SPAM: -------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ---------------------- SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future. SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. SPAM: SPAM: Content analysis details: (5.7 hits, 5 required) SPAM: Hit! (2.7 points) Subject contains lots of white space SPAM: Hit! (1.0 point) Received via an IP in dynablock.njabl.org SPAM: [RBL check: found 96.179.156.141.dynablock.njabl.org.] SPAM: Hit! (0.4 points) Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org SPAM: [RBL check: found 96.179.156.141.dnsbl.njabl.org.] SPAM: Hit! (0.6 points) DNSBL: sender ip address in in a dialup block SPAM: Hit! (1.0 point) DNSBL: Received via an IP in dynablock.njabl.org SPAM: SPAM: -------------------- End of SpamAssassin results --------------------- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [NCCP] Privacy Hero of the Month: Judge Victor Marrero and anonymous ISP Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 18:39:53 -0400 From: J Plummer <jplummer@private> Privacy Hero of the Month: Judge Victor Marrero and anonymous ISP By James Plummer Justice Victor Marrero of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ended the month by striking down a law <http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/rulings/04CV2614_Opinion_092904.pdf> which enabled the FBI to search business records of consumer data without going before a judge to provide probable cause. The plaintiff in the case was an Internet Service Provider whose name is secret because part of that same law also demands that businesses receiving these demands -- known as National Security Letters (NSLs) -- not tell anyone they have turned over the information. <http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/rulings/04CV2614_Opinion_092904.pdf> The law in question <http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002709----000-.html> originated with the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act which, unsurprisingly, made electronic communications rather less private. The scope of the NSLs was recently expanded with the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, which called for the issuance of NSLs to snoop through the communications and transactions not just of the targets of espionage or terror investigations, but of anyone "relevant" to the investigation -- relevance being determined by the same people issuing the NSL search demands. <http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002709----000-.html> Marrero, in a detailed ruling, found that the language in the US Code authorizing NSLs was in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure because of the lack of judicial involvement or redress in the searches. Marrero dismissed the argument of the Justice Department that judicial redress was implied in the language even though it appeared nowhere. Additionally, Marrero ruled that the part of the law that bars firms and individual targets from disclosing the fact that they had been searched violates First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Marrero also noted in his opinion that the Supreme Court recently said that a "state of war is not a blank check... when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." It seems the Executive branch, with its broadened PATRIOT powers, may have gone too far with their blank check -- they finally encountered a business willing to stand up for the privacy of its customers. That still-anonymous business (there is a stay on the case pending appeal) and Marrero are to be commended for standing up for consumers' privacy rights. Which is why they are the Privacy Hero of the month. The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are projects of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group and Consumer Alert. For more information on the NCC Privacy Group, see www.nccprivacy.org or contact James Plummer at 202-467-5809 or jplummer@private . This relase avilable online at < http://nccprivacy.org/handv/041001hero.htm > -- James Plummer (202) 467-5809 Policy Analyst Director Consumer Alert NCC Privacy Group www.consumeralert.org www.nccprivacy.org _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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