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Until We Update Surveillance Laws, Government Can Snoop On Your Phone And Email At Will
By Dan Hill   8/24/17

While the ECPA Modernization Act is by no means a cure-all for the erosion of privacy rights in America, it certainly would move the nation in the right direction.




For decades, Americans have forfeited their privacy rights for a false sense of safety. Broad, sweeping surveillance laws––such as, but certainly not limited to Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act––have given the federal government carte blanche in the realm of surveillance. Thankfully, a recently introduced bipartisan Senate bill would restore some vital protections to Americans’ privacy.

The ECPA Modernization Act, introduced by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) to make it more relevant to the technologically advanced world in which we live. The original bill was conceived in a time when email and cell phone use were rare, with the goal of protecting oral, wire, and electronic communications from government surveillance. The bill was an update to the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, which, much like the ECPA now, had become useless with time.


ECPA’s privacy protections remain stuck in that era, when companies would only archive emails for 180 days. After that time frame had lapsed, a user’s emails would disappear, thus ending the government’s ability to snoop archives. Servers have since made email archives essentially eternal, giving the government a goldmine of information to spy on.

Legislators at that time could not have foreseen surveillance tools, such as facial recognition technology, Internet dragnets, and cell site simulators, all of which have been deployed to trample privacy rights. While lawmakers may have had good intentions in 1986, their bill is useless in the modern era.

It’s 10 O’Clock. Yes, Government Knows Where You Are

The ECPA does nothing to address spy agency and police use of geolocation data to track the exact whereabouts of a person. That type of tracking has been used in startling ways recently. Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used a Stingray cell site simulator to track down an illegal immigrant in Detroit. That was the first time ICE deployed this tool, which was originally designed for military and terror investigations. Police in New York have used the tool thousands of times, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports it is repeatedly abused in non-terror investigations across the country.


Dan King is an advocate for Young Voices and a journalist residing in Arlington, Virginia. He writes about free speech, mass surveillance, civil liberties and LGBT issues.

Article at  http:// thefederalist.com /2017/08/24/update-surveillance-laws-government-can-snoop-phone-email-will/
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Now I read they want to implant devices inside us so they can track us everywhere
They have also developed 'delivery methods' so people could ingest this without knowing they were doing it... 

It's nice to see a democrat and republican working Together on legislation that might actually benefit Americans and freedom.


.

(08-26-2017, 03:06 PM)Dancing Wolf Wrote: [ -> ]Until We Update Surveillance Laws, Government Can Snoop On Your Phone And Email At Will
By Dan Hill   8/24/17

While the ECPA Modernization Act is by no means a cure-all for the erosion of privacy rights in America, it certainly would move the nation in the right direction.




For decades, Americans have forfeited their privacy rights for a false sense of safety. Broad, sweeping surveillance laws––such as, but certainly not limited to Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act––have given the federal government carte blanche in the realm of surveillance. Thankfully, a recently introduced bipartisan Senate bill would restore some vital protections to Americans’ privacy.

The ECPA Modernization Act, introduced by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) to make it more relevant to the technologically advanced world in which we live. The original bill was conceived in a time when email and cell phone use were rare, with the goal of protecting oral, wire, and electronic communications from government surveillance. The bill was an update to the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, which, much like the ECPA now, had become useless with time.


ECPA’s privacy protections remain stuck in that era, when companies would only archive emails for 180 days. After that time frame had lapsed, a user’s emails would disappear, thus ending the government’s ability to snoop archives. Servers have since made email archives essentially eternal, giving the government a goldmine of information to spy on.

Legislators at that time could not have foreseen surveillance tools, such as facial recognition technology, Internet dragnets, and cell site simulators, all of which have been deployed to trample privacy rights. While lawmakers may have had good intentions in 1986, their bill is useless in the modern era.

It’s 10 O’Clock. Yes, Government Knows Where You Are

The ECPA does nothing to address spy agency and police use of geolocation data to track the exact whereabouts of a person. That type of tracking has been used in startling ways recently. Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used a Stingray cell site simulator to track down an illegal immigrant in Detroit. That was the first time ICE deployed this tool, which was originally designed for military and terror investigations. Police in New York have used the tool thousands of times, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports it is repeatedly abused in non-terror investigations across the country.


Dan King is an advocate for Young Voices and a journalist residing in Arlington, Virginia. He writes about free speech, mass surveillance, civil liberties and LGBT issues.

Article at  http:// thefederalist.com /2017/08/24/update-surveillance-laws-government-can-snoop-phone-email-will/
_____________________

Now I read they want to implant devices inside us so they can track us everywhere
They have also developed 'delivery methods' so people could ingest this without knowing they were doing it... 

It's nice to see a democrat and republican working Together on legislation that might actually benefit Americans and freedom.


.

This implant has been talked about for many yrs. in conspiracy circles. All folks have to do is start payin' attention to the conspiracy theories that are now facts. You can go back to old ones and see how much has already come true and see what is to come. It's not pretty.

If our government would pay more attention to spyin' on terrorists wantin' to cause us harm than spyin' on our own citizens, we'd be much safer and better off. I'm sooooo sick of government stickin' their noses in everything we do, but to implant us without our knowledge should be illegal. But when they are the ones makin' the rules, what can you do? They want control of everything, included our bodies. We are DOOMED!

