DIY Government: ACTION ALERTS 12.1

BTC -  There are quite a few really good action alerts worth working on if you're active.  Here are link to a few I believe will make a difference.

*Stand with BORDC to challenge FBI abuses

*Join the Healthcare Privacy Debate 2.0 @The Economist...
Weigh in your views on privacy and healthcare handling of your records.

*DOWNSIZE TSA: KEEP WORKING TOWARDS "DON'T TOUCH MY JUNK!"

*Celebrate Bill of Rights Day -  Sunday, December 5th

*Go check out films featured at this years Artivist Film Festival
   Our pick : "Hempsters" 
    ~A BIG HEART GOES OUT FOR MR. WILLIE NELSON

NETWORK WORLD: Ding-Dong ..Real ID is dead..again.

"Real ID dies a deserved death and is abandoned in 2010. It appears that with Nevada backtracking on implementation and other states opting-out, Real ID is truly dead. No one has attempted to resurrect it in this Congress, so perhaps sanity has prevailed. A successful prediction."

Says A.M. Antonopoulos in What security wrought in 2010

REDUX: FTC's "Do not track", Net Neutrality & Who's tracking you?

Enlarged@EPIC's Privacy.org 

*Infographic WHO'S TRACKING YOU? (left) c/o Privacy.org

BTC -- It's been a very big day for digital privacy policy and the Internet on Capitol Hill and the day isn't even over yet.

As the result of a 5 - 0 vote, the FTC released it's official framework to limit 3rd party browser surveillance from cookies and collection of broswer histories.  Media questions raised towards the FTC's cautious steps out in defense of consumer privacy were answered summarily, "that's why we are putting this up for comment."

The matters of concern were mainly directed at a new "Do Not Track list"; which was compared to a Do Not Call list for 3rd party telemarketers.  Consumers should able opt-out of browser data surveillance by adding their information to consumer protection list.  However, due to the review period, FTC enforcement measures towards the adoption of Do Not Track are still unformed, uncertain, appearing unenforceable. FTC mentioned they "were not in a place now to deal with deceptive commercial practices".  Retroactive enforcement of privacy on information collected and a Do Not Use list were considerations that seemed to take the FTC panel by surprise. Questions about the scope creep of the decision and current data collected were almost censured by moderators who demanded the identity of privacy labeled press in attendance.

The FTC Chairman's tone of concern over tracking was not as greatly angled towards consumer publics as it was advertisers, browser companies and industry who rely on corporate data surveillance for marketing information.   "I would not personally opt-out of 3rd party..., but that's why we are putting this up for comment," said FTC Chair, Liebowitz.  The trial run of new versions of privacy protection seems to be at the behest of industry vs. the consumer.  While this was made fairly plain, questions were raised about consumers accessibility to the use of new privacy controls in browser technology.  The FTC acknowledged users are largely uninformed of what their options are towards operating evolving browser versions and hidden privacy settings on current browser technologies.

As an experiment, I looked into my own browser security; which had undergone several weekly updates.  The security settings had changed.  There were a mountain of cookies and stored sites in hidden browser histories I didn't know I had.   The box for "show my location" had been automatically checked.   I had opted out completely for Google Buzz yesterday only after pop-up options were made available.  The public, indeed, still bears the burden of personal privacy vigilance over browser data surveillance; while government bodies catch up to pilot consumer protections. In the meantime, we will watch and see if Google and other 3rd party data brokers are really on their best behavior.

• Joint Consensus on Public Comment, Reccomendations 
• National Consumer League of Behavioral Advertising Reccomendations 

Here is second life for news that matters:

HuffPo: Will we get a "Do Not Track Me" list ?

The FCC's Net Neutrality Announcement: The Good, The Bad, and What It Means for You

POLITICO: Hill Based News roundup for FCC, FTC moves on the BIG DAY for Digital Privacy

WIKILEAKS DAYTIME SOAP EPIC CONTINUED... Will Asange be prosecuted or arraigned? US Cyber-attack retribution billed as "weak" @WIRED.   And its gets worse.. watch this.



THE PROPERTY OF DIGITAL FINGERPRINTS - Cookies get fingered again for new digital privacy identity treachery @normative

SOLUTIONS: TSA should go to the dogs

"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.  Well, I got two." 

