Digital Technology Makes Surveillance Easier; Stronger Laws Needed,

Report Finds

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The government surveillance
stories that have filled the headlines in recent months aren't
isolated incidents, but rather reflect a widening gap between the
technology that collects sensitive personal data and the laws designed
to protect that data against government misuse, a new report finds.

The National Security Agency's domestic spying program, the Justice
Department's efforts to obtain millions of Internet search records,
the government's use of cell phones to track suspects, and other
developments highlight the law's failure to keep pace with
technological advances, according to "Digital Search & Seizure:
Updating Privacy Protections to Keep Pace with Technology," a report
released today by the Center for Democracy & Technology. The report
suggests that technology is making government surveillance easier, not
harder, and that stronger protections are needed if innocent Americans
are to retain their privacy rights.

"The government complains that new technology makes its job more
difficult, but the fact is that digital technology has vastly
augmented the government's powers, even without legal changes like
those in the PATRIOT Act. The capacity of Internet technology to
collect and store data increases every day, as does the volume of
personal information we willingly surrender as we take advantage of
new services. Meanwhile, the laws that are supposed to prevent the
government from unfairly accessing personal information haven't
changed in two decades," said CDT Policy Director Jim Dempsey, the
principal author of the report.

"The gap between law and technology is widening every day, and privacy
is eroding. What makes this even more troubling is that most users of
these new technologies don't realize they are putting their privacy in
jeopardy," Dempsey added.

The report details how two popular and increasingly ubiquitous
technologies -- Web-based email and location awareness --
inadvertently give the government unprecedented access to Americans'
personal data.

Web-based email is a convenient, inexpensive way to stay in touch with
friends and colleagues and to access one's mail, photos and documents
from anywhere in the world. Several webmail services now offer their
users gigabytes of storage, touting the fact that users never need
delete anything.

As "Digital Search and Seizure" illustrates, all of this information
sits on the computers of service providers. The legal distinction
between Web-based and traditional email accounts is essentially
meaningless for most Internet users, but under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) -- drafted in 1986, before webmail
existed -- messages and documents stored with webmail providers are
entitled to weaker protections than those stored on users' computers.
While the government needs a judicial warrant to search a person's
computer, it may be able to access that person's webmail account with
only a subpoena, issued without judicial review; without any specific
suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the user; and often without
notice to the person whose data is being disclosed.

"Digital Search and Seizure" also outlines how mobile phones serve as
tracking beacons. "While a cell phone is turned on, whether or not it
is making a call, it is regularly seeking out the nearest antenna and
sending to it its identification numbers," the report points out.
Unfortunately the legal standards regulating the government's ability
to use that constant stream of new data haven't kept pace with the
technological reality. Since no existing law lays out explicit
standards for government location tracking, the government's use of
location technology is governed by a patchwork of laws and court
precedents, the report finds.

Finally, the report discusses the emergence of "government spyware" --
keystroke-logging technology that can record everything a subject does
on his or her computer. Here too the technology has far out paced the
legal protections, giving the government a uniquely intrusive
surveillance tool, with inadequate legal controls.

The report concludes that in all these areas and others (such as RFID
and search services), the laws must be updated to reflect the
technological realities of a new century. The Internet and
communications industry, public interest organizations and the
government need to enter into a dialogue aimed at ensuring that the
fundamental right of privacy is protected in the face of technological
change.

Full text of the report is available on the CDT Web site at
http://www.cdt.org. For more information, or to request a hard copy,
contact David McGuire by email at dmcguire@cdt.org or phone (202)
637-9800 x106. SOURCE Center for Democracy & Technology