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Date: 1998-08-11
Kassandra/Eins: Das Ende der Privatsphäre-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- technologischer Entwicklung, einer apathischen Legislative & dem unbändigen Verlangen der Nachrichtendienste nach totaler Kontrolle zurückzuführen meint Patrick S. Poole, Deputy Director des Center for Technology Policy an der Free Congress Foundation. -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- "The end of privacy in America is the result of a mixture of rapid technological developments, an apathetic Congress and federal agencies drunken mad with lust for unbridled power. But the end of privacy is merely the beginning of a horrific period in which the illicit use of perfectly legitimate technology by our government against all citizens will demonstrate the truth of Lord Actons prophetic warning that while power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely." Recently while appearing on a Detroit radio talk show discussing the Department of Transportation regulations to tag and track everyone in the country through the use of a National ID card (a measure already passed into law by Congress), a caller to the show stated that we should have nothing to fear from our government knowing every intimate detail of our lives if we indeed have nothing to hide. Struck first by the callers absolute ignorance of the rise and practice of fascism and communism in the 20th Century, I noted how common it has become for the average American to give our government the benefit of the doubt to our own peril, I believe regarding the erosion of our most basic liberties and freedoms. Our country was founded upon the presupposition that government is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. With that in mind, they created a government with limited and separated powers. Now, however, our government on daily basis makes an absolute, and generally unchallenged, claim to access every area of a citizens life. This is no truer than in the area of privacy. ... Apart from that debate, there is a subtle war going on against the American public fostered by our governments insatiable hunger for absolute power. While most of the country slumbers, our government is gaining access to vast amounts of personal information and beginning to monitor and track our movements and activities. For instance, I have recently written about (http://capo.org/opeds/pp0615.htm) the National Security Agencys massive ECHELON system that serves as a worldwide electronic vacuum cleaner to search every phone, fax, email and telex message for designated keywords that are flagged, recorded and analyzed. But the development of ECHELON has not prevented Congress from inflicting a death of a thousand strokes on personal privacy. Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued regulations, authorized by Congress, that would create a massive federal database of every citizens medical records for snooping by bureaucratic officials. The FBI recently requested an expansion of its surveillance powers under the 1994 CALEA legislation that would allow them to track citizens through the signals sent by their mobile phones without any probable cause. Last October, the federal New Hires Directory database went into operation to track deadbeat parents by requiring every employer to report the income and additional personal data of every new employee. Many of the legislative requests for surveillance expansion on the American people by the federal government are just attempts to obtain authorization for illegal and unconstitutional activity that these agencies are already engaged in. And without exception, Congress Republicans and Democrats alike is more than willing to provide them sufficient cover. And this is just the beginning. Unlike the caller I encountered that day, I am gravely concerned about the proliferation of surveillance powers by our government. I have traveled extensively in former communist countries where such powers were routinely used by those totalitarian states to squash political opposition, and in several cases, to commit genocide. To those who say that we have nothing to fear from such assumptions of power if we have nothing to hide, I would retort that if there is nothing for us to fear, why do federal agencies and proponents of such measures feel compelled to pass every authorizing piece of legislation in the dark hours of the night, buried deep inside thousand-page appropriation bills? Or in the case of ECHELON, continuing to cloak the system in absolute secrecy? If there really is no problem with reading and listening to every phone, fax and email sent by an American citizen, why are they so afraid to reveal their practice to the American people? Precisely because the standard by which these self-appointed snoops regard others privacy is quite different than the peoples expectation of privacy. The end of privacy in America is the result of a mixture of rapid technological developments, an apathetic Congress and federal agencies drunken mad with lust for unbridled power. But the end of privacy is merely the beginning of a horrific period in which the illicit use of perfectly legitimate technology by our government against all citizens will demonstrate the truth of Lord Actons prophetic warning that while power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely. More http://www.freecongress.org/ -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- relayed by Michael Grinner http://www.gis.at -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- TIP Download free PGP 5.5.3i (Win95/NT & Mac) http://keyserver.ad.or.at/pgp/download/ -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- edited by published on: 1998-08-11 comments to [email protected] subscribe Newsletter - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- 
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