Archive for the ‘Identification’ Category

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that U.S. government contractors must undergo the same background checks as federal employees.

A lower court had declared the checks an unconstitutional “broad inquisition” when applied to the contractors.

The challenged background investigations sought information from any source surrounding an employee’s sex life, finances and drug use. The background checks for contractors were required beginning in 2007, and were challenged by nearly three dozen NASA contractors as being too invasive. The contractors neither sought, nor were granted, security clearances for classified information.

Ruling 8-0, with Justice Elena Kagan recused, the court found there was no breach in the contractors’ right to so-called “informational privacy.” The checks were “reasonable, employment-related inquiries that further the government’s interests in managing its internal operations,” the court concluded.

So the court, in overturning the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, agreed with the Obama administration’s contentions that the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory workers’ privacy rights were not breached. The government, the court noted, was not releasing the information to the public.

“In light of the protection provided by the Privacy Act’s nondisclosure requirement, and because the challenged portions of the forms consist of reasonable inquiries in an employment background check, we conclude that the government’s inquiries do not violate a constitutional right to informational privacy,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said there was no constitutional right to informational privacy — a premise “consistent with constitutional text and tradition.”

Holding such a position, Scalia wrote, “has the attractive benefit of resolving this case” without having to rationalize the background checks.

Continue Reading “Supreme Court Upholds Intrusive Government Background Checks” »

LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man is set to go before a jury here Tuesday on criminal charges of violating copyright law by modifying Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated games.

In the first trial of its kind, defendant Matthew Crippen is charged with two counts of violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. He faces a maximum five years in prison on each count.

The 28-year-old Crippen suffered a devastating blow to his defense last week when a judge ruled that he can’t raise a “fair use” defense at trial. Two other key evidentiary issues in the case are unresolved, and are expected to be ruled upon at any time.

One issue is the admissibility of a covert video recording of Crippen allegedly performing the modification. A second is whether the jury can hear the testimony of hardware-hacking guru Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, who is prepared to testify for the defense that the modification did not circumvent a copy-control mechanism within the meaning of the DMCA.

Continue Reading “First Criminal Trial Over Game-Console Modding Begins Tuesday” »

A federal appeals court said Tuesday the government may obtain cell-site information that mobile phone carriers retain on their customers without a probable-cause warrant under the Fourth Amendment.

The decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (.pdf) was not, however, an outright Obama administration victory. Lower courts, the three-judge panel wrote, could demand the government show probable cause — the warrant standard — before requiring carriers to release such data to the feds.

The opinion does leaves the privacy issue in a legal limbo of sorts. The standard by which the government can access such records — which can be used in criminal prosecutions — is left to the whims of district court judges. Historical cell-site location information, which carriers usually retain for about 18 months, identifies the cell tower to which the customer was connected at the beginning of a call and at the end of the call.

Lower courts across the country have issued conflicting rulings on the topic and will continue to do so without appellate guidance or congressional action. The Philadelphia-based court was the first appeals court to address the issue.

The Obama administration argued a judge could force a carrier to produce cell-site data on a showing that the information was “relevant and material” to an investigation.

Continue Reading “Court OKs Warrantless Cell-Site Tracking” »

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving short shrift to processing DNA from missing persons cases, taking as long as two years to handle profiles, according to a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report.

Overall, about 40 percent of the FBI’s backlog of processing 3,200 DNA profiles stems from missing persons cases, according to Monday’s report.

“The FBI Laboratory’s low prioritization of these cases (.pdf) can have a broader effect because many missing persons are victims of homicide,” the report said. “Therefore, even if a perpetrator is not identified, DNA profiles from crime scenes could be uploaded and potentially linked to each other in CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), thereby aiding homicide investigations and potentially leading to the identification of a suspect.”

What’s more, under the bureau’s current processing rate for all DNA cases, the “backlog would require about 2 years to complete, even without the addition of any new cases,” the report said. Part of the problem is the “absence of a modern laboratory information management system,” according to the report.

Continue Reading “FBI Lab Gives Short Shrift to Missing Persons Cases” »

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court provided no clear indication Tuesday whether it would uphold a voter-approved measure requiring California authorities to take a DNA sample from every adult arrested on felony accusations.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments for about an hour, in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union aimed at striking down the law. The ACLU argued that DNA sampling of arrestees was an unconstitutional search and privacy breach. A lower court had refused to stop the program that has resulted in California securing a DNA database of 1.5 million people.

At least 21 states have regulations requiring suspects to give a DNA sample upon an arrest. President Barack Obama supports taking DNA when a suspect is arrested.

Judge Mylan Smith suggested he saw no difference between DNA sampling and fingerprinting, the latter of which is a staple booking practice across the United States.

“This is really a good way of identifying people. Basically, what you’re saying we have to be Luddites, that we can’t use modern technology because it’s too good?” he asked ACLU attorney Michael Risher.

“Sure, we would solve more and more crimes if we got more samples,” Risher replied. But “there has to be a line. A single arrest by a police officer is never sufficient.”

Risher added, “Our fingerprints tell nothing about us. Our DNA can tell a huge amount about us.”

William Fletcher, the only other judge to engage in the discussion, seemed troubled that the DNA was kept in a database even if the subject was acquitted, or never charged. About 100,000 persons arrested for felonies in California are ultimately cleared every year.

Fletcher also noted that the state often objects to taking DNA samples from convicts who are languishing in prison and seeking to clear their names.

“What’s the justification for keeping the DNA?” Fletcher asked California Deputy attorney General Daniel Powell.

Powell replied: “Obviously, the solution of future crimes,” adding, “I think there is a deterrent effect.”

