nominations are open both to
individuals and organizations from any country.

All nominations are reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for
their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social issues
associated with information technology.

This year's award ceremony will be held in Berkeley, California,
in conjunction with the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference
(CFP), which takes place in mid-April.

How to Nominate Someone for a 2004 Pioneer Award:

You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one
email per nomination. Please submit your entries via email to
pioneer@eff.org

We will accept nominations until February 1, 2004.

Simply tell us:

1. The name of the nominee,
2. the phone number or email address at which the nominee can
be reached, and, most importantly,
3. why you feel the nominee deserves the award.

For more details, see our Pioneer Awards website:
<www.eff.org/awards/pioneer/>

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* Deep Links
Deep Links features noteworthy news items from around the Internet.

~ SCO Sues Novell for Slander
For falsely claiming copyright in - you guessed it - something
else SCO thinks it owns:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(InfoWorld)

~ UK Teens Get Censorship on the Go
British kids won't be viewing naughty images on their mobile
phones anymore:
<news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/techn...409081.stm>

~ It's Not Over Until...
John Ashcroft sings:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(CNN)

~ Can You Track Me Now?
A new network software "engine" allows you to control who can
locate you through your cell phone:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(Associated Press)

~ DRM Technology Year in Review
How code affected your rights in 2003:
<www.drmwatch.com/drmtech/a...p/3294391>

~ Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft.com
Microsoft admits that it takes itself "too seriously" and
backs off (a bit) from trademark claims against 17 year-old
Mike Rowe:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(ZDNet)

~ The Sound of Compromise
Digital music remains a tough nut to crack:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(Washington Post; registration unfortunately required.)

~ Feds Solicit Input on Punishments for Spammers
Sorry guys - the Eighth Amendment still applies:
<www.ussc.gov/FEDREG/fedr0104.htm>

~ DirecTV Dragnet Grows Wider
The satellite giant has now threatened more than a 100,000
people with legal action for simply purchasing multi-purpose
smart card technology:
<www.eff.org/cgi/tiny
(Houston Chronicle; registration unfortunately required.)

~ History @ 99 Cents Per Download
Smithsonian Folkways will use Peppercoin micropayments to offer
its extensive catalogue of American folk music at a familiar 99
cents a pop:
<www.mi2n.com/press.php3

~ Grand Theft Auto: Free Speech Edition
After a recent row over video game violence, one Florida city
is trying to pass an ordinance to control pixellated
expression:
<www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/s...7.html>
<www.wired.com/news/politi...958,00.html>

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* EFF Court Docket

~ February 3 -
MGM v. Grokster
U.S. Court of Appeals
Pasadena, CA.
9:00 a.m.

~ February 9
OPG v. Diebold
U.S. District Court, Northern California
280 South 1st street
San Jose, CA.
Courtroom 3
9:00 a.m.

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* Staff Calendar
For a complete listing of EFF speaking engagements (with
locations and times), please visit:
<www.eff.org/calendar/>

~ January 22-
Fred von Lohmann speaks at "Washington in the West" Conference
Long Beach, CA.
- 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.
<laipla.org/>

~ January 25-
Gwen Hinze speaks on file-sharing, Haas School of Business,
University of California
Berkeley, CA.
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

~ January 26-
Lee Tien speaks on privacy, presenting to W.K. Kellogg
Foundation
Battle Creek, MI
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

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* Administrivia

EFFector is published by:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation
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www.eff.org/

Editor:
Donna Wentworth, Web Writer/Activist
donna@eff.org

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