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Facing a storm of criticism on internet privacy

30 May 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus tells his disciples in this Sunday's gospel that the Spirit of truth "will take from what is mine and declare it to you." Internet giants Facebook and Google have come under increasing criticism for collecting and sharing users' private information without adequate safeguards or clear guidelines. Their leaders are promising to do a better job. Facebook on Wednesday announced a major overhaul of its privacy controls to fend off mounting criticism that it is betraying the trust that has made it the world's biggest online social-networking service. "It's been a pretty intense few weeks for us, listening to all the feedback coming in from all the changes we've made," Facebook's 26-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg said as he unveiled simplified privacy controls. "Now we are making it so there is less information that has to be public," Zuckerberg said. "People want a simple way to control the way information is shared with third parties, so that is what we are doing." Privacy groups and regulators around the world, meanwhile, have blasted Google for collecting personal information through its Street View application. One privacy group called for an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, saying Google was essentially wiretapping through its Street View program, which eavesdropped on unlocked wireless networks. Google has said the information collection was an unintended byproduct of its mapping process and was not saved or used in any way. "Thanks to both Google and Facebook, we have all the elements of a perfect privacy storm," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the privacy group the Center for Digital Democracy. "There are organized and spontaneous consumer protests; investigations by officials on both sides of the Atlantic; and a Congress finally waking up to this issue." Source: Articles by Ian Paul for PC World, Cecilia Kang for the Washington Post, and Agence France Presse

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Protect the right to be left alone

20 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God promises to make Abram’s name great in this Sunday’s first reading, and indeed it came to pass for this great patriarch. But in the increasingly invasive electronic age we live in, many consumers long for a bit more anonymity. To that end the Obama administration has urged Congress to adopt legislation that protects privacy. Assistant U.S. Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling called for the legislation at a hearing on online privacy held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. And in his opening statement, committee chairman Senator Jay Rockefeller (D -W. Va.) said it was time for Congress to act. "There is an online privacy war going on, and without help, consumers will lose," Rockefeller said. "We must act to give Americans the basic online privacy protections they deserve. Self-regulation, by and large, has been a failed experiment. The majority of consumers are uncomfortable being tracked online and it is time the law gave Americans a choice in the matter." Strickling said the Obama administration had found a "strong level of support among industry" to create the privacy protections and proposed "working with all stakeholders to develop appropriate codes. We think we can get to a regime that will greatly improve privacy for consumers and still meet the needs of businesses who want to continue to see the growth of the Internet," he said. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) welcomed the Obama administration's call for online privacy legislation. "This is a historic announcement, marking the first time the White House has called for a baseline consumer privacy bill," CDT president Leslie Harris said. Source: An article by Christ Lefkow for Agence France Presse

internet privacy online privacy lawrence strickling jay rockefeller center for democracy technology leslie harris

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Protect the right to be left alone

20 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God promises to make Abram’s name great in this Sunday’s first reading, and indeed it came to pass for this great patriarch. But in the increasingly invasive electronic age we live in, many consumers long for a bit more anonymity. To that end the Obama administration has urged Congress to adopt legislation that protects privacy. Assistant U.S. Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling called for the legislation at a hearing on online privacy held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. And in his opening statement, committee chairman Senator Jay Rockefeller (D -W. Va.) said it was time for Congress to act. "There is an online privacy war going on, and without help, consumers will lose," Rockefeller said. "We must act to give Americans the basic online privacy protections they deserve. Self-regulation, by and large, has been a failed experiment. The majority of consumers are uncomfortable being tracked online and it is time the law gave Americans a choice in the matter." Strickling said the Obama administration had found a "strong level of support among industry" to create the privacy protections and proposed "working with all stakeholders to develop appropriate codes. We think we can get to a regime that will greatly improve privacy for consumers and still meet the needs of businesses who want to continue to see the growth of the Internet," he said. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) welcomed the Obama administration's call for online privacy legislation. "This is a historic announcement, marking the first time the White House has called for a baseline consumer privacy bill," CDT president Leslie Harris said. Source: An article by Christ Lefkow for Agence France Presse

internet privacy online privacy lawrence strickling jay rockefeller center for democracy technology leslie harris

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Arresting developments concern privacy advocates

