The U.K may have a lead on the U.S in the surveillance of its citizens but the race is neck and neck. When John Poindexter revealed the Total Information Awareness(TIA) program in 2002 the public and the Congress responded with outrage to this Orwellian surveillance program. Funding was cut and Poindexter was shown the door. Anyone would think that was the end of it. But the powers that be have their agendas, and as Bruce Schneier points out, those in the intelligence business don’t have the same agenda as you and me. The TIA program was too good to let slip away. Its parts were renamed and reassigned.
In 2002 TIA’s domestic spying seemed Orwellian. Today it is business as usual. The FBI can issue National Security Letters without court approval to obtain bank, credit, telephone, email, internet, insurance and library records. Anyone receiving one of these letters is placed under a gag order. While the Patriot Act describes how and when these letters can be issued, there has been widespread abuse. In 2005 alone, there were over 1.000 violations, out of 19,000 letters issued. According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, all these violations weren’t their fault. He blamed it on the banks and telecoms for handing over too much information.
Still, writing all those letters can be a nuisance, so the telecoms are willing to help. It’s been widely reported that AT&T let the NSA tap into their trunk lines and vacuum up all the phone and email traffic. Now a whistleblower accuses Cingular of giving similar access to the FBI.
The intelligence organizations say they need this information to protect us. Unfortunately they don’t have similar concerns about protecting the information once it’s gathered. Information has leaked from stolen laptops, from hacker attacks and from simple mismanagement. The private sector does no better at protecting confidential material, but they are better at covering up their losses. Neither are they hampered by regulation on what information they can collect. This has become a boon for not just federal law enforcement and investigation, but for state and local agencies as well. Detectives can forget the footwork and interviews, now they just have to log into the department’s Choicepoint account.
Phone records, purchase receipts, library books, insurance claims, emails, browsing habits are not just for federal intelligence consumption anymore. All these records are becoming available to police across the country.
I’m sure glad that all these people are of the highest integrity and never make mistakes.
