Next: Police Drones—Recording
Conversations In Your Home & Business To Forfeit Property?
Police are salivating at the prospect
of having drones to spy on lawful citizens. Congress approved 30,000 drones in
U.S. Skies. That amounts to 600 drones for every state.
It is problematic local police will
want to use drones to record without warrants, personal conversations inside
Americans’ homes and businesses: Consider the House just passed CISPA the
recent Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. If passed by the Senate,
CISPA will allow——the military and NSA spy agency (warrant-less spying) on
Americans’ private Internet electronic Communications by using so-called
(Government certified self-protected cyber entities” that may share with NSA
your private Internet activity, e.g. emails, faxes, phone calls and
confidential transmitted files they believe might relate to a cyber threat or
crime—circumventing the Fourth Amendment—with full immunity from lawsuits if
done in good faith. CISPA does not clearly define what is an element or
self-protected cyber entity, that could broadly mean anything, e.g. a private
computer, local or national network, website, an online service.
Despite some cities and counties
banning and restricting police using drones to invade citizens’ privacy, local
police have a strong financial incentive to call in Federal Drones, (Civil
Asset forfeiture sharing) that can result from drone surveillance). Should
(no-warrant drone surveillance evidence) be allowed in courts circumventing the
Fourth Amendment, for example (drones’ recording conversations in private homes
and businesses, expect federal and local police civil asset property
forfeitures to escalate. Civil asset forfeiture requires only a preponderance
of civil evidence for federal government to forfeit property, little more than
hearsay: any conversation picked up by a drone
inside a home or business, police can take out of context to institute arrests;
or civil asset forfeiture to confiscate the home/business and other assets.
Local police now circumvent state laws that require someone be convicted before
police can civilly forfeit their property—by turning their investigation over
to the Federal Government that can rebate to the referring local police
department 80% of assets forfeited. There are more than 350 laws and violations
that can subject property to government asset forfeiture that have nothing to
do with illegal drugs.
Consider: if CISPA is passed by
Congress it will provide Government, police and government contractors (without
warrants) the incentive (to take out of context) any innocent—hastily written
email, fax or other Internet activity to allege a crime or violation was
committed to cause a person’s arrest, assess fines and or civilly forfeit a
business or property. U.S. Government can use CISPA to (certify any employee)
including employees that work for a Government certified cyber self-protected
entity—opening the door for certified employees to spy on their employers and
clients. U.S. Government is not prohibited from paying any person including
Government Certified Self Protected Cyber Entities, Elements or Certified
Employees part of government forfeited assets or other compensation that result
from the aforementioned providing U.S. Government a corporation’s confidential
information or clients’ private information—that otherwise would require a warrant.
U.S. Government currently contracts on a fee/commission basis with Self
Protected Cyber Entities, Elements and Contractors that have security
clearances to participate in facilitating arrests and Government asset
forfeitures.
Currently Government can't use evidence
obtained through illegal Internet searches of e.g. private emails and
transmitted files without a warrant, however that will change if CISPA or a
similar bill is passed by Congress. Since CISPA, two additional cyber-security
bills have been created in the Senate called, “The Cyber Security Act of 2012”
and “SECURE IT Act”. Both bills appear unconstitutional; appear designed to
circumvent the Fourth Amendment. The Cyber Security Act of 2012 formally known
as S. 2105 was created by Senate Democrats, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins.
Similar to CISPA, the Cyber security Act of 2012 would abolish legal walls that
stop Federal government and private companies sharing information.
The SECURE IT Act: S. 2151 was
introduced by Senate Republicans on March 1st 2012: would require federal
contractors to alert government about any cyber threats, forcing such
communications between government regulators and corporations. The SECURE IT
Act authorizes sharing of persons’ private Internet information (without a
warrant) going beyond what is necessary to describe a believed cyber threat.
SECURE Act fails to create a regulatory system at the Federal level to oversee
cyber-security threats opening the door for a person or businesses’
confidential information to be misused and misappropriated by government
agencies and private cyber entities.
Government should be prohibited from
using independent contractors, created non-profit organizations and so-call
(certified self protected cyber entities) to circumvent the Fourth Amendment.
Corrupt police, U.S. Government Agencies and Government Contractors may too
easily use private Internet transmissions, emails and transmitted files it is
free to collect without a warrant to extort corporations, politicians and
Citizens; or sell confidential information gleaned from warrant-less Internet
Surveillance. Confidential Information in corrupt hands can be worth more than
illegal drugs.
