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US Air Force Can 'Accidentally' Spy On American Citizens For 90 Days

Posted by Unknown on from the never-leaving-the-house-again dept.

AstroPhilosopher writes "Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists have discovered documentation (PDF) that allows the military to keep footage from drones for up to 90 days to determine whether further investigation is warranted. Besides using footage from natural disasters and monitoring of domestic military bases, all that's truly required is for an operator to 'accidentally' have the camera running while flying."

11 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Yep, more of the same by colinrichardday · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are Americans going to tolerate this? Post 9/11, probably.

    1. Re:Yep, more of the same by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are Americans going to tolerate this? Post 9/11, probably.

      The only thing I find more disturbing than questioning if Americans are going to "tolerate" shit like this, is the grand delusion some people are under that Americans can actually do anything about it anymore.

      You act like We have a say. Wake up.

    2. Re:Yep, more of the same by nrambo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      we cant be bothered with worrying about the violations of our civil liberties, 'dancing with the stars' is on...

    3. Re:Yep, more of the same by Moheeheeko · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You mean like Europeans tolerate cameras on every road?

    4. Re:Yep, more of the same by Scarred+Intellect · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You act like We have a say. Wake up.

      We do. Voting.We got ourselves into this mess and we perpetuate it by voting for the same sort of morons over and over again. Purge the system. Vote every incumbent out. Never vote for politicians again, we don't need politicians in government, we need true leaders who understand industry.

      You're part of the problem with that attitude, that helpless, infantile view of not being able to do anything about it. Unfortunately, most of America shares that point of view, which is only a problem because most of America shares that point of view, which is only a problem because most of America shares that point of view...

      Do something. Write letters to your senators. To your congressman (and to be politically correct, to your congresswomen). Call them. Don't vote for the status quo. Let people know you are standing up for what is right. They just need to see someone doing something, because most of America is a flock of sheep. They don't know, nor care, about the issues plaguing their life because, like a poster said below, they can't be bothered, 'Dancing with the Stars' is on.

      Do something, and be public about it. Perhaps I have a naive point of view of it, but it's better than rolling over and giving up. At THAT point, you have lost everything. When you've given up, then all hope is lost. America hasn't given up, not quite yet.

    5. Re:Yep, more of the same by Jeng · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I'm sorry, if you think this is a threat to your freedom you are insane. There are so many other threats to your freedom you should worry about because they actually impact lives, this is more of a hypothetical what if issue.

      So hypothetically if the Air Force saw something suspicious on portions of their surveillance that happened over the US then the Air Force would hand that information off to which ever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction. I don't see anything wrong with that.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    6. Re:Yep, more of the same by element-o.p. · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The 4th Amendment says that "We, the People" are free from unreasonable search and seizure without due process. Spying can be construed to be a "search." Therefore, the U.S. government is not allowed to spy on it's own people without due process. However, the Air Force now has a loophole that says, if you just happen to have a drone in the air near (a) person(s) of interest, and if you accidentally had the camera running while the drone was in the air, and just coincidentally happen to catch footage of something "interesting," you can keep and inspect that footage for up to 90 days without providing the due process that is required by the Bill of Rights.

      In other words, they've just thrown out the protections afforded by the 4th Amendment (not that they've haven't already been watered down and defecated upon already with things like the Patriot Act, NSL's, NSA wiretapping and TSA, but I digress). It doesn't take much imagination to see how this could lead to all sorts of abuses.

      I rather suspect that it will become S.O.P. to fly drones with the cameras "accidentally" left on, if it isn't already.

      --
      MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
  2. really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Does it really matter? The amount of effort required to look into ONE person in footage is huge. Stop being so paranoid everyone. If they looked at footage of me they would see a guy walking down the street..WOW. sometimes I think people are concerned over things like this far to much. Just live your life and chill out!

  3. Re:I had an epiphany by hierofalcon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The founding fathers would have allowed the citizens to have Abrams tanks, F22 Raptors, or other modern weapons of war fully fueled and armed, parked at their farm or street if such technology had been available. They would have been fine with high yield explosives and any other weapons of war that were likely to be used against them by an enemy. Few could afford them today, but being permitted to have them was their clear intent. That's why they added the second amendment. Since a "militia" might be needed at any time to oppose foreign enemies or their own government (that inconvenient revolutionary war against their British government thing everyone forgets about in this day and age), the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

    They'd just fought that wonderful war that led to the creation of our country. Think they would have been successful if they were armed with bow and arrows and shotguns and the British had modern weapons as the hunting weapons only crowd would mandate today? Of course not. They wanted their citizens to be fully armed with modern weapons to keep the government in place and to be able to repel any invasion that might come up.

    Our creation of standing military forces wasn't in the plan, but even so, only might protect us against outside forces and not against the government itself. That is if they aren't all off on some foreign military base or doing some peace forcing action in a foreign country when the home turf gets attacked.

  4. Re:NIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, this would go over really well in court:

    Lawyer: So How did you obtain this footage?

    Drone Operator: We accidentally left the camera equipment on when we took off from American soil

    Lawyer: How many times has this happened?

    DOD: We cannot divulge such information for national security reasons

    FTFY

  5. Your comment is ironic... by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...considering that the reason that mitigation and minimization procedures exist in the first place is to address and prevent abuse, or accidental or improper collection, not encourage it.

    I would also point out that the US has manned aircraft which fly over the US all the time, many with sophisticated ISR capabilities — and which have similar sets of processes to prevent improper uses.

    I would also point out that the military and intelligence agencies like the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency aid law enforcement and civil authorities all the time, e.g., for things like natural disasters and wildfires — this includes planes, space assets, and yes, even drones.

    The reason the procedures and processes discussed in this article exist in the first place is precisely to prevent unauthorized or improper use.
    The idea isn't to say, hey, everything is an "accident", so we will look at anything, all the time (as some people here will no doubt believe). The idea is that IF data on US Persons is obtained improperly, it should be deleted — unless it involves "persons or organizations reasonably believed to be engaged or about to engage, in international terrorist or international narcotics activities."

    In DOD-speak, INTERNATIONAL narcotics and terrorism means something very specific. It doesn't mean the Air Force or anyone else is going to blanket the US with drones, and use provisions designed to PREVENT improper activities as an excuse to "accidentally" spy on Americans.

    That people believe this is somehow a secret plot designed to let the Air Force, of all things, spy on Americans for no reason, is a very sad thing to me. This may come as a surprise to you, but many in the US military and the government actually take their obligations to the law, the Constitution, and to the people of the United States seriously.

    If your next question is, "If they take it seriously, they wouldn't be letting this happen!!" I would direct you to re-read my post more carefully.