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NASA Requires JPL Scientists To Give Up Right To Privacy
Markmarkmark writes "Wired is reporting that all NASA JPL scientists must 'voluntarily' (or be fired) sign a document giving the government the right to investigate their personal lives and history 'without limit'. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists this includes snooping into sexual orientation, mental & physical health as well as credit history and 'personality conflict'. 28 senior NASA scientists and engineers, including Mars Rover team members, refused to sign by the deadline and are now subject to being fired despite a decade or more of exemplary service. None of them even work on anything classified or defense related. They are suing the government and documenting their fight for their jobs and right to personal privacy."
... look here NASA Employees Fight Invasive Background Check (Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri 31 Aug 01:04AM). Looks like wiring issues seem commonplace.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
All of this is done in the name of "protect[ing] personal privacy."
If that doesn't shed light on the fact that this is complete and utter nonsense, I don't know what will. As the article pointed out, that's Newspeak if I ever heard it.
I got a catholic block.
Having worked in the military and civilian worlds on sensitive and not-so-sensitive projects involving technology, this is not really news. This is a consequence of working with the government, and frankly, it doesn't bother me all that much.
Heck, you wouldn't believe the background checks I went through for the FBI. In the end, while maybe not ideal for the potential employee, I find nothing significantly reprehensible about the process.
I mean, background checks like this probably would have exluded most of the scientists who came over from Germany for the Manhattan Project.
When I was a young man I had, like many kids, aspirations of becoming an astronaut or otherwise working in the space exploration industry. My goals began to change as I watched NASA go from the world's best research agency (IMHO) to a politically correct institution lacking any cohesive vision.
Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
Easy fix indeed. Given the approach this country has taken to its scientists, I wouldn't be surprised if what you suggest will be exactly what happens - the scientists rebel, and promptly get fired en masse. Why? Because nobody cares.
Railroad workers, airline workers, even taxicab drivers - when any of these professions strike, it is felt immediately by the general population, so there is a push to resolve the issues amicably, so that they could return to work.
If all scientists in the US... not just the NASA rocket scientists... stop working RIGHT NOW... the vast majority of the population won't know, and the majority of those who know, won't care.
Why? Because nothing that these people do affects us EVERY DAY. Thus, they're not important. Which is why a post-doc at a top-tier academic institution, will be making <$32'000/year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism - but who are we afraid of now? 50 years later? Some Taliban "freedom fighter" adding an IED to the next Mars Rover?
Gimme a break.
When they quit, you didn't have to report to investors you were scaling back operations, just that you couldn't fill the positions. Then you could cut the positions and claim better productivity.
When it costs you more to fight suits over constructive dismissal than it would have to offer early retirement, your management style might not be well-appreciated by your own managers. When it's just peons in the trenches, you just fire them.
If I wanted to scale NASA's budget back, and not catch tons of flak, I would do this.
Except they did catch flak. Tons of it.
Unfortunately more than 90% of the roughly 5000 employees at JPL have already signed. Only a few hundred are actively protesting, and 28 are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
We really have become a nation of sheep, haven't we? This is why our rights are going down the toilet, because most people simply do not care. It would be a vastly different story if that 90-10 ratio were reversed.
This reminds me of an incident (I'm going entirely on memory here) in the months after 9/11 in which some jurisdiction or other was conducting random bag/backpack searches of bus passengers. One guy filed a suit after refusing the search and being hauled in. In the article, it said that out of something like 1300 of these searches that had been conducted, fewer than half a dozen people objected or refused. When the populace has become that complacent and trusting, it's open season on the Constitution.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
Welcome to the world of security clearances. NASA routinely works on things that have a sensitive nature, if for no other reason than "technology export concerns". Why is this even news?
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
If this kind of crap is going on, the country will snap!
Oh get over yourself.
No one will snap. The populace is fat and content and nothing indicates this is likely to shift anytime soon. Their masters have an iron grip on entertainment and "information". Every so often, some misguided bleeding-hearts are allowed to kick up a fuss for the 9 o'clock news about some irrelevant niche issue that no one really cares enough about to remember past the next commercial.
