Category: - Civil Rights - TARGETED AMERICA

FBI’s Facial Recognition Programs Under Fire Over Privacy, Accuracy Concerns: The bureau has largely ignored the Government Accountability Office’s concerns about its use of facial recognition in criminal investigations.

4/18/2019

Nextgov APRIL 18, 2019 04:08 PM ET
Jack Corrigan

The FBI still has not assessed whether its facial recognition systems meet privacy and accuracy standards nearly three years after a congressional watchdog—the Government Accountability Office—raised multiple concerns about the bureau’s use of the tech.

Since 2015, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have used the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System, which uses facial recognition software to link potential suspects to crimes, pulling from a database of more than 30 million mugshots and other photos. . . .

Amazon, Civil Rights, Department of Justice, Facial Recognition Systems, Federal, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Government Accountability Office, Law Enforcement, Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System, Privacy, State, Surveillance

Coalition Letter on Reauthorization of Patriot Act's Section 215

4/15/2019

Letter from ACLU and 40 other groups requesting that Congress review Section 215 of the Patriot Act

March 18, 2019

The Honorable Jerrold Nadler
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Doug Collins
Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Nadler and Ranking Member Collins:

The undersigned organizations, which are dedicated to preserving privacy, civil liberties, and advancing transparency and accountability, write to request that you hold hearings and make public information critical to permit an informed debate over the reauthorization of Section 215 and other provisions of the Patriot Act, which are set to expire December 15, 2019. . . .

Access Now, ADC American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Civil Liberties Union, American Library Association, Americans for Prosperity, Arab American Institute, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Call Detail Records, Carpenter v. United States 138 S.Ct. 2206, Cell Phones, Center for Democracy & Technology, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Color Of Change, Committee on the Judiciary, Consumer Action, Council on American-Islamic Relations, CREDO Action, Committee on Oversight and Reform, Defending Rights & Dissent, Demand Progress, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, First Amendment, FISA Amendments Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Free Press Action, FreedomWorks, Government Accountability Project, Government Information Watch, Government Transparency, Human Rights Watch, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Indivisible, Liberty Coalition, Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, Muslim Justice League, Muslim Public Affairs Council, NAACP, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Immigration Law Center, National Security, National Security Agency, New America's Open Technology Institute, Open the Government, Patriot Act, PEN America, Privacy, Project on Government Oversight, Restore The Fourth Inc., Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Section 702 of FISA Amendments Act, TechFreedom, Telephones, Transparency International, “Unique Identifiers", USA Freedom Act, US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

CHICAGO IS TRACKING KIDS WITH GPS MONITORS THAT CAN CALL AND RECORD THEM WITHOUT CONSENT: Cook County has a new contract for juvenile ankle monitors that critics say are an invasion of privacy.

4/8/2019

The Appeal Apr 08, 2019
Kira Lerner

This story was co-published with Citylab.

On March 29, court officials in Chicago strapped an ankle monitor onto Shawn, a 15-year-old awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery. They explained that the device would need to be charged for two hours a day and that it would track his movements using GPS technology. He was told he would have to be given permission to leave his house, even to go to school. But he found out that through his monitor, officers wouldn’t just be able to track his location, as most electronic monitors do. They would also be able to speak—and listen—to him.

“I feel like they are listening to what he’s saying,” said Shawn’s mother. “They can hear everything. We could be here talking about anything.”

Shawn, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is one of hundreds of children in Chicago whose ankle monitors are now equipped with microphones and speakers. The stated purpose of these devices is to communicate with the children, but they are raising concerns among civil liberties watchers that they are actually a mechanism for surveilling the conversations of these kids and those around them—and potentially for using the recordings in criminal cases. . . .

Ankle Bracelets, Cell Phones, Chicago, Civil Rights, Children, Cook County, Criminal Justice, Electronic Monitoring, GPS, Illinois, Law Enforcement, Privacy, Probation, Sheriff, Surveillance

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS

4/8/2019

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS
Alice Speri, The Intercept_, April 8 2019, 8:23 a.m.

AS NATIONWIDE PROTESTS against police killings of black men began rolling across the country in 2014, federal and local law enforcement who were closely monitoring protesters’ online activities repeatedly expressed a bizarre concern: that the mostly black activists demanding an end to police violence in the U.S. might join with Islamic fundamentalist groups promoting violence abroad.

That concern was unequivocally baseless, and no evidence ever emerged to substantiate it. Still, documents obtained by the government transparency group Property of the People, which were shared exclusively with The Intercept, reveal that officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence exaggerated the significance of isolated social media activity, mostly by foreign accounts, advocating for a connection between the domestic movement against police brutality and foreign terrorism. . . .

