Electronic Surveillance Up 500% In DC Area Since 2011, Almost All Sealed Cases (washingtonpost.com)

schwit1 quotes a report from Washington Post: Secret law enforcement requests to conduct electronic surveillance in domestic criminal cases have surged in federal courts for Northern Virginia and the District, but only one in a thousand of the applications ever becomes public, newly released data show. The bare-bones release by the courts leaves unanswered how long, in what ways and for what crimes federal investigators tracked individuals' data and whether long-running investigations result in charges. In Northern Virginia, electronic surveillance requests increased 500 percent in the past five years, from 305 in 2011 to a pace set to pass 1,800 this year. Only one of the total 4,113 applications in those five years had been unsealed as of late July, according to information from the Alexandria division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which covers northern Virginia. The report adds: "The federal court for the District of Columbia had 235 requests in 2012, made by the local U.S. attorney's office. By 2013, requests in the District had climbed 240 percent, to about 564, according to information released by the court's chief judge and clerk. Three of the 235 applications from 2012 have been unsealed. The releases from the Washington-area courts list applications by law enforcement to federal judges asking to track data -- but not eavesdrop -- on users' electronic communications. That data can include sender and recipient information, and the time, date, duration and size of calls, emails, instant messages and social media messages, as well as device identification numbers and some website information."

Comments

The Police State expands

[judoguy]

Thanks, Obama.

Re:The Police State expands

[BlueStrat]

And "privacy experts are concerned!" And the useful idiots think that Mrs. Clinton is their friend.

For decades it's been: "But if we vote 3rd-party/write-in the wrong lizard might get in! We'll just keep voting for the same 2 parties...one of them will eventually listen to us!"

"Doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results is one definition of insanity."

Strat

Re:The Police State expands

[davester666]

No, voting 3rd party is totally legit. Well, it would be, except this election, issue X is really super-really important, in that if you don't vote for one of the two established parties, your vote doesn't count and someone will be forced to come to your home and rape you and your wife. And probably your children as well.

This time around, it's supreme court justices. The world will come to an end if we don't have the right SC justices. And only D (or R) can hope to find the right candidates that will prevent the Earth from suddenly being thrown out of the Solar System.

Rs could have run Mufasa against these guys

[raymorris]

The Republicans could have run Mufasa and beat these Democrats who have been running things the last 8 years, despite the fact that Mufasa is a cartoon character. They did nominate a cartoon character, but somehow they ended up choosing the one who polls worse than Hillary.

Role Reversal

[jxander]

The entire default stance for Private citizens and Public officials has been flipped.

We, as private citizens, are supposed to have our lives kept private, except in extreme cases where surveillance is required and granted sparingly and meticulously.

They, as public officials, are supposed to operating publicly, except in extreme cases of national security.

Somewhere along the lines, these roles were reversed. I'm not sure if we're ever going to get things back.

Re:Role Reversal

[Solandri]

Somewhere along the lines, these roles were reversed.

I think it happened right after the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War, we had a bogeyman - trumped up but still a bogeyman. We would point to things that happened in the Soviet Union like excessive government intrusion into people's private lives, and proudly proclaim that that sort of thing could never happen here. Anyone in our government who even breathed a suggestion of it would be branded a commie and instantly torpedo their career.

The Cold War ends, the poster child for an authoritative government run amok disappears, and suddenly everyone in our government who always those authoritarian powers but were too scared to try to ask for them come crawling out from the shadows.

Re:Role Reversal

[gweihir]

History would indicate that it will require a full cycle up to fascism and eventual complete economic collapse, before freedom is restored. Of course, most fascisms in history were established relatively fast and hence fell fast, so we cannot be entirely sure the eventual collapse will happen in what the US is currently establishing.

240% ?? Come on ...

[ve3oat]

Sorry, but a change from 235 requests to 564 is an increase of only 140%, not 240%. Doesn't anyone at the Washington Post know how to calculate percentage changes correctly? I find this is a common problem with journalists. Maybe they have a point about the nature of the problem, but to claim an increase of 240% when it is only really 140% is just hype. Incorrect and preventable errors of journalism.

... had 235 requests in 2012 ... By 2013, requests in the District had climbed 240 percent, to about 564 ...

Re:240% ?? Come on ...

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

If you demonstrate that you can't do basic math, I'm probably not going to pay much attention to the conclusions in your article. As I recall from helping my kids, this is fourth, or at most fifth, grade math.

Re:240% ?? Come on ...

[jxander]

Minor syntax error.

It increased to 240% of the previous year.
It did NOT increase by 240% from the previous year.

Re:East Germany equals America

[AHuxley]

It gets better. Even when laws are presented to slow the domestic spying down, reform is used as a legal gateway to perfect domestic spying.
"NSA Can Access More Phone Data Than Ever" (Oct 20, 2016)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/nsa-p...
Welcome to the "USA Freedom Act" that gave the NSA 100% of all US domestic telecommunications companies.
"As a result, the NSA no longer has to worry about keeping up its own database ... the percentage of available records has shot up from 30 percent to virtually 100."
"Rather than one internal, incomplete database, the NSA can now query any of several complete ones."
All telcos are helping at so many levels now. NSA, federal, state, city.

Apologist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apologist.

I've heard this song before

[Vinegar Joe]

"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." - President Barack Obama

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the...

That is what a GeStaPo is....

[gweihir]

The most extreme problems with government power always happen in secret (as long as a society is still somewhat free), because "law" enforcement universally runs amok when nobody watches them. By its very nature, the field primarily attracts people that value control and surveillance a lot more than freedom. The progression this causes is first to a police-state (the US is already there, still on the milder end though) and then eventually full-blown fascism. Of course, fascism is about the worst thing you can do to an economy, so collapse follows a few decades later.

It is like the US, the Brits, and some others that never had Fascism now want to try it out as well. And the Germans apparently want it back.