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Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Newsl
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Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 18:48:39 -0700
Subject: EPIC Alert 1.01
Date 5/19/94
Subject EPIC Alert 1.01
From Dave Banisar
To CPSR Listserv
EPIC Alert 1.01
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Volume 1.01 May 18, 1994
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Published by the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Washington, DC
([email protected])
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Table of Contents
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[1] Federal Electronic Surveillance Increased in 1993
[2] Credit Reporting Amendments Pass Senate
[3] ALCU Survey Finds Strong Support for Privacy
[4] DMV Privacy Bill Passes House
[5] NII Working Group Requests Comments on Privacy Principles
[6] NTIA Requests Comments on NII Privacy
[7] New Files at the Internet Library
[8] Upcoming Conferences and Events
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[1] Federal Electronic Surveillance Increased in 1993
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Fueled by an increased use of electronic surveillance by federal
officials in drug cases, the number of wiretaps and microphones
installed by federal, state and local law enforcement officials
increased by six percent in 1993 over the previous year. There were
also substantial increases in the total number of days in operation,
extensions granted and in the cost of each order. However, the
efficiency of wiretaps continues to decline as the percentage of
relevant communications intercepted has dipped below 20 percent for
federal investigations
Federal and state courts approved a total of 979 requests, the
highest number since electronic surveillance was legalized in 1968.
Federal orders increased by 33 percent from 1992, while state
investigations decreased by nine percent. No surveillance requests
were rejected or amended. In 25 years, only 27 requests have ever been
rejected, two most recently in 1988.
Narcotics Main Offense Cited
The vast majority of cases investigated involved narcotics.
Seventy-four percent of the federal investigations and 69 percent of
all investigations were for narcotics related offenses. These figures
continue long-standing trends. Use of electronic surveillance in
narcotics cases has increased 240 percent since 1980 and over 500
percent since the legalization of electronic surveillance in 1968. Use
of the technique in investigations of other offenses has decreased or
remained at similar levels.
Federal Use Increases
Federal investigations accounted for nearly half of all requests for
electronic surveillance in 1993. Federal judges approved 450 requests,
a 30 percent increase in requests over 1992. The 450 requests approved
by federal judges represent a 30 percent increase over the previous
year. Federal use of electronic surveillance has increased nearly 450%
since 1980. Fifty-one federal judicial districts utilized electronic
surveillance in 1993. The Southern District of New York, which
includes New York City, and the Eastern District of Michigan, which
includes Detroit were the areas with the highest number of orders.
State Use of Electronic Surveillance Declines
State use of electronic surveillance declined by nine percent from
1992. State use was at its peak in 1973, when 734 orders were
approved. Since the mid-1970s, the average number of state orders has
fluctuated between 450 and 550 per year.
In 1993, only 23 states used electronic surveillance. New York had
the highest number of orders - 204. New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania accounted for 73 percent of the state surveillance
orders.
Efficiency Declines
As the use of electronic surveillance has increased, its efficiency
as a law enforcement tool has substantially declined. The majority of
conversations overhead are determined by prosecutors to be irrelevant
to any investigation. In 1993, prosecutors determined that only 20
percent of all conversations were relevant. For federal
investigations, only 17 percent were relevant. These percentages have
decreased significantly since the 1970s when prosecutors reported
that, on average, over half of all conversations were relevant to an
investigation.
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[2] Credit Reporting Amendments Pass Senate
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The long awaited amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act were
approved by the Senate 87-10 on May 4. The bill (S. 783), may lead to
the first update to the FCRA since its passage in 1970. The
legislation was sponsored by Sens. Richard Bryan (D-NV), Don Riegle
(D-MI) Kit Bond (R-MO) and Harris Wofford (D-PA).
The bill preempts state statutes for six years in several areas
including obsolete information, prescreening of consumer reports,
duties of persons who take adverse actions based on consumer reports
and intra-company transfer of credit information. After 6 years, the
states may pass laws that explicitly state that they supplement the
Federal act.
The bill allows consumers to opt-out of having their information
distributed for use in offering unsolicited credit cards
("prescreening") and some direct marketing uses. Credit agencies are
prohibited from providing adverse information over 10 years old.
