Why we may never regain the liberties that we've lost

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Why we may never regain the liberties that we've lost
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5571471.htm
By Dan Gillmor Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2003
Mercury News Technology Columnist
....

activists were in New York for the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy
conference. They continued to take heart from small victories here and
there, some of which were simply stopgap efforts to keep a bad law from
becoming even worse. ...

The fabled pendulum of liberty may not swing back this time. Why?

For one thing, the damage that one evil or deranged person or group can
cause has grown. Even if America somehow persuades all Islamic radicals
that we are a good and just society, there will still be some evil and
deranged people who will try to wreck things and lives in spectacular
ways. In other words, the ``war on terrorism'' can't possibly end

...

No sooner had Total Information Awareness been slowed than ``CAPPS II,'' a
plan by the Transportation Department to scoop up and analyze data on
everyone getting an airplane ticket (sound familiar?), hit the radar of
activists. The particulars of CAPPS II are still under review, but it's
blatantly obvious that the major purpose of this scheme is surveillance,
not safety.

Meanwhile, under cover of a war that has caused the news media to ignore
other important news, the Bush administration issued an order that will
guarantee the wrongful arrests or harassment of innocent people. The
Justice Department told the FBI it no longer needed to worry about the
accuracy of its National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database
containing 39 million criminal records, including some documents that
would barely pass the gossip hurdle. NCIC records are used every day by
law enforcement agencies all over the nation. The accuracy requirement was
established under the 1974 Privacy Act, one purpose of which was to ensure
that federal records, which could have enormous impact on people's lives
if misused, don't contain erroneous information. For more information, as
well as an online petition asking for a reversal of this misguided shift,
visit the Electronic Privacy Information Center Web site
(www.epic.org/actions/ncic/).

...
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