08 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Easter narratives are stories “of discovery and insight, commissioning and departure. Most of all they are stories about witnessing,” says PrepareTheWord scripture commentator Alice Camille in this Sunday’s issue of "Exploring the Word." Privacy advocates are troubled by two legal developments this week involving discovery and witnessing: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, while an investigation has shown local law enforcement use of cellphone data to discover the location and trace the contacts of suspects is commonplace and often occurs with little or no court oversight.Once the province mainly of federal agents, cellphone data-mining has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments using it aggressively, documents show. Some 5,500 pages of internal records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union from 205 police departments nationwide show that the practice is in much wider use--with far looser safeguards—than officials have previously acknowledged.The practice has become big business for cellphone companies, with a handful of carriers marketing a catalog of “surveillance fees” to police departments to determine a suspect’s location, trace phone calls and texts, or provide other services. Some departments log dozens of traces a month for both emergencies and routine investigations.In other privacy news, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any reason. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of law-enforcement officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the four dissenters, said the strip-searches the majority allowed were “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy” and should be used only when there was good reason to do so.Breyer wrote that people have been subjected to “the humiliation of a visual strip-search” after being arrested for driving with a noisy muffler, failing to use a turn signal, and riding a bicycle without an audible bell. A nun was strip-searched, he wrote, after an arrest for trespassing during an antiwar demonstration. Sources: Articles by Adam Liptak and Eric Lichtblau for the New York Times

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Security agency leaves privacy advocates insecure

25 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the first reading this Sunday, the Lord asserts that when it comes to the nations of the world, “I know their works and their thoughts.” The highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) has similar ends in mind when it engages in extensive worldwide electronic surveillance. Under increasing pressure because of programs that at times capture communications of U.S. citizens, the agency is going to unusual lengths to try to reassure the public its activities are lawful and any infringements unintentional.In a sign of how much heat it has taken since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden started disclosing details of highly classified U.S. surveillance programs, the ultra-secretive federal intelligence organization held a rare conference call with reporters to counter public perceptions that NSA transgressions were intentional violations of rules against eavesdropping on Americans.The Washington Post reported that the NSA had broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since 2008, citing an internal agency audit and other top-secret documents. The NSA's presentation was an attempt to calm the latest firestorm."These are not willful violations, they are not malicious, these are not people trying to break the law," John DeLong, NSA director of compliance, told reporters. NSA employees know their actions are recorded and the agency's culture is to report any mistakes, he said, repeatedly stressing that "no one at NSA thinks a mistake is OK."New revelations this week suggest the NSA's surveillance network also has the capacity to spy on 75 percent of all U.S. internet traffic. According to current and former NSA sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal, the agency can observe more of Americans' online communications than officials have publicly acknowledged.The new revelations differ from the programs described in the documents leaked by Snowden, which described a process to acquire Americans' phone records as well as another program, known as PRISM, that made requests from internet companies for stored data. By contrast, the internet monitoring systems revealed in recent days have the capability to track almost any online activity so long as it is covered by a broad court order.Homily hint: We live in an age where the lines have blurred between private and public, but there is one place we can go that no spy agency or internet spammer can reach: the deepest recesses of our hearts, where God is waiting for us. Encourage folks to make time each day for the most important conversation they will have—the one no one but God will hear. Sources: Articles by Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball for Reuters,citing the Washington Post, and Fox News, citing the Wall Street Journal

internet privacy online privacy edward snowden nsa national security agency john delong

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Security agency leaves privacy advocates insecure

25 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the first reading this Sunday, the Lord asserts that when it comes to the nations of the world, “I know their works and their thoughts.” The highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) has similar ends in mind when it engages in extensive worldwide electronic surveillance. Under increasing pressure because of programs that at times capture communications of U.S. citizens, the agency is going to unusual lengths to try to reassure the public its activities are lawful and any infringements unintentional.In a sign of how much heat it has taken since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden started disclosing details of highly classified U.S. surveillance programs, the ultra-secretive federal intelligence organization held a rare conference call with reporters to counter public perceptions that NSA transgressions were intentional violations of rules against eavesdropping on Americans.The Washington Post reported that the NSA had broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since 2008, citing an internal agency audit and other top-secret documents. The NSA's presentation was an attempt to calm the latest firestorm."These are not willful violations, they are not malicious, these are not people trying to break the law," John DeLong, NSA director of compliance, told reporters. NSA employees know their actions are recorded and the agency's culture is to report any mistakes, he said, repeatedly stressing that "no one at NSA thinks a mistake is OK."New revelations this week suggest the NSA's surveillance network also has the capacity to spy on 75 percent of all U.S. internet traffic. According to current and former NSA sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal, the agency can observe more of Americans' online communications than officials have publicly acknowledged.The new revelations differ from the programs described in the documents leaked by Snowden, which described a process to acquire Americans' phone records as well as another program, known as PRISM, that made requests from internet companies for stored data. By contrast, the internet monitoring systems revealed in recent days have the capability to track almost any online activity so long as it is covered by a broad court order.Homily hint: We live in an age where the lines have blurred between private and public, but there is one place we can go that no spy agency or internet spammer can reach: the deepest recesses of our hearts, where God is waiting for us. Encourage folks to make time each day for the most important conversation they will have—the one no one but God will hear. Sources: Articles by Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball for Reuters,citing the Washington Post, and Fox News, citing the Wall Street Journal

internet privacy online privacy edward snowden nsa national security agency john delong

