Loss of Privacy

It’s no secret that there is a huge gap between organ donators and those who need organs.  Many people want to donate their organs, they simple never get around to actually filling out the paperwork do to it, thus the reason the UK is now contemplating a scheme that would assume organ donation unless an individual specifically states they do not wish to do so.

Naturally, in other countries where organ donation is presumed, their donations are higher.

While I normally hate opt-out programs, the fact that most people want to donate but are too lazy to get around to filling out the paperwork, this seems to be a good idea.

The city of London currently has more than 10,000 CCTV cameras, yet they have done little to curb crime. Most can’t even solve a crime after it has occurred, leading many to believe they are completely useless and a huge waste of money.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

“We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of £200million in the last 10 years but it’s not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers.

Thank you! I have been saying this for years. There is no better deterrent to crime than to have a physical body present. That £200 million could have been better spent on human beings who can actually interact with citizens in helping to prevent crime and solve crimes after the fact.

Another suggestion was to spend some of that money on better street lighting, which has also shown to lower crime rates. Like cockroaches, criminals scatter in the light. Too bad we can’t get politicians to do the same.

In Gilpin County, an hour west of Denver, motorists were stopped by checkpoints set up by a the police and a private organization to collect samples of blood and saliva . Researchers for the organization pressured people into complying, despite the fact that they were innocent of any crimes.

Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies’ assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for “surveys” on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.

“The very act of pulling a motorist over subjects him/her and their vehicle (at very least) to a visual search. This means if the motorist was pulled over without suspicion of violating a law, than (sic) they have been subjected to an unlawful search…,” wrote Warren Gregory.

“For the record the proper response to ANY such incursion into privacy is to ask the question, Am I under Arrest? If the answer is no ask if you are free to go. If you are told no demand to be arrested or you will leave and then leave,” added Frank Vicek.

Of interesting note, PIRE is funded by numerous federal agencies.

Borodin: Do you think they will let me live in Montana?
Capt. Ramius: I would think they’ll let you live wherever you want.
Borodin: Good. Then I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman, and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pick-up truck, or umm… possibly even…a recreational vehicle, and drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Capt. Ramius: Oh yes.
Borodin: No papers?
Capt. Ramius: No papers. State-to-state.

Starting next year, if you live in a state that is defying REAL-ID, you’re going to need a passport to enter a national park.  Think that’s bad?  You’re also going to need a passport to fly on a domestic flight.

The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.

More than half the nation’s state legislatures have passed or proposed legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance.

“For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons,” Chertoff said. “We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who’s presenting it.”

Uh, yes.  And the 9/11 hijackers had valid IDs.  This is not going to change such conditions.

Chertoff said the Real ID program is essential to national security because there are presently 8,000 types of identification accepted to enter the United States.

“It is simply unreasonable to expect our border inspectors to be able to detect forgeries on documents that range from baptismal certificates from small towns in Texas to cards that purport to reflect citizenship privileges in a province somewhere in Canada,” he said.

So, now Chertoff is saying he doesn’t expect border security to be trained to detect many different forms of ID.  If you are transiting through America, then your border security damned well better know what foreign documents look like.  His arguments above have no reflection upon why Americans need REAL-ID.  It is merely a diversion to make it appear that border security are overwhelmed with 8,000 forms of ID to learn.

Besides a loss of privacy, American citizens get to pay for, through taxes, for a mandate they do not even desire or need.

NCSL spokesman Bill Wyatt said the requirements are “almost physically impossible.” States will have to build new facilities, secure those facilities and shell out for additional equipment and personnel.

Those costs are going to fall back on the American taxpayer, he said. It might be in the form of a new transportation, motor vehicle or gasoline tax. Or you might find it tacked on to your next state tax bill. In Texas, Wyatt said, one official told him that without federal funding, the Lone Star State might have to charge its citizens more than $100 for a license.

The EFF and ACLU are the most vocal about privacy issues, stating that it will be a one-stop shop for thieves, a surveillance database that will make it easy to obtain your personal information, and a convenient way to track, monitor, and regulate individuals.

Once REAL-ID is required for federal purposes, look for them to be required for everything from buying gas to toll booths to riding the subway to buying a gallon of milk.

While the federal government denies that they are planning on creating a federal database, you are, essentially, doing just that.  There is no way to avoid it because problems are going to arise where one person’s record is cleared in one state, but the update doesn’t get to another state, creating problems for individuals to clear their name.  Their only option will be to carry papers attesting to their innocence or being caught up in the snafu of technology until someone else sorts it out.

Realnightmare.org has listed several negative implications of REAL-ID, that were not thought out before passing it into law.  They include conflicts with state constitutions [pdf], not allowing states to control the information kept on the cards, allowing anyone with a reader (assuming for legitimate purposes) to read what’s listed on the card, such as social security number (why would a bartender need this information, for example), and who collects and stores the information, and for how long.

The best part of the requirements to obtaining your own REAL-ID is that you can use a passport as one of the 4 forms of ID to prove who you are to get REAL-ID.  However, if you don’t have REAL-ID, you can just use your passport to get into these federal places and forget about all the other forms of ID.

Your birth certificate is also one of these forms of ID needed to obtain a REAL-ID.  99 times out of 100, all you need to get an official copy of your birth certificate is a photo ID, which is still easily forged.

For an advanced look at what a fiasco REAL-ID is going to be, have a look at the case of Alabama, who tried to get a jump on compliance with the new regulations.