The Freedom Bulletin

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice have been distributing flyers to various businesses warning them about things that they should consider “suspicious” and alert law enforcement about. You can view them all at Public Intelligence. Some examples of actions considered suspicious:

• “Using cash for large transactions or a credit card in someone else’s name”
• “Travels illogical distance” (to stores, Internet cafes, etc.)
• “New customer who is not from the area”
• “Reluctance to provide complete personal information” or “demands identity ‘privacy’”
• Purchasing unusual combinations of items
• Purchasing large quantities (or small quantities on multiple occasions) of items
• Storing items in unusual containers
• For beauty/drug suppliers: “Only chemicals and no other beauty supplies purchased,” or “asks about boiling or making liquid more concentrated.”
• For electronics stores: “Purchases quantities of prepaid or disposable cell phones,” or shows “unusual interest” in voice or data encryption, VOIP, voice privacy, means to shield IP address, or tracking of phone locations.
• For farm supply stores: “Possessing little knowledge of crops, soil composition, field size, application methods, or fertilizers” or “failing to state legitimate agricultural use for product.”
• For financial institutions: “A lack of evidence of legitimate business activity,” “unusual mixed deposits of money orders, third-party checks, and/or payroll checks into a business account,” “transactions being conducted in bursts of activities,” or “bulk cash and monetary instrument transactions.”
• For hobby shops: “Inquiring about remote controls and model aircraft payload capacity and maximum range,” “possessing little knowledge of the activity for which the purchase is intended,” or “demonstrating no interest or enthusiasm for the hobby or sport.”
• For home improvement stores: Purchasing “large quantity of watches, electronic timers, or kitchen timers,” “night-vision equipment and camouflage apparel,” or “pipe(s)…when vague about their use.”
• For hotels, “Requests specific room assignments or locations,” “refuse cleaning service over an extended time,” “use entrances and exits that avoid the lobby,” and “do not leave their room.”
• For Internet cafes: “Are overly concerned about privacy, attempts to shield the screen from view of others,” “always pay cash,” or “signs on to Comcast, AOL, etc.”
• For military surplus stores: “Make bulk purchases of items to include weatherproofed ammunition or match containers, Meals Ready to Eat, night vision devices, night flashlights, gas masks, high capacity magazines, bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles.”
• For rental properties: “Refuse maintenance or service over an extended time” or “receive an unusual amount of package deliveries.”
• For storage facilities: “Discarding clothing or shoes in new condition,” “entering or leaving storage facility at unusual times,” or “avoiding contact with rental facility personnel.”

Under this initiative, called Communities Against Terrorism, store owners are also encouraged to “require valid ID from all new customers” and “keep records of purchases.”

At least they remember to add, “Some of these activities, taken individually, could be innocent,” and “It is important to remember that just because someone’s speech, actions, beliefs, appearance, or way of life is different; it does not mean that he or she is suspicious.”

But still, people should not be as paranoid and nosy as these flyers encourage them to be. Terrorism does happen, but it is rare, and preventing it should not come at the cost of people’s anonymity and privacy. No one should have to present an ID to buy something in a store, and stores should not track what people purchase any more than is needed to keep track of their inventories or learn general sales trends. Stores, airports, banks, and the other establishments targeted by these flyers are public places, so no one can expect to have complete privacy there. But I would not want to live in a society where, whenever someone is out in public, their actions are scrutinized and monitored to make sure that they conform to what is considered “normal.” People already have too little privacy in what we do, what we say, where we go, and what we buy. We need to push back and demand a greater sphere of our lives within which we can act in anonymity and therefore true freedom.

The European Commission is considering a law that would greatly strengthen online privacy and restrict companies’ ability to track and store people’s Internet activity without their knowledge or consent. According to the New York Times:

Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data, delete that data forever at the consumer’s request and face fines for failing to comply.