Secondary users of credit services cannot obtain credit reports for
resale without informing the agency of the final users of the
information and the permitted uses of the information.
An attempt by Senator Paul Simon(D-IL)to amend the bill to include
language creating a privacy commission gathered 21 votes. Many
Senators were reluctant to sign on because of fears that other, "less
friendly," amendments would then be approved, weakening the FCRA
amendments.
Consumer advocates are pressing the House of Representative to fix the
deficiencies in the Senate bill. The House bill is currently in
committee.
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[3] ACLU Survey Finds Strong Support for Privacy
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An extensive survey by the American Civil Liberties Union has found
strong support for privacy, even in highly controversial areas such as
abortion and homosexuality. The report, "Live and Let Live: American
Public Opinion About Privacy at Home and at Work," is based on over
1,000 interviews conducted by Albert and Susan Cantril, two
professional public opinion surveyers.
The survey found that eighty percent of Americans believe their
employers should not be able to monitor their telephone calls and a
"solid majority" believe that employers have no right to ask about the
personal lives of job applicants.
Following several other recent polls, large majorities of the public
are concerned about how insurance, financial and other companies use
sensitive personal information held in their databases.
For more information, contact: Loren Siegal at 212-944-9800, 132 West
43rd Street, New York, NY 10036.
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[4] DMV Privacy Bill Passes House
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A bill introduced by Congressman James Moran (D-VA) to provide some
protection for Department of Motor Vehicle records passed the House of
Representative as an amendment to the House crime bill in March.
The bill allows drivers to request that DMVs not disclose their
driving information to direct marketers and, under certain
circumstances, to prevent disclosure of licence information to anyone.
The bill has many exceptions, however, allowing for unlimited access
by law enforcement, government agencies, private detectives and
others. Accident records and some other indvidual driver information
would still be available publicly. States would also be authorized to
release information to "multi-purpose" users, but the state would be
required to inform the users of the names of those people who had
asked to have their information withheld.
A Senate version, which provides greater protection, passed earlier
this year. The two versions will be reconciled in a conference
committee within the next month.
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[5] NII Working Group Requests Comments on Privacy Principles
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The Privacy Working Group of the Information Infrastructure Task Force
has proposed a draft privacy code for the National Information
Infrastructure. Comments on the proposal are due to the Privacy
Working Group by June 23, 1994. The IITF Gopher/Bulletin Board can be
accessed at iitf.doc.gov. Electronic comments should be sent to
[email protected]
EPIC's assessment of the proposed code is that it is weaker than
current privacy codes and leaves large gaps in NII privacy policy in
such areas as encryption, informed consent, unique identifiers and
enforcement. The proposed code may also be inadequate for the purpose
of protecting international data flows.
EPIC has prepared an extensive report on the proposed code. For an
electronic copy of "EPIC Report 94-1: Privacy Guidelines for the
National Information Infrastructure A Review of the Proposed
Principles of the Privacy Working Group" send email to [email protected].
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[6] NTIA Requests Comments on NII Privacy
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The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
is undertaking a review of privacy issues relating to private sector
use of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and has
requested public comment.
The inquiry will focus on potential uses of personal information
generated by electronic communications, including interactive
multimedia, cable television and telephony. NTIA is studying the
issues that arise when such telecommunications related information is
used to create detailed dossiers about individuals. NTIA seeks to
determine whether any overarching privacy principles can be developed
that would apply to all firms in the telecommunications sector. In
addition, NTIA is soliciting comment on other countries' actions to
ensure the privacy of information transmitted over telecommunications
networks, and to ascertain how any U.S. policies in this area will
affect the international arena.
Comments are due May 23 and should be sent to the Office of Policy
Analysis and Development, NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th St.
and Constitution Ave., N.W., Room 4725, Washington, D.C. 20230 or by
email [email protected]. The notice is available from the NTIA
bulletin board at 202-482-1199. For further information about the NTIA
bulletin board call 202-482-6207.
