ACLU Launches Echelonwatch

coldfusion writes "The American Civil Liberties Union in conjunction with EPIC and others has just launched Echelon Watch, a site which tracks developments about the intelligence gathering organization. The site does a good job of collating all of the information that has spread in the last few months. It also contains a 'write to Congress' component." Update: 11/17 09:30 by J : Baccus just informed us that the NSA has applied for a patent on Echelon-related (tapping) technology.

Comments

Time to amend an Amendment?

[jalefkowit]

We've almost reached the point where it's less surprising to hear about a government agency that abuses its powers than it is to hear about one that doesn't. It's not just Echelon, either -- abuses abound; for example, CNN is reporting that politicians of both parties regularly lean on the IRS to force audits of their political opponents. Now, I'm generally a politically liberal kinda guy, but in this kind of atmosphere it's not hard to understand why some people feel compelled to keep a firearm in their homes, just in case the Government decides to come after them.

Of course, stocking up arms for the End Times isn't a productive solution, either. It seems to me that the big problem here is that Americans don't have a clear right to privacy in their communications -- we only have patchwork protections from case law, which provides a legal gray area where the government can fit things like Echelon. So what can we, as citizens, do? Well, maybe we should amend the Fourth Amendment, which currently protects your private property from illegal government seizure, to extend to non-physical personal property (i.e. electronic communications) as well.

Currently, Amendment IV reads as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I'd propose adding a few simple words (which I'll denote in bold):

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, effects, and all personal communications, regardless of medium, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Now, IANAL, and I'm certainly willing to be flexible on the wording, but it seems to me that an addition along these lines could have many salutory effects:

• It would finally end the uncertainty as to whether or not Americans have a full-fledged right to privacy by elevating it to the same level as the right to speak freely or bear arms
• It could bring electronic communications up to the same standard of protection as, say, letters you keep in your desk drawer, which AFAIK can't be seized w/o a search warrant
• It would still allow wiretaps for national security or compelling law enforcement purposes, while making huge, broad-based wiretaps like Echelon clearly and undoubtedly unconstitutional
• It would send a powerful message that we're fed up with this kind of unacceptable behavior from our government

Now, I'm generally not a fan of tinkering with the Constitution, which has worked remarkably well for 200+ years. But I'm simply amazed that something as obtrusive, as invasive, as downright un-American as Echelon isn't unconstitutional on its face. In an age of digital communications and restrictions on hard encryption, when it's orders of magnitude easier for the State to intrude on our privacy then it is for us to protect ourselves, I think that a right to privacy is every bit as important to our freedom as are the other rights we enumerate in the Bill of Rights. And if we have to wrest that right back from the state by enshrining it in the highest law of the land, then maybe it's time to do just that.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz