gregh  2006-12-13 01:01  elections  homeland_security  information_privacy  Law  personal_information  privacy  real_id   

This is good news. Getting through finals kept me from seeing this right away. The text is not currently on Thomas yet, so I'm not sure what the details are. Homeland Security Watch says it rolls back to § 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, but the text from the ACLU press release below makes it sound like it goes even further.

In particular, increased protection of driver's license data from third parties (esp. if beyond what the DPPA provides), encryption of collected data, and the protection of state privacy laws (which weren't impacted by § 7212, anyway) all sound good.

Hopefully, with the new Congress, this thing will stand a chance.

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Lauds Akaka-Sununu Real ID Fix Bill, Says Additional Privacy and Civil Liberties Safeguards Still Needed:

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed the introduction of bipartisan legislation authored by Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) that would add privacy and civil liberties safeguards to the Real ID Act. The 'Identification Security Enhancement Act of 2006' would address several of the shortcomings of the controversial legislation adopted last year, including the establishment of a National ID.

. . .

The Real ID Act was adopted last year as part of a must-pass military appropriations bill. The act rolls back civil liberties protections, attacks privacy rights and sets the stage for a national ID. Many diverse groups including the ACLU, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators opposed the Real ID Act. Conservative estimates place the minimum cost of the program at $12 billion.

The Akaka-Sununu bill would eliminate most of the requirements that laid the foundation for a National ID card, such as the obligation that all data and systems be standardized. The bill also changes the approach to drivers’ licenses by calling for more flexible 'standards' instead of the current uniform mandates. In perhaps its most significant privacy fix, the legislation prohibits the use of license data by third parties, requires encryption of the data itself and preserves any state privacy laws that may provide greater protections.

(Via Homeland Security Watch.)

gregh  2006-11-08 17:11  elections  Entertainment  Internet  ip  Law  Movies  patents  Politics  TV   

It will prove interesting to see the results of the election as they bubble up.

Election’s Impact on Info/Law:

In the House, it appears most likely that Rep. Howard Berman will take over the chairmanship of the subcommittee that handles intellectual property law. As National Journal’s Congress Daily noted, we can expect him to ‘protect his nearby Hollywood interests by cracking down on piracy and protecting against copyright infringement of TV, music and movie productions.’ In general terms, that means restrictive IP law that favors content producers and rightsholders and hostility toward flexibility or expansion of fair use. That’s the bad news for Info/Law. The good news is that Congressman Ed Markey, a champion of consumer-oriented telecom and internet policy (and sponsor of the network neutrality amendment in the House earlier this year) will take over the subcommittee with the most power over these issues; the full Committee on Energy & Commerce will be helmed by John Dingell, who is pretty good on telecom as well. In addition, Rick Boucher, another consistent advocate for balanced information policy, particularly fair use and library concerns, will be a very senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee (and possibly on Berman’s subcommittee). Finally, there is reason to hope education-oriented Democrats like Dale Kildee may pay attention to the serious and growing problems relating to educational uses of digital content.

gregh  2006-11-08 16:14  elections  identity  information_privacy  Law  real_id   

The Cato Institute wonders if, especially in the "Live Free or Die" state, perhaps Real ID didn't have some impact on yesterday's election results:

Cato-at-liberty » REAL ID and a Sweep for Democrats in New Hampshire:

There are many explanations for the strong result Democrats got in the election yesterday. Focusing on New Hampshire, there is a neat correlation between support for the REAL ID Act and defeat at the polls yesterday.

Jeb Bradley was one of “several Washington officials . . . urging state senators to support Real ID” when the state legislature was considering a bill to reject it. He was defeated by Carol Shea-Porter, a surprise victor who enjoyed little help from national Democrats. Here’s Shea-Porter speaking at an anti-REAL-ID rally.

Representing the Second District, Charlie Bass was an original co-sponsor of the REAL ID Act, and he touted that fact on his Web site. His replacement is Paul Hodes. Hodes is not a full-throated critic of REAL ID, but he did tell AP, “I do not favor creating a new central federal database using the permanent images of these documents. . . . A piece of paper is not the solution to securing our borders from terrorism. We need to better coordinate our existing law enforcement databases and watch lists.”

New Hampshire resisted Real ID for a long time, until Congress offered to pay them off, and the state legislature caved. That was unfortunate, because a state holdout was going to be a good challenge to the practicality and legality of the act.

Now, perhaps the best hope for some sanity to return is for the Democrats to repeal the Real ID nonsense and bring some sensibility back to reliable identification. The U.S. Government should, presumably, be working to strengthen and protect identity. It shouldn't be working to weaken it.

gregh  2006-11-03 09:41  diebold  elections  information_privacy   

The overarching problem is that this impacts far more than just Maryland voters, as other states bring these Diebold vote gathering sieves into production based on the praises of the early adopters.

The Blog | Rebecca Abrahams: The Two Faces of Diebold | The Huffington Post:

Enter the world of electronic voting machines, the 'cure' to hanging and dimpled chad.

It is a seamy world of secrecy, proprietary software, partisan executives 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President', politicians asking programmers to design software to flip vote totals, and lots and lots of money.

And it is a world of completely inconsistent realities. Diebold and the other manufacturers insist that their machines are safe and secure yet every single cyber security expert and computer scientist has, for years, been screaming into an empty wilderness of media attention, that . . .

The machines can be hacked, by the implanting of malicious code, at the factory.

The machines can be hacked during transport from the factory.

The machines can be hacked while on 'Sleepovers' before the election.

The machines can be hacked (in 1 minute with a .50cent mini bar key) during the election, and

These machines can be hacked, at the tabulator, after the election.

We have Constitutional guarantees of fair elections. Something really must be done about this electronic voting fiasco. There are solutions beyond the Diebold Goliath. There are a number of interesting cryptographic voting schemes that have been put forward.

Unfortunately, we appear to be stuck at a point where the elected politicians and their appointees are too eager to enact changes to claim victory ("No more hanging chads!") rather than enacting change to solve the problems.

At some point, we're going to end up back in contentious court hearings over close elections. That's inevitable, because the fundamental right to vote is too important not to protect. It's unfortunate, because it puts the courts in a dicey situation, such as in Bush v. Gore. It's a no-win for the courts in those politically charged situations, and in the end, it only results in diminished faith in the courts.

(Via Stan.)

gregh  2006-09-29 10:04  diebold  elections  Politics  voting   

Avant News: 19 Year Old Diebold Technician Wins U.S. Presidency:

In a dramatic development that has come as a surprise to pundits and the public alike, a youthful technician with Diebold, Inc. has emerged as the unlikely winner of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. The president-elect, 19 year old Billy Pustule of Green, Ohio, reached via SMS at the garage apartment by his mother's house in which he currently resides, said he was "real psyched about being the president" and "had big plans for the inauguration party".

. . .

According to the official electronic tally, compiled and certified by Diebold voting engineers, President-elect Pustule won an impressive 59.6% of the popular vote nationwide, the strongest showing ever received by a write-in candidate. He was followed by 38% for Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, and 28.6% for Republican candidate Bill Frist. The fact that the totals exceed 100% has been attributed by a Diebold spokesman to "a special kind of rounding".