EPIC recommends that comments focus on these points:
- Strong, enforceable code of fair information practices
- Protection of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)
- Development of technologies for pseudo-anonymous transactions
- Use of cryptography in communications networks
- Establishment of a federal privacy agency
- Failure of self-regulatory mechanisms
- Support for strong international privacy safeguards
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[7] Files Available for retrieval
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The following EPIC files are available from cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/
EPIC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - /epic/epic_faq.txt
EPIC Program Description -/epic/program.txt
FCC Caller ID Decision /communications/caller_id/
fcc_caller_id_decision_1994.txt
The CPSR Internet Library is a free service available via
FTP/WAIS/Gopher/listserv from cpsr.org:/cpsr/privacy. Materials from
Privacy International, the Taxpayers Assets Project and the
Cypherpunks are also archived. For more information, contact
[email protected].
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[8] Upcoming Conferences and Events
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"Navigating the Networks." 1994 Mid-Year Meeting, American Society for
Information Science. Portland, Oregon. May 22 - 25, 1994. Contact:
[email protected]
"Information: Society, Superhighway or Gridlock?" Computing for the
Social Sciences 1994 Conference (CSS94). University of Maryland at
College Park. June 1-3, 1994. Contact: Dr. Charles Wellford
301-405-4699, fax 301-405-4733, e-mail: [email protected].
Medical Information and the Right to Privacy. Department of Energy,
Institute of Medicine, National Research Council. National Academy
of Science, Washington, DC. June 9-10. Contact Harry J. Pettengill,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, DOE, 301-903-1010 (tel),
301-903-5072.
Integrating Data Protection Law into Good Business Practice. Privacy
Laws and Business 7th Annual Conference. St. John's College,
Cambridge, England. July 11-13, 1994. Contact Stewart Dresner, 44
081 423 1300 (tel), 44 081 423 4536 (fax).
DEF CON ][ ("underground" computer culture) "Load up your laptop
muffy, we're heading to Vegas!" The Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. July
22-24, Contact: [email protected].
Symposium on Privacy and Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems. Santa
Clara University. Santa Clara, California. July 29-30. Contact:
Professor Dorothy J. Glancy 408-554-4075 (tel), 408-554-4426 (fax),
[email protected].
Hackers on Planet Earth: The First US Hacker Congress. Hotel
Pennsylvania, New York City, NY. August 13-14. Sponsored by 2600
Magazine, Contact: [email protected].
Technologies of Surveillance; Technologies of Privacy. The Hague, The
Netherlands, September 5. Sponsored by Privacy International and EPIC.
Contact: Simon Davies ([email protected]).
16th International Conference on Data Protection. The Hague,
Netherlands. September 6-8. Contact B. Crouwers 31 70 3190190 (tel),
31-70-3940460 (fax).
Symposium: An Arts and Humanities Policy for the National Information
Infrastructure. Boston, Mass. October 14-16, 1994. Sponsored by the
Center for Art Research in Boston. Contact: Jay Jaroslav
([email protected]).
Third Biannual Conference on Participatory Design, Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, October 27-28, 1994. Sponsored by CPSR. Contact:
[email protected]. Submissions due April 15, 1994.
Ethics in the Computer Age Conference, November 11-13, 1994,
Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Sponsored by ACM. Contact: [email protected]
(Send calendar submissions to [email protected])
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=======================================================================
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest
research center in Washington, DC. It was established in 1994 to
focus public attention on emerging privacy issues relating to the
National Information Infrastructure, such as the Clipper Chip, the
Digital Telephony proposal, medical record privacy, and the sale of
consumer data. EPIC is sponsored by the Fund for Constitutional
Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. EPIC
publishes the EPIC Alert and EPIC Reports, pursues Freedom of
Information Act litigation, and conducts policy research on emerging
privacy issues. For more information email [email protected], or write
EPIC, 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003.
+1 202 544 9240 (tel), +1 202 547 5482 (fax).
The Fund for Constitution Government is a non-profit organization
established in 1974 to protect civil liberties and constitutional
rights. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a national
membership organization. For information contact: [email protected]
----------------------- END EPIC Alert 1.01 -----------------------
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