ACLU warns of surveillance-industrial complex

[Gold Metal Flake]

Are private firms helping Big Brother too much?


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5737239/

In May 2002, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors voluntarily provided the FBI with a disk containing the names, addresses and other personal information of about 2 million people, nearly every U.S. citizen who had learned to scuba dive in the previous three years. That’s just one of the myriad ways federal law enforcement agencies are quietly recruiting private industry and private citizens as de facto agents in the war on terror, according to a report recently issued by the ACLU called The Surveillance-Industrial Complex. The study paints a picture of an unofficial government policy to enlist companies and citizens in the building of massive databases aimed at monitoring people in the United States.

<Snipola>

The tension between privacy and safety -- and the databases themselves -- are here to stay Stanley says. That's why it's important to have a dialog now about the nuances of government data mining efforts. In issuing its report, the ACLU invited private companies to take a "No Spy" pledge. Ultimately, Stanley argues the process for dealing with data simply needs to be more open.

"Behind the scenes there's a whole new world growing up, where data is being compiled and sold to the government. ... And things are not at all transparent (now)," he said. "If the government is judging individuals and interfering with freedoms based on those judgements, there needs to be due process. There needs to be a way for people on no fly lists to get cleared, lest they end up in a Kafkaesque nightmare."

[TreasonousBastard]

1. OMFG...

this is getting completely out of control.

Several years ago, there was a big stink about the narcs going after the customer lists of hydroponics dealers. Undoubtedly, there are few people growing pot in water tanks somewhere, but the courts generally said such fishing expeditions were illegal under the 4th. Legitimate businesses have no obligation to give their legitimate customer lists to the authorities.

I guess our rights are out the window-- the terrorists have won. They haven't destroyed the country, they have simply destroyed our ideals and our heritage. And our Constitution.

Curiously, though, gun buyers are exempt from the databases. We'll catch terrorists by combing through lists of skindivers, but there's no reason to look at someone who buys 20,000 rounds of ammo.

The mind continues to boggle.

[Scooter24]

2. I got my PADI certification

in May 2003. Does this mean the government has my name in some database because I like to dive?

LOL