- George W. Bush

BTC -  By now we've all heard or experienced tales of personal horror at TSA's use of the Rapiscan backscatter X-Ray machines at airports.  I recently read an article where DHS Secretary Napolitano used the words "shared responsibility" when it comes to providing security in America.  Unfortunately - those words seemed more like a cry for help.  I would hate to think of what could happen if we further neglected the solutions rather than solely pitching in the complaint department. It might be worth some salt to offer the TSA solutions.

Coming from Silicon Valley, AOPTIX, makers of iris scan biometrics, seem to be the next in line to the begging trough for dwindling reserves of federal money for private security contracts.  I could battle another Big Tech biometric identity mandate or I could throw my hat in the ring with solutions which beat the elusive but eventual TSA cavity search for fliers.  None of this is any fun.

I found one of the best solutions yet - man's best friend - on BrassCheckTV.  I think fliers blood pressure would go down.  The TSA would be able to actually serve it's purpose better.  We could cut Chertoff loose or try to get him involved in a better business model for national security.   From the words of the former commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.  Well, I got two."

WATCH THIS:

Happy Thanksgiving: Travel laughs

REDUX: 11-24 Opt-out Day Edition

11-24-2010:  Report Abuse During Passenger Screening in U. S. Airports

c/o Paper's Please - Edward Hasbrouck 

What you need to know about your rights at the airport 

1. TSA “screeners” are not law enforcement officers. Despite wearing police-type uniforms and calling themselves “officers”, they have no police powers and no immunity from any state or local laws.  At some airports, notably San Francisco (SFO) and Kansas City (MCI), they aren’t government employees at all, but rent-a-cops employed by a private contractor. They cannot legally arrest or detain you (except as a citizen’s arrest, the same way you can arrest them if they commit assault or battery). All they can do is call the local police.
2. You have the 1st Amendment right to film, photograph, and record what happens in public areas of airports, including your interactions with TSA and screeners.  Photography and recording in airports and at TSA checkpoints violates no Federal law or TSA regulation. Any state or local laws that purport to prohibit this are likely to be unconstitutional. You have the right, for your own protection, to document what happens to you and what is done to you.
3. You have the right not to be assaulted or battered (sexually or otherwise), falsely arrested, unlawfully detained, or kidnapped.  You should consult the applicable laws, including local laws, and/or an attorney if you plan to do any of these things, but you have the right to make a criminal complaint and/or a citizen’s arrest of someone who assaults you, and/or to sue them for damages.
4. Under most airlines’ conditions of carriage, you have the right to a full and unconditional refund if the airline refuses to transport you because you won’t show ID or won’t “consent” to whatever they want to do to you in the name of “screening”. Read this first:Here’s what to do to protect your right to a refund.  If the airline refuses to give you a full refund, you can sue them for damages and request that the US Department of Transportation investigate and fine them.
5. If an airline cancels your reservation or refuses to transport you, you may be entitled to collect damages, and you can request that the US Department of Transportation (and, if you were denied passage to the USA from another country, that country’s authorities) investigate and fine or impose other sanctions on the airline.
6. You have the right to freedom of movement, guaranteed by the First Amendment (”the right of the people… peaceably to assemble”) and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a human rights treaty to which the US is a party: “Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own…. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”

ALSO:

IMPORTANT TSA numbers & contact URLS

Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs is (571)227-2829.
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/portstep/editorial_with_table_0063.shtm

The Office of Civil Rights can be reached toll free at 1-877-EEO-4-TSA (1-877-336-4872) or (800) 877-8339 (TTY), or by E-mail at TSA.Civilrights@dhs.gov.

Source: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/civilrights/contact_us.shtm

Other TSA contacts: http://www.tsa.gov/contact/index.shtm

DHS & TSA: Making a list, checking it twice

Filming the TSA may get you persecuted, laws or not

"NSTIC - Not-so Trusted Identity in Cyberspace"

via  POGO.WAS.RIGHT

"According to recent reports, the Obama administration is making a new DHS national identity authentication program a high priority. The National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace, expected to be signed by Obama this winter, is another program in a string of recent government attempts to centralize human identity in the US and abroad."

SEE ALSO : Op-Ed News