Civil Liberities

[Capt_Nemo]

A Site to Despise Untrained Spies
By Julia Scheeres Win a 50" HDTV or a Xerox Printer!





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2:00 a.m. Aug. 13, 2002 PDT
The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a website for people to protest the Bush administration's citizen informant program, which would enlist civilians nationwide to report suspicious behavior by their fellow Americans.

The ACLU charges that the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS), which is expected to launch this fall, is a massive invasion of privacy.




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"You've got untrained nonprofessionals coming up with what they believe is suspicious activity," said Rachel King, legislative counsel for the ACLU. "We're not against tip lines; we're against relying on untrained civilians to spy."

The ACLU worries that the system will target certain religious and ethnic minorities, such as dark-skinned Muslims, and that a database of "suspicious" people will be assembled without giving those included in it a chance to prove their innocence.

"Suppose you're looking for a job and you can't get security clearance because one of these volunteers thought you were a little strange and wrote down your name; this could impact your life in ways you don't know," King said.

The ACLU's TIPS Watch allows visitors to shoot off angry missives about the program to their senators and get background data on other Homeland Security initiatives. Congress is expected to vote on the legislation when it reconvenes in September.

Initially, the TIPS scheme called for utility workers, postal carriers and others who have access to private property to keep an eye out for suspicious activities along their routes. But after public outcry against peeping postpeople, the Justice Department announced on Friday that it would scale back the operation to include only transportation workers, such as truck drivers and ship workers.

The tipsters would rely on a list of red flags to help them detect suspicious behavior and would report any funny business over a toll-free number or a website set by the National White Collar Crime Center, a department spokeswoman said.

The current TIPS homepage includes a volunteer sign-up form.



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Related Wired Links:

Supremes OK Anonymous Free Speech
June 18, 2002

Act Would OK Snail Mail Searches
May 23, 2002

A Bad Year for Privacy

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,54492,00.html


Rick...
"The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going."
-Anon.