The Nation - More Surveillance on the Way. The USA Patriot Act was passed with much fanfare last October, but it was soon clear that lawmakers passed the package without examining all the parts. Today, we're still struggling to determine how new law enforcement powers granted by Patriot are being used. In June, the House Judiciary Committee asked the Attorney General for specifics on this issue. On October 17, the committee released the DOJ's answers. Much of what was learned was troubling. For example, Patriot opened loopholes that let electronic communications service providers give customer records to law enforcement officials without a warrant. In lay terms, the folks that provide your email account are an electronic service provider, and your actual emails could fall into the category of customer records. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the Attorney General's office confirmed that they have received anecdotal accounts of providers turning over records without a warrant but "there are no statistics detailing the number of times that disclosures have occurred or the basis for such disclosures." In this context, a recent amendment to the Senate's Homeland Security bill seems all the more ominous. The amendment, offered by Orrin Hatch, was based on a bill passed in the House on July 15 just before the August recess called the Cyber Security Enhancement Act, or CSEA. Introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith, who brought us Patriot's computer surveillance language, CSEA, if passed, would make it even easier for government agents to get your electronic records, without a warrant and without telling you. [Privacy Digest]
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