All of this started because of 9/11. That gave them the excuse they needed to take over to "protect us". Is there anyone that still doesn't think that was an inside job?

Cricket

Depends what the authorities see as a terrorist if you only want them checking out terrorists, many have been labelled terrorists when they were nothing of the sort, they just use that term as an excuse to spy on their own citizens , it's getting quite worrying the way they are changing these surveillance laws so quickly nowadays, any of us could get accused of something we are innocent of, they want their scapegoats to sacrifice in the name of law and justice that are now so bent out of shape they are barely recognizable.

Yes very interesting article

I recently saw that a new law was passed the police could come search your home without a warrant

I will need to try and look it up

(08-28-2017, 03:28 PM)Linville Wrote: [ -> ]Yes very interesting article

I recently saw that a new law was passed the police could come search your home without a warrant

I will need to try and look it up

Isn't this startin' to sound like Nazi Germany? The German people thought these things would never happen in their country, but it did. This is history repeatin' itself, only with better technology. Scary to think about, but that's the way it's movin'.

About those chip implants. They have been testin' this for awhile now. Do we really believe they want to help us find our lost pets by puttin' a trackin' chip in them? Right, they really care about our pets. This is just a test to see how it will work in humans. "The mark of the beast"?

This implantin' us without our knowledge is one reason I refuse to take ANY vaccines. The way they are pushin' them on us every damn day, for every ailment they can think of, it could be the perfect way to get them in us without us knowin'. There are many ways it could be done, but that's just one I try to avoid. But, I see the day comin' where we will be forced to take these implants, probably under the excuse it will help them protect us. Unfortunately, too many will fall for that BS and rush down and PAY to have your freedom taken away. At least what little freedom is left.

They won't be happy until they control everyone and everything on this planet. Each day they move closer and we are helpin' them without realizin' it.

Da Bug

If its right about wanting to implant us then they'll do it first to those who are the poorest, no chip then no social security, thats if folks can still get SS payments by then, it'll be get chipped so you can go to the local food bank and get some basic foodstuffs, think its coming all that type of thing, useless eaters some folks, can't work so become surplus to requirements, no money to be made from those unable to work, local council housing getting short in supply, people will have little choice but to go to a local fema style camp to have a roof over their heads and some broth and bread to eat if your'e lucky.

"I recently saw that a new law was passed the police could come search your home without a warrant."
Think they can do that here already if they have 'reasonable' suspicion that a crime is being committed they can get in your home and search for something if they say you have things in your home that may be illegal, same if your in the street, if the suspect you of something thay can stop you and search you, they photograph the young ones hanging around the streets, maybe take dna swabs sometimes, used to be called the SUS law, g00gle it and you'll see, caused people to go out and riot after years of being stopped and searched, treated in a bad way on the streets, racist cops using really offensive racist words, areas went up in flames in the 80's due to the way they treated certain sections of the community.
If it happens in a big way again they'll bring out the heavy squads and crush people down, saying that there has been smaller scale rioting recently in London, it dissapears from the news quickly if it made it onto the news in the first place. Media don't help, they have just become mouth pieces for the government, no impartiality like journalism is supposed to be, nearly all seem to have a right wing agenda nowadays.

Yeah, the "suspecting a crime taking place" was another one of those rules brought it with a load of very extreme examples (e.g. saving someone from being murdered) that most people would think entirely reasonable, but then you get the mission creep... Time and again laws are brought in for terrorism or to protect children (cos whose gonna argue for terrorist or pedophile rights?), and then you get it being used for a load of totally different stuff.

I'm not convinced implants are needed. With mobiles and the digital footprints we leave with ATMs and credit cards, we are already very easy to watch. We have voluntarily allowed ourselves to be tracked, and paid for things like iPhones and fitness trackers! The same technologies that are currently being developed to unlock mobiles with a fingerprint, or iris scan, will become means of identification. I totally agree with G.Elias that this will happen first to the poorest because they have the least ability to resist. Not sure it would be through foodbanks because they aren't state run. But social security seems a very likely place to perform the tracking. You can almost see how it would play out... "We have to biometrically scan people in receipt of state support to stop benefit fraud." And if you don't agree to have your iris scanned, then no more support for you.

I also notice lots of the language being used to describe groups of people is very dehumanizing. That's dangerous. Once you dehumanize, then things that were previously unthinkable before start becoming thinkable. Someone mentioned Nazi Germany, and that will always stand as the worst extreme of what happens when you totally dehumanize. I don't think we are near that point (mostly because it was SO terrible - there are no death camps, no SS, etc). But we should be on the look out and remember the lessons from history.

Anyway, seems to me there are an awful lot of people on the left and right who agree on one thing - the status quo isn't working. 

Just after the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower this summer, I was in London and could feel the anger on the streets. All the conditions were in place for a riot. Even the weather was playing its part - it was hot and humid (temperature positively correlates with riots). That time the powers-that-be got lucky and there were just angry crowds, but no full scale riot. It will happen though. It is when, not an if.

Interesting post  barq

I enjoyed reading it.