DHS Privacy Report Downplays Laptop Searches

See Also TechDirt’s article:

DHS Reveals Some Data On Border Laptop Searches

From Enterprise IT Planet

The Department of Homeland Security has released to Congress a report detailing its privacy activities from 2008 through 2009, offering a glimpse into the department’s work on a variety of privacy fronts, including the searches of laptops and other electronics devices and the government’s gradual embrace of social media.

The 99-page report (PDF available here) reads as a laundry list of DHS privacy initiatives during the past year and a half, containing a helpful appendix of three pages of acronyms.

In the area of border security, the department defended its use of RFID technology in developing enhanced drivers licenses to facilitate border crossings under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection unit has come under fire from civil liberties groups for searching the contents travelers’ electronic devices, particularly laptops.

The new report downplays the frequency of this practice. From Oct. 1, 2008 through May 5, 2009, for instance, DHS reported that of the 144.4 million travelers CBP authorities encountered at U.S. ports of entry, just 2.2 percent (or 3.1 million) were subject to a secondary search. Of those, just 1,947 were forced to submit their electronic devices to search.

In some instances, those searches entailed nothing more than turning the device on to ensure that a cell phone is in fact a cell phone, a laptop a laptop, etc. (A handful of federal buildings in Washington, such as the Federal Communications Commission, maintain the same practice. The White House and the Capitol complex buildings do not.)

DHS reported that 696 travelers’ laptops were subject to inspection from October through May, and of those, only 40 were put through an in-depth search that would inspect the content on the devices.

On the social media front, the DHS Privacy Office said that it had taken up President Obama’s mandate to incorporate new technologies into the government’s operations, but noted that it faced challenges addressing the tangle of privacy concerns that come in tow.

“Social networking tools are an effective means by which the federal government can communicate with the public, but the government use of the tools may raise a myriad of complex legal, security and privacy issues,” the report said.

To get the ball rolling, DHS held a public workshop in June to serve as a forum for addressing the privacy concerns regarding social media in government.

DHS representatives also participated in a Web 2.0 subcommittee dispatched by the Federal CIO Council and convened several internal workshops to sort through the privacy issues associated with new media tools.

The department has posted a site documented its forays into the Web 2.0 world here.

Additionally, the report talked up DHS’ role in working with the administration’s team commissioned to review the federal government’s cybersecurity apparatus and establish recommendations to balance the security of U.S. digital infrastructure with privacy protections.

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

Meanwhile back at the Border Governors Conference…

BTC – Here’s a bit of gossip on the Border Governor’s Conference, a conference of state governors on the U.S. Mexican border consisting of Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas. Corresponding Mexican states are Chihuahua, Baja, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora and Tamaulipas. What could they POSSIBLY want to discuss? [Border cards & EDLs, the fence, Mexico’s new identity mandate etc. etc.]

Texas Governor Rick Perry wasn’t there.

So what does that mean? State residents who are mindful of Perry’s foul ups and misplaced loyaties to extranational interests (SPAIN) are hawkish among conservative voters and might want to push him in a corner about … immigration issues… during an election year.

Grits for Breakfast’s Scott Henson discusses the ancient martial art of Weasel style where the Border y VIOLENCIA meet – AYE! AYE! AYE!

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

EDLs & RFID Use in Border Cards

The Many Faces of Real ID

You may know them as Enhanced Driver’s Licenses, Speed Passes, Border Cards, Voluntary Transport Worker ID’s, CLEAR Airline Cards; these are the practical applied faces of Real ID.

RFID Construction Begins at Presidio Port of Entry
“Use of RFID will enable swifter processing at border crossings for travelers using new state-of-the-art travel documents. These documents include the passport card – a wallet-sized, cost-effective alternative to the traditional passport specifically designed for cross-border land and sea travel – and enhanced driver’s licenses being produced by several states. Washington State began producing an EDL in February and currently has issued over 21,000.”
– c/o Import Industry News

Real ID: Speed Pass to Slavery –Henry Lamb’s Commentary

Nexus comes to Niagra Falls: Lemmings Pay $50 for Border Pass Cards

“Real ID suffers from serious flaws that will affect the rights of every American.”-
CATO Institute’s Jim Harper Speaks on National ID System

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

Real ID Waives Federal Laws; Violates Native Lands

Real ID Waives Law Protecting Natives, Landowners and Ecology 4-11-08
c/o Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security in conjunction with the Department of the Interior has waived nearly 40 federal laws, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, to try to speed construction of a border fence between the United States and Mexico.

”Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security,” Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said in a statement, which announced the action April 1. ”We’re serious about delivering it, and these waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward.”

NAGPRA, a federal law passed in 1990, created a legal process for federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return American Indian human remains and cultural items to their respective tribes or lineal descendants. Sherry Hutt, the national NAGPRA program manager, said she was not informed that the waiver would happen before it did; she’s put in a call to DHS for an explanation.

”I want to know more about how they’re proceeding,” she said. Several tribal officials nationwide have said that they, too, were not informed of this decision.

Officials with DHS say they are trying to be mindful of culturally focused laws but have found it necessary to make blanket law waivers, since legal challenges have already greatly extended the timeline to build the controversial fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

”We will continue to work with tribal nations and tribal leaders to ensure that we are collaborating before we proceed with any major construction,” said Laura Keehner, a spokesman for DHS. ”We invite the government-to-government discussions, and definitely expect that to continue.”

Under the waiver, more than 55 miles on the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona would be affected, as well as several miles on lands owned by individual Indians and on other Indian communities. In total, the waivers apply to 470 miles of land in a stretch of area from California through Texas. In making the waivers, Chertoff is striving to meet a deadline by the end of the year to survey and build nearly 700 miles of fencing. Three hundred and nine miles of fencing have already been built. NAGPRA’s waiver is but one of several recent DHS moves that are impacting Native peoples.

Several Apache landowners on the Rio Grande in January asked DHS to halt the seizure of their lands for the U.S.-Mexico border. The department has declared that it is using the principle of eminent domain to survey and possibly ultimately take possession of land. DHS is currently suing the landowners so that building of the fence can proceed. Despite the lawsuits, Keehner said that DHS is not trying to be insensitive. She even suggested that the building of the fence could be beneficial for Indians.

”Quite frankly, Indian country is incredibly [affected] by drugs coming into communities,” Keehner said. ”Building this fence is another way that helps our efforts in keeping out drug dealers, drugs and human smuggling – so it’s really better for the entire homeland.” Although legislators who support border control are happy with Chertoff’s decision-making, some lawmakers are already questioning the need for blanket waivers.

”I favor building barriers along the border where border patrol agents think they will help them do their job,” Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in a statement. ”In fact, I have helped secure millions of dollars for vehicle barriers in New Mexico. But I have not yet heard any justification for why the Bush administration cannot abide by current laws in the construction of this fence.”

Federal law gives Chertoff full authority to mandate such waivers, but some policymakers are particularly concerned by this most recent instance because Chertoff provided little reasoning on why they were necessary. ”While the [REAL ID] Act gives the Secretary the unilateral authority to waive those laws, I always understood that the Secretary would make that determination only to the extent necessary, after careful consideration and analysis,” Bingaman wrote in a letter to Chertoff sent on April 1. ”I share your desire to improve security along the border and I agree that there may be certain instances where it is necessary to waive legal requirements; however, there must be a sound justification for doing so.”

In Chertoff’s announcement of the waivers, he indicated that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had urged him to take the action. Bingaman has also written to Kempthorne, asking for ”analyses, justifications and recommendations” on why Kempthorne felt the waivers were so important. To date, he has not received a response.

In March, the Defenders of Wildlife advocacy group and the Sierra Club filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its argument against the REAL ID Act, which grants Chertoff his waiver power. The groups contend that the REAL ID Act’s waiver provision unconstitutionally allows the DHS secretary unilaterally to repeal laws, which they say threatens the system of checks and balances assured in the Constitution. The organizations are currently calling on tribes to file amicus briefs, if the case were to be heard by the Supreme Court.

”We want to be reaching out to tribes because this waiver process is now starting to affect laws that affect them,” said Brian Segee, a staff attorney with the Defenders of Wildlife. Beyond NAGRPRA, he said tribes should be especially concerned about Chertoff’s waiver of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org