GAO Says: Snooping not just for Phone Records Anymore

Well, in the last couple weeks we've had quite a dust-up over the NSA data-mining phone numbers and call times from tens of millions of Americans. But really, what damage can having just a phone number cause without having any more information - like your name, address or credit report?

Just keep feeling that good about that for a few more seconds, it won't last. Business Week Reports.

The Departments of Justice, State, and Homeland Security spend millions annually to buy commercial databases that track Americans' finances, phone numbers, and biographical information, according to a report last month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Often, the agencies and their contractors don't ensure the data's accuracy, the GAO found.

But certainly are they're restrictions, like FISA or other warrants that would limit where and how the government can access our private information? Apparently not if they happen to have a blank check ready.

Buying commercially collected data allows the government to dodge certain privacy rules. The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts how federal agencies may use such information and requires disclosure of what the government is doing with it. But the law applies only when the government is doing the data collecting.

"Grabbing data wholesale from the private sector is the way agencies are getting around the requirements of the Privacy Act and the Fourth Amendment," says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington and a member of the Homeland Security Dept.'s Data Privacy & Integrity Advisory Committee.

Oh, goodie. No more of that pesky Forth Amendment stuff.

I'm not sure If I'm more alarmed by their end-run around the Fourth, or that fact that various companies are willing to sell this information period. If they can sell it to the government they can sell it to telemarkers, or direct mail companies. Only in this case, you might wind up with the FBI at your door instead of Publishers Clearing House.

Let me just also point out that the NSA Datamining story itself is not just about phone records. Although no government agency or source has yet stepped forward to either confirm or refute the story reported by USA Today, it appears that Wired Magazine (as noted by this diary here) has decided to release a set of secret AT&T documents which indicated that the electronic snooping being done at their San Francisco Officers involve taps into their Internet Backbone, not their records of phone calls made.

Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees [with AT&T]. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.

As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked "proprietary," and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues.

So we've got what - Phone, Finances, Biographical Data, Internet Sites and Email - anything left? It sounds like if you want to keep your private discussions with your doctor private you'll have to do with a carrier pigeon or else in person (like in a nice, dark secluded parking lot while wearing a stylish trench-coat and hat ensemble from the Abramoff Collection) from now on.

That is unless the Government decides to cut your Doc a cashiers check.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Other Breaking News of Note Today :

New York Daily News - Two CIA Agents Claim that "Scooter" Libby Lied to the Grand Jury about Valerie Plame. The agents claim that Scooter was informed of Valeries CIA Status over a month before the New York Times Column by her husband Joseph Wilson, which disputed White House claims regarding Iraq appeared in July of 2003.

Slate - A Federal Judge in Virginia threw out a case filed by German citizen, Khalid el-Masri, who claims he was mistakenly kidnapped, drugged, confined and tortured as part of the Bush Administration "Extradinary Rendition Program". The Judge claimed that the case infringed on the Government's Right to protect "State Secrets"!!! (This is exactly the scenario I predicted in my recommended Diary on General Hayden two days ago.

Both of these stories are relevant, they both show just how far those who blatantly violate the law under the guise of th Government will go, and just how much cover they might expect to receive from a friendly Federalist Judiciary.

Even though we now have this data from Business Week and Wired - it still might not ultimately amount to much unless these issues can get a fair hearing in court.

Vyan