The proposed data protection regulation from the European Commission, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, could have significant consequences for all Internet companies that trade in personal data, whether it is pictures that people post on social networks or what they buy on retail sites or look for on a search engine.

The regulation would compel Web sites to tell consumers why their data is being collected and retain it for only as long as necessary. If data is stolen, sites would have to notify regulators within 24 hours. It also offers consumers the right to transport their data from one service to another — to deactivate a Facebook account, for example, and take one’s trove of pictures and posts and contacts to Google Plus.

This kind of law is exactly what not just Europe but the entire world needs. Companies should not be allowed to collect vast amounts of data, which they keep indefinitely, about people’s most private activities, when people are neither aware that this information will be seen by anyone but themselves, or given any true choice in the matter. As a country that was founded on the idea of individual rights, America should be paying as much attention as Europe does, if not more, to the right of each person to use the Internet while also maintaining their privacy.

The Supreme Court made a great ruling yesterday, unanimously declaring that, absent a warrant or probable cause, it is unconstitutional for police to track people’s movements by attaching a GPS device to their car.

As Justice Sotomayor points out:

“GPS monitoring generates a precise, comprehensive record of a person’s public movements that reflects a wealth of detail about her familiar, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations … The Government can store such records and efficiently mine them for information years into the future … And because GPS monitoring is cheap in comparison to conventional surveillance techniques and, by design, proceeds surreptitiously, it evades the ordinary checks that constrain abusive law enforcement practices: ‘limited police resources and community hostility.’ “

Read the full text of the ruling, in the case of United States v. Antoine Jones, here.

On Thursday, a federal court in Virginia ruled that Twitter had to turn over users’ private information to a grand jury investigating possible federal crimes involving WikiLeaks. This ruling affirmed a magistrate judge’s decision in March, which WikiLeaks volunteers Birgitta Jonsdottir, Jacob Appelbaum, and Rop Gonggrijp appealed, with help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union.

It is unclear exactly what data people will no longer have the right to keep private, but it most likely includes IP addresses, email and mail addresses, login and logout times, and possibly private messages. The federal government now, according to Judge Liam O’Grady’s ruling, has the right to access this information without a warrant by issuing what is called a 2703 order. These orders have a lower standard of proof  than probable cause: the government must only have “reasonable grounds” that the information is “relevant and material” to an investigation. The judge’s reasoning was that the WikiLeakers had agreed to Twitter’s privacy policy, which warns that the site could turn over data to law enforcement.

The court also ruled that the 2703 orders can remain secret, denying the WikiLeakers’ request to unseal these documents so that they can find out which other websites, in addition to Twitter, have received similar orders.

It’s not a good thing for freedom when a court rules that people’s private information cannot remain secret, but government orders for people’s private information can. I couldn’t have said it better than Jonsdottir, who called the ruling “a huge backward step for the United States’ legacy of freedom of expression and the right to privacy.”

In somewhat related news, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s mother, Christine Assange, spoke to Green Left Weekly about her son’s legal trials and tribulations, alleged WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning, the relationship between Australia and the US, and her plans to protest President Obama’s visit to the Australian parliament. I really admire how she is so outspoken and supportive of her son.

Read the full ruling (PDF)

Today is the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that changed America. In speeches, articles, and on TV, people remark about how America has triumphed because it is just as united as it was before, just as strong, just as safe. But in all the discussion of the anniversary of 9/11, I have heard hardly anyone mention freedom or liberty.

Is America as free as it was before September 11, 2001? Sadly, no. Far before 9/11, the federal government passed various laws that violate people’s rights, but in the past ten years, many people have used the horrific terrorist attacks as an excuse to rob Americans of even more freedoms.

