'Big Brother' Watching E-mail, Computer Data: US Report

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Published on Thursday, February 23, 2006 by Agence France Presse

'Big Brother' Watching E-mail, Computer Data: US Report

 

 

Fast-evolving Internet and communications technology is outpacing

privacy laws and leaving a treasure trove of personal data prey to

government surveillance, a new report warned.

 

The survey by the non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)

appeared as debate rages over a domestic wiretap program in the United

States and government lawyers demand search records held by firms like

Google.

 

" The gap between law and technology is widening every day, and privacy

is eroding, " said Jim Dempsey, the CDT policy director who authored the

report.

 

" What makes this even more troubling is that most users of these new

technologies don't realize they are putting their privacy in jeopardy. "

 

Modern consumers live in an age when web based e-mails pileup on

services like Microsoft's Hotmail and Google's Gmail, and all kinds of

files from personal photos to bank, medical and travel records are

stored online.

 

Few computer users realise however, that web based e-mail is subject to

much weaker protections than messages stored on home computers.

 

While the government needs a warrant, issued by a judge, to search

someone's home computer, it can access a person's webmail account with

only a subpoena, issued without judicial review.

 

In another example, the ubiquitous cellphone makes communication on the

move easy -- but it has a downside, in that it can be used

theoretically by government agencies to pinpoint an individual's

location.

 

There are no existing laws laying out explicit standards for government

location tracking, so official use of such technology is only

controlled by an inadequate patchwork of laws and precedents, the

report said.

 

Few people realise that privacy laws drafted before, or in the early

days of the technological revolution, do not adequately cover new

vaults of online data, the report warns.

 

" The government complains that new technology makes its job more

difficult, but the fact is that digital technology has vastly augmented

the government's powers, " the report cautions.

 

" More information is more readily available to government investigators

than ever before, " the report said.

 

And it is not just the pace of change that raises new privacy

questions, the report added, citing new government powers enshrined in

the Patriot Act, designed to combat terrorism which provide wider

government powers.

 

2006 Agence France Presse

 

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" Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. "

-Albert Einstein

 

" It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely

uneducated. "

-Alec Bourne