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Privacy advocates claim big win over “Big Brother”

22 Dec 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Creator has a stake in all things of creation—including creatures, the psalmist reminds us this Sunday. Does the National Security Agency (NSA), however, have a stake in everything you do on your computer or phone? That is the constitutional question of the hour after a federal judge ruled Monday that the NSA program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from, or within the United States is likely unconstitutional.Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia described the NSA technology as “almost Orwellian” and suggesting that James Madison would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way.“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” Leon wrote in a 68-page ruling. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.The judge ordered the government to stop collecting data on the personal calls of the two plaintiffs in the case and to destroy the records of their calling history. But Leon, appointed to the bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush, stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” allowing the government time to appeal it, which he said could take at least six months.In related news a panel of outside advisers urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to impose major restrictions on the NSA, arguing that in the past dozen years its powers had been enhanced at the expense of personal privacy.Homily hint: While citizens have a right to privacy from intrusive government searches, there are no secrets when it comes to one's relationship with God. Encourage those in your community to partake of the healing available through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Sources: Articles by David E. Sanger and Charlie Savage for the New York TImes

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Cell phone searches put on hold

29 Jun 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus calls Saint Peter the rock upon which the church will be built and grants him a high level of authority with the promise that “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The U.S. Supreme Court has the ultimate authority and its decisions are binding when it comes to questions of law, and the court came down squarely on the side of privacy in a major ruling Wednesday on police searches of cell phone data.The court ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search an arrested suspect's cell phone, an important decision at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment on digital communications.In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said that the right of police to search an arrested suspect at the scene without a warrant does not extend in most circumstances to data held on a cell phone. There are some emergency situations in which a warrantless search would be permitted, the court noted.The unanimous 9-0 ruling goes against law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, which wanted more latitude to search without having to obtain a warrant. "We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime," Roberts wrote. The right to privacy, he said, "comes at a cost."Homily hint: As our attention seems ever more drawn to the small screens on our cell phones, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the role your phone plays in your life, for instance whether you allow it to intrude at times when visiting with others, like at a meal. Being truly present and available to those in your company is an important gospel value. Put the phone in sleep mode and honor that presence. Source: An article by Lawrence Hurley for Reuters

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New surveillance law offers some privacy protections

07 Jun 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Moses the lawgiver offers clear instructions from the Lord to the people in this Sunday’s first reading. Congressional lawmakers approved clear limitations in surveillance powers for security agencies in the most sweeping rollback of such powers in the post-Sept. 11 era. The Senate’s 67-32 vote reflected growing concerns about privacy, but also increasing unease among lawmakers that Sunday’s abrupt expiration of the surveillance program, caused by congressional deadlock, posed a national security risk. Homily hint: If we sacrifice our civil liberties at the altar of national security, those who wish to destroy our society have scored a victory. Though surveillance is important for our protection, so are limitations on that surveillance. A right to privacy is enshrined in our Bill of Rights, let’s make sure it is protected. For more on the new surveillance law, see: Congress' passage of NSA bill will rein in surveillance, a first since Sept. 11

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Central intelligence smarting from leak

25 Oct 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord promises, in the first reading this Sunday, to guide the people “so that none shall stumble.” A major security stumble at the CIA has allowed hackers to access the private email account of no less than CIA Director John Brennan. Now the Wikileaks organization has started publishing Brennan’s emails and documents online. "The hacking of the Brennan family account is a crime and the Brennan family is the victim," the CIA said in a statement. "The private electronic holdings of the Brennan family were plundered with malicious intent and are now being distributed across the web. This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted.” Homily hint: Mark Twain quipped, “Tell the truth and you don’t have to remember anything.” The lesson behind the hacking of the CIA director’s email is that privacy is hardly possible in the digital age. Nevertheless, we do well to respect the privacy of others and to practice integrity in all our affairs to the fullest measure of our ability so that if what is hidden comes to light, we will not be ashamed. For more on the security breach, see: WikiLeaks publishes CIA chief's personal info

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