In November 2001 the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration were created. Just a month later, when Richard Reid attempted to blow up an airplane with bombs in his shoes, the government reacted by punishing everyone, requiring us to remove our shoes in order to board a plane. Then in March 2005 they banned lighters from planes. In April 2006, when a plot was discovered involving liquid bombs, the government again punished everyone by banning liquids. In December 2009, after a would-be terrorist hid a bomb in his underwear, this punishment of everyone was taken to new levels, as the government accelerated, and still continues to accelerate, the deployment of scanners that reveal people’s naked bodies beneath their clothes.

Efforts to track and monitor more and more aspects of people’s lives extend beyond airports. Due in part to the Patriot Act, passed the month after the attacks, the federal government analyzes bank records (and is trying to expand this tracking to prepaid cards), phone calls, computer activity, and more in what the ACLU’s Carol Rose sums up as a “vast, secret domestic spying infrastructure aimed at ordinary Americans.” Security cameras are everywhere, giving law enforcement a permanent record of people’s movements on streets, in stores, and on public transportation. People can be singled out for additional surveillance for activities as benign as taking photos, taking notes in public, or having unusual viewpoints. It is becoming impossible to buy anything, use a computer, or even leave your house without your actions being monitored and logged.

Plus, those people unlucky enough to be declared “enemy combatants” can be imprisoned indefinitely and even tortured without being charged with any crime.

To destroy individual rights and freedom is to destroy America, which is giving the terrorists victory. As James Alan Fox writes, ”By curtailing our freedoms and inconveniencing ourselves any more than is necessary, we play right into the hands of our enemies.” And Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights accurately wrote that the loss of our liberties ”destroyed many more lives than those lost in the attack.”

There are some reasons for hope, however. The TSA is deploying scanners that do not show people naked, planning eventually to let people keep their shoes on, and generally moving towards a strategy of assessing each person’s security risk instead of trying to make terrorist attacks physically impossible. We have managed to prevent, so far, the implementation of a National ID card, as well as, for the most part, increased gun control. And in general I have noticed a growing number of everyday people, politicians, commentators, and organizations that support liberty.

These changes are a step in the right direction, but we can not let them be the only steps. Americans must resist at all costs the gradual erosion of our liberties. We must not let the events of September 11, 2001, permanently change the ideals of freedom that America was founded upon. Let’s remember the 2,996 people who lost their lives 10 years ago, and also remember liberty.

For a fantastic speech by Congressman Ron Paul on this topic, check out my post from a year ago.

There have been rumors that terrorists are planning to surgically implant bombs in people’s bodies to sneak through security. As you might expect, the TSA is beefing up security in response to this. But for the most part, they aren’t planning to use even more invasive measures than they already are. Instead, they are focusing on ”intelligence information about possible plots, equipment that checks for minute traces of explosives, behavior detection officers and canine teams.”

If security must be increased, this is the right way to go. Hopefully this will show people that ever more invasive, degrading security measures, in addition to violating everyone’s rights and taking away everyone’s quality of life, do not work. Just as one attempted terrorist put a bomb in his underwear to evade metal detectors, the terrorists have now come up with a type of bomb that will get through full-body scanners. There is no way to eliminate the possibility of a terrorist attack. There are two choices: to destroy everyone’s freedom and have a tiny chance of a terrorist attack, or to allow people to have freedom and have a tiny chance of a terrorist attack.

I assume (and sincerely hope) that no one wants the TSA to cut everyone open before they are allowed to board a plane. Let’s stop inflicting huge costs on everyone that will not even detect bombs.

Five elementary schools in Texas are getting a $2 million grant to install cameras to track everything students eat. Each tray, with a unique code, will be photographed when the student chooses their food and again when they are done eating, to see exactly what nutritional content they consumed. This would be an invasion of privacy even if the data was only aggregated for statistical purposes, but each student’s food consumption is tracked individually, and the information is reported to their parents! Yes, these are kids, not adults, and yes, a cafeteria is a public place, but this is going too far. Kids have privacy rights too, and the desire to improve nutrition and combat obesity should not make people forget about individual rights. People of all ages should be able to live their lives without having everything they do monitored and analyzed.