The revolution will not be televised because there won't be one.
They need a union
Its amazing how paranoid the government is becoming, so when does Bush sign his agreement?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
As an expert at abusive management during the failing days at Krispy Kreme, this sounds like they want the employees to quit. I've seen this happen too many times.
The people who quit in situations like this are your best employees. The ones who aren't afraid to lose their jobs because they're good enough to work just about anywhere. The ones you're left with are the people who are afraid they have no other options and will take it up the ass just to keep a job. It's not a smart way to run a company, unless you want to run it into the ground.
A quick rule of thumb: in any case where the government does anything that appears to be directed by the W administration, you may divine an approximation of their real objectives if you remember that their intentions are always the opposite of what they say. Then allow for incompetency, ass covering and capricious political maneuvering as they work towards their objectives. Although the actual outcome will surprise you in its undesirability, it will at least surprise you less if you consider this simple razor...
Perspective: Most people, when looking at those historical events (McCarthyism, etc) tend to recognize that it's a bad thing. When it's THEIR turn, however, people either don't realize what's happening until later, or don't want to bother making a fuss on constitutional principles if it will make them late for work (or if they feel it might endanger them to do so).
and are now subject to being fired despite a decade or more of exemplary service.
Awesome idea! Do away with your best hires because of some silly policy, and wait for foreign space agencies to hire them for their uncommon expertise, experience and insight! If there's something that we've learn during the past years, it's that loyalty and malleability are far more important than competence anyways!
You just got troll'd!
Seriously, it's like the government is going out of their way to make the US noncompetitive. Many of them are top tier scientists and engineers who are almost certain to have no problem finding work elsewhere. Pulling shit like this just means that NASA is going to drive talent into the arms of other organizations.
Still wondering how someone's sexual preference is related to their job performance. These people are living in the dark ages... they actually believe the rest of us give a sh*t who sleeps with whom.
But he's President, so he gets to mandate these requirements to people who just want to keep their personal lives private.
TODO create witty sig.
Not when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.
During a war, mind you. We haven't been at war for 60 years.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
First - if they want to look for terrorists they could as well do standard background checks and have a psychometric test applied at you. But these are no simple background checks. They want to have access to EVERYTHING about you, about your past girlfriends, your emotional problems, what's in your closet, what religion you have, etc. etc.
In other words, they want to do a mental cavity search on you and fire you if you don't seem adequate for them. Still don't get it? I'm talking about DISCRIMINATION.
And they're ALREADY discriminating the people who aren't brave enough to fight for their rights. They just want slaves who obey their ruler, not people with ideals to fight for.
And you wonder how Americans can really be concerned about this? Pfft.
You mean Government (or Current Administration) Security then, because the people (NASA workers or not) *ARE* the Nation. You can't secure the nation and at the same time destroy the lives of the very people you want to secure. If you can't balance Privacy with National Security, then you're effectively admitting that there are americans of second category with LESS rights than the rest (and here I thought that ALL MEN were CREATED EQUAL!)
P.S. As a measure of security - just in case you're someone paid by Bush, I'll add you to my foe list unless you allow me to do a complete and transparent background check of you, including e-mail, street address, past aliases and everything. Safe enough for ya?
...to behave like the military. What you seem to be saying is that you're making money off of both areas, so it doesn't matter to you if the government becomes fascist.
Huh?
Neither of these make much sense. You're not going to get blackmailed for having bad credit, and people aren't blackmailable for things they don't keep secret. So the question about sexual orientation is never going to give an answer you can use to determine if someone's open to blackmail. If someone's openly gay, they'll say "gay". If they're secretly gay, and thus open to blackmail, they'll answer "straight". 90% of the population will also answer "straight".
Sounds like the justifications are there to support inexcusable practices, not because they have any validity.
It's obviously new and forced. They want current employees to sign. That's changing the game on a captive work group and is second cousin to contract violations.