Activists, Al Qaeda, Baltimore, “Black Identity Extremists”, Black Lives Matter, Center for Constitutional Rights, Civil Rights, Conspiracy Theories, Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Movement, Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Terrorism, Ferguson, Fox News, Fusion Centers, Greater Cincinnati Fusion Center, Intelligence Agencies, Intercept, ISIL, ISIS, Islamophobia, Islamic Extremism, Islamic State, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Law Enforcement, Maryland, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Missouri, Muslims, NAACP Convention, National Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Palestinians, Private Security Companies, Police, Police Brutality, Property of the People, Riots, Standing Rock Protest Movement, St. Louis, Stereotyping, Terrorism

Report: Government Kept Database On Journalists, ‘Instigators’A San Diego TV station accessed leaked documents, revealing the operation.

3/6/2019

HUFFINGTON POST 03/06/2019 11:14 pm ET

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. government ran an operation to screen journalists, activists and others while investigating last year’s migrant caravan from Mexico, a San Diego TV station reported Wednesday, citing leaked documents.

Dossiers that included photos from their passports or social media accounts, date of birth and other details were kept in a database and some freelance journalists had alerts placed on their passports and were flagged for secondary screenings at customs points, the station KNSD-TV said. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Rights, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, First Amendment, "Instigators", Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Operation Secure Line, Organizers, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Surveillance, Watchlisting

Federal appeals court revives mosque surveillance claim

3/1/2019

Jurist MARCH 1, 2019 04:21:01 PM
Thomas DeLorenzo

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled Thursday that a federal district court improperly limited the scope of a lawsuit alleging that the FBI had illegally targeted mosques and Islamic individuals for surveillance on a basis of religion.

The suit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California on behalf of an Imam and two Muslim parishioners, charged that the FBI had illegally and unconstitutionally conducted espionage of their mosque based solely on their religion, violating due process and First Amendment protections. The FBI countered that their activities were protected by state secret privileges and that to defend against the allegations in court would threaten national security by exposing the FBI’s anti-terrorism activities to public scrutiny. The district judge agreed with the FBI’s defense and dismissed the majority of the claims in 2012. . . .

American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Rights, Federal Bureau of Investigation, First Amendment, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Law Enforcement, Muslims, National Security, State Secret Privileges, Surveillance, Terrorism

Portland Withdraws From Federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, Again

2/13/2019

OPB Feb. 13, 2019 5 p.m. | Updated: Feb. 14, 2019 6:57 a.m.
Amelia Templeton

Portland is out of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force again.

The Portland City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday to withdraw the city’s police officers from the JTTF, a partnership between federal agencies and local law enforcement.

Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty, Amanda Fritz and Chloe Eudaly supported the change. They worry there is not enough civilian oversight to ensure Portland officers abide by civil rights laws and say there isn’t enough evidence to show the task force has made Portland safer. . . .

Civil Rights, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Law Enforcement, Police, Portland

Revealed: FBI investigated civil rights group as 'terrorism' threat and viewed KKK as victims: Bureau spied on California activists, citing potential ‘conspiracy’ against the ‘rights’ of neo-Nazis

2/1/2019

The Guardian Fri 1 Feb 2019 03.01 EST
Sam Levin
The FBI opened a “domestic terrorism” investigation into a civil rights group in California, labeling the activists “extremists” after they protested against neo-Nazis in 2016, new documents reveal.

Federal authorities ran a surveillance operation on By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), spying on the leftist group’s movements in an inquiry that came after one of BAMN’s members was stabbed at the white supremacist rally, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. . . .

Anarchist Extremism, By Any Means Necessary, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Organizations, Domestic Terrorism, Federal Bureau of Investigation, First Amendment, FOIA Requests, Ku Klux Klan, Law Enforcement, Neo-Nazis, Police Brutality, Property of the People, Rape and Sexual Assault, Sacramento, Surveillance, Traditionalist Worker Party, White Supremacists

IN THE NEWS

FBI’s Facial Recognition Programs Under Fire Over Privacy, Accuracy Concerns: The bureau has largely ignored the Government Accountability Office’s concerns about its use of facial recognition in criminal investigations.

Coalition Letter on Reauthorization of Patriot Act's Section 215

CHICAGO IS TRACKING KIDS WITH GPS MONITORS THAT CAN CALL AND RECORD THEM WITHOUT CONSENT: Cook County has a new contract for juvenile ankle monitors that critics say are an invasion of privacy.

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS

Report: Government Kept Database On Journalists, ‘Instigators’A San Diego TV station accessed leaked documents, revealing the operation.

Federal appeals court revives mosque surveillance claim

Portland Withdraws From Federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, Again

Revealed: FBI investigated civil rights group as 'terrorism' threat and viewed KKK as victims: Bureau spied on California activists, citing potential ‘conspiracy’ against the ‘rights’ of neo-Nazis

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