--- Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 00:08:29 -0700 To: declanat_private, politechat_private From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <amicusat_private> Subject: Re: FC: State Department sharing JPEG visa photos with CIA, others? In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20030908204314.02078388at_private> At 01:20 AM 9/9/03 -0400, Nick Kralevich wrote: >What's interesting about this year's change is that all applications are >now submitted electronically. Included with each application is a JPEG >photo of the person submitting the application. > >In the past, even the paper versions of the Diversity Visa have been >subject to privacy concerns. Now that the data is being submitted >electronically, one can only imagine how the data may be abused. ... But this pales in comparison to plans to open up State's holdings of visa applicant information to law enforcement, as reported in the NYT back in January: NATIONAL DESK | January 31, 2003, Friday THREATS AND RESPONSES: LAW ENFORCEMENT; State Dept. Link Will Open Visa Database to Police Officers [] By JENNIFER 8. LEE (NYT) 946 words Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 12 , Column 1 ABSTRACT - American law enforcement officials across country will soon have access to database of 50 million overseas applications for US visas, including photos of 20 million applicants; database will provide personal information and is central feature of computer system linkup, scheduled within next month, that will tie together State Dept, intelligence agencies, FBI and police departments; photo (M) ... That article is now in the NYT archives, so it'll cost you to retrueve it, but I don't recall any discussion there of oversight, or any proposal for monitoring, e.g., to detect if some deputy sheriff posted near the Mexican border is combing records for candidates to put the squeeze on to be drug mules, say. Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D., CISSP amicusat_private http://www.fuzzycloud.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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