Then again, this is an abusive administration that lost it's mind long ago. Is ripping down posters from the gift shop at gunpoint crazy enough for you? How about tyring to deny the big bang and global warming? Yes, that's crazy political censorship of scientists. The investigative powers demanded here go hand in hand with that. When scientists say things that go against the immediate financial interests of the administration or it's corporate allies, public smear will be part of the punishment. There is no place for this kind of screening outside of classified work and even there a credit history and interview of a few friends is about as good as you can do.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
President Bush is fundamentally anti-technology, anti-progress, and probably just doesn't see a reason to spend money on anything other than military research. It's too bad that just at the point in our history we are coming under fire from multiple directions, being forced to compete with the likes of China and India in the Global Economy, and desperately need all the progress we can muster ... we get a goddamn Luddite in the Oval Office.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Having poor credit doesn't mean you're more likely to be susceptible to blackmail, but it does make you more likely to be susceptible to bribery. The logical way to make your employees less open to bribery is to ensure they have plenty of money, by paying them a lot.
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
You actually allowed a colleague to be treated in that way, shameful.
never let a man put his dirty how-do-you-do into your bajingo
And that's where you (and the government) are way wrong. Our rights are far more important than security because security only exists to protect our rights.
-- Will program for bandwidth
... refused to sign by the deadline and are now subject to being fired despite a decade or more of exemplary service.Walk away. If you don't want to sign, don't. These large companies/organisations only win because people whinge and bitch, and then rollover like good little puppy dogs. Don't let them win. If you've become an important part of the company/organisation, they won't let you go. Either that, or find an employer that doesn't do this. Send a message loud and clear.
.
Unfortunately, the 90% who signed are probably not in a position to protest. I agree in fighting for one's rights, but without a Trade Union to protect them, most folks would be quickly and quietly fired. For some, this may be the dream job they wanted all of their lives. Would you have the strength to give up your dream career, knowing that you may have to take a lesser job and maybe even be unemployed for a period of time? What if you have a family depending on you to support them? I think these would be hard decisions to make.
Push the button, Max!
None of the work being done at JPL on planetary exploration is even remotely "defense" related. Maybe there is defense work there but I doubt any of these people who have been working there for years went there to work on better ways to kill people. They went their to explore the solar system in an entirely peaceful and benevolent way. I think the rules are being changed on them by an increasingly paranoid and increasingly militarized government.
It brings to mind the sad case of Alan Turing. He was one of the greatest minds in early computing and because he was gay he was hounded by the British government in to committing suicide depriving the world of decades more of his brilliant work. The work Turing did was crucial in cracking German codes and certainly shortened the war, and he well could have made the difference in winning it.
This isn't really new for JPL either. The rocket boys at CalTech started out doing peaceful research before World War II. They did pitch in to the war effort to defeat Fascism, but in 1946 many of them wanted to demilitarize and return to peaceful research. Unfortunately JPL turned in to a cold war military lab. One of their founding fathers Frank Malina resigned when his left leaning politics in 30's became known to the FBI. One of their best mathmeticians, Hsue-Shen Tsien, was fired and placed under house arrest because he was a suspected communist. When he was finally freed he did in fact return to China and became an integral part of their space program. Its an interesting question, was he really a communist spy when at JPL, or did the U.S. witch hunt drive him in to the arms of Communist China, when otherwise he would have been a priceless contributor to the American space program.
Some interesting tidbits on JPL's eary years are here.
I hate to break it to you but a LOT of the world's most brilliant thinkers are non conformists in one way or another, sexual orientation, drug use, pacifism, political leanings etc. If you are going to build your society only on "normal" people you are going to lose many of your greatest thinkers and forego many great breakthroughs.
The only reason gays are a security risk in this day and age is because the defense industrial complex have forced them in to a closet by making homosexuality a basis for termination of their security clearance. Homosexuality isn't illegal in this country any more. If it was completely removed as an factor in granting security clearances it wouldn't be an effective means for blackmailing anyone any more. It used to be a legitimate concern for blackmail because it was illegal. It isn't anymore.
@de_machina