The court did not indicate when it would rule. It has no deadlines. Either way, the case is likely to reach the Supreme Court, which has never squarely addressed the issue.

Proposition 69, adopted in 2004 and fully implemented last year, requires adult detainees to provide a saliva, or sometimes a blood sample, upon felony arrest. The sample is stored in state and FBI databases, even if the arrested adult is never charged or convicted of a crime.

The lawsuit does not challenge DNA sampling for convicted felons or for those required under a court order. Rather, the case challenges “the mass, programmatic DNA testing (.pdf) of hundreds of thousands of persons — persons not convicted or who are otherwise not under supervision of the criminal justice system — as to whom the long-recognized constitutional prerequisites to such searches and seizures have been established.”

Continue Reading “Court Mixed on Constitutionality of Taking DNA From Arrestees” »

Ten U.S citizens and residents, three of whom are veterans, are stuck abroad or cannot fly within or out of the United States because they are wrongly on a no-fly list, according to a federal lawsuit lodged Wednesday.

The Oregon federal court case claims the plaintiffs, many with Middle Eastern names who have committed no legal wrongdoing, have asked the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration for an explanation, to no avail.

The government, according to the suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, has not offered any explanation for plaintiffs’ “apparent placement” on the no-fly list or any other watch list. “They’re too scary to fly but not scary enough to arrest,” quipped Ben Wizner, an ACLU attorney on the case.

Wizner believed it was the first lawsuit testing the constitutionality of the government’s ability to bar flight, though that topic has been the subject of repeated litigation often brought by those forced to undergo heavy screening before flying.

Continue Reading “Too Scary to Fly, Not Scary Enough to Arrest” »

A federal appeals court is blessing the legal process by which the recording industry and other content owners unmask the identities of alleged peer-to-peer copyright infringers.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is believed to be the first appellate court to sanction a process that has ultimately hauled tens of thousands of alleged P2P infringers into court, (.pdf) many at the request of the Recording Industry Association of America.

“They have upheld the RIAA’s legal strategy,” said Richard A. Altman, the New York attorney who brought the court challenge.

Thursday’s decision comes as Indie filmmakers are using the same process to acquire the identities of thousands of BitTorrent users accused of copyright infringement.

The legal action was brought by a State University of New York at Albany student accused of using Gnutella to download and make songs available on the internet.

The RIAA detected what it claimed to be infringing activity on an IP address the university linked to the student. The unidentified student moved to quash a federal judge’s order that the university forward the student’s identity to the RIAA.

The student asserted a First Amendment right of privacy on the internet, in addition to a fair-use right to the six music tracks in question.

Continue Reading “Court OKs Unmasking Identities of Copyright Scofflaws” »

Lawmakers are proposing a national identification card — what they’re calling “high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security cards” — that would be required for all employees in the United States.

The proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) comes as the states are grappling to produce another national identification card at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security. Virtually none of the states are in compliance with this Real ID program — adopted in 2005 — requiring state motor vehicle bureaus to obtain and internally scan and store personal information like Social Security cards and birth certificates for a national database.

Graham, left, and Schumer, are calling for national ID cards to combat illegal immigration.
Photo: AP

Now comes a bid for a second card.

Continue Reading “Lawmakers Eyeing National ID Card” »

The U.S. Supreme Court is agreeing to decide how much personal information the federal bureaucracy may acquire on its workers.

The justices, without comment, decided Monday to review a lower-court decision surrounding the concept of so-called “informational privacy.” The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down intrusive background checks last year on nearly three dozen National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractors as being too invasive — calling them an unconstitutional, “broad inquisition.”

The checks sought information from any source surrounding their sex lives, finances and even drug use. The contractors being investigated were not privy to classified information.

The Obama administration, in seeking review of the lower-court decision, told the justices the checks were the same type conducted on all federal government workers -– now numbering about 14 million. The background checks are part of a 2004 security directive from President George W. Bush.

“The ramifications of the decision below are potentially dramatic,” the Obama administration told the justices in its petition to the court. The justices likely will hear the case this fall.

The NASA contractors worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which generally engages in the scientific study of the earth and solar system. They sued, successfully stopping the government from delving so extensively into their backgrounds.

The administration said collecting the information, as opposed to disseminating it, was constitutionally acceptable.

See Also:

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• Airport Scanners Can Store, Transmit Images
• Court Stiffs Veterans Caught in Privacy Breach

Are you really you? It’s hard to say.

That’s because identity theft was the top consumer complaint for 2009, the Federal Trade Commission reported Wednesday.

It was also the top complaint from the year before, although 5 percent fewer consumers reported it in 2009, the commission said.

Overall, of the 1.3 million complaints the agency received last year, 21 percent were for identity theft. Debt collection agencies ranked second, with 9 percent of complaints, according to the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book released Wednesday.

Credit card fraud was the top complaint when it comes to identity theft, followed by fraud related to government benefits, utilities, phones and loans.

The FTC did not verify the complaints lodged with it. It said 72 percent of those reporting identity theft also notified a police department.

The complete 101-page report (.pdf) is available here.

Photo: Don Hankins/Flickr

See Also:

• Supreme Court: Feds Abusing Identity Theft Law
• U.S. Identity Theft Convictions Increase 26 Percent, Feds Say
• Stolen Wallets, Not Hacks, Cause the Most ID Theft? Debunked
• Startup Plans to Solve Online Identity Theft, But Does Anyone Care?
• Feds Swoop In on Nationwide Pickpocket, I.D. Theft Ring
• Congress Must Deal With ID Theft
• Judge Rules LifeLock’s Fraud Alert Service Illegal
• The Pros and Cons of LifeLock