Site Map - Surveillance

11/13/2007 - The Utah Department of Transportation is going digital to improve statewide traffic surveillance.

11/09/2007 - The Senate has agreed to consider a bill (S. 236) introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) that would monitor government use of data mining. The bill has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

11/07/2007 - A bill (H.B. 1392)introduced in the Arkansas Legislature would allow nursing home residents to have CCTV cameras installed in their rooms at the discretion of family members. The bill, called the Willie Mae Ryan Act, was named for a murder victim—an 81-year-old nursing home resident who was beaten to death in her room in August 2003.

11/07/2007 - Just who is spying on whom? The author explains that the typical person might be a target of bosses, friends, family members, hackers, and many others. Even people with nothing confidential or of value on their computers risk getting caught up in espionage and other cyber capers. For instance, hackers can use their computers as vehicles for staging attacks or as a location for storing illicit files, such as child pornography. And as more cell phones and PDAs connect to the Internet, the risks multiply.

11/06/2007 - The House Judiciary Committee has held several hearings on the expanded police powers included in the Patriot Act, which will be expiring at the end of this year. The first (S. 318), introduced by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI), would amend and make permanent the expiring computer trespass provision of the Patriot Act. Another bill (S. 737), introduced by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), would limit the use of the surveillance powers more so than is the case currently in the Patriot Act.

11/02/2007 - A quarter of companies surveyed have fired workers for misusing the Internet or e-mail, according to the 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey, cosponsored by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute. The survey of 526 U.S. companies also revealed that 51 percent use video monitoring to counter theft, violence, and sabotage (up from 33 percent in 2001), while 85 percent of those who videotape employees notify those employees of the practice. @An executive summary of the surveyis at SM Online.

11/02/2007 - A Washington appeals court has ruled that a bus surveillance tape recorded by a public school cannot be released to the parents of one of the bus riders. In the case, the parents argued that the school was required to turn over the tape—showing their child being hit by another student—under the state’s public disclosure law. The law requires that the state turn over public records unless the release is specifically exempt from the law. The school argued that records relating to disciplinary issues are exempt from the law. The court agreed. (Lindeman v. Kelso School District No. 458, Washington Court of Appeals, No. 31825-3-II, 2005)

11/01/2007 - The book has six parts, with writings ranging from the historical to the latest in current thought. A discussion of civil liberties during wartime leads off the book. Selections from the U.S. Constitution and a federal habeas corpus statute round out the first chapter and provide a legal context for the subject.

10/31/2007 - Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill (H.R. 3199) that would make the controversial provisions of the Patriot Act permanent. (These parts of the bill are set to expire at the end of the year.) For example, the bill would allow the FBI to obtain, without seeking a warrant, the financial records of individuals. It would also maintain the power of law enforcement to carry out secret warrants and covert surveillance as part of terrorism investigations. However, the bill does not provide law enforcement as much latitude as S. 1266, which was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee in June. For example, S. 1266 would make it easier for police to issue subpoenas without judicial approval in terrorism cases.

10/19/2007 - National Public Radio offers the nuts-and-bolts of the FISA debate.

10/18/2007 - Bill to include immunity for telecoms participating in warrantless wiretaps and a review of the law after six years.

10/16/2007 - France to triple the number of CCTV cameras by 2009.

10/11/2007 - A bill (formerly S.B. 453) signed into law by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen will require that, when responding to an alarm, monitoring companies attempt to contact the property owner twice—by telephone or other electronic means—to determine whether an alarm is valid before dispatching police. Tennessee is the second state to enact such a law. Florida passed a similar measure last year.