========================================
FCPC ALERT #2005-3
www.FairfaxCountyPrivacyCouncil.org
Originally Published on 3 April 2005
========================================
This message is intended for members of the Fairfax County Privacy Council, and
anyone else who might be interested in advancing privacy in Virginia. Maximum
dissemination of this message is encouraged!
Privacy Notice: All communication from the Fairfax Privacy Council is sent
using blind carbon copy ("BCC") format for your security and privacy.
ALERT ITEM SUMMARY:
1. Urgent Action Item: Tell
2. Urgent Action Item: Tell Governor Warner to leave photo-red for
dead
3. Action Item: Tell US Senate to strip National ID bill from Iraq
War/Tsunami Aid Bill
4. Action Item: Urge Congress to curb commercial data stalkers
5. Will Fairfax County Board of Supervisors stand up to the USAPATRIOT
Act?
6. Privacy Quote: “Is
************************************
1. Urgent Action Item: Tell US State Department to halt plan to
“Chip” Americans’ Passports
************************************
In a misguided attempt to make US passports more secure, the US Department of
State plans to put radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in all new
passports. This RFID chip will contain the same information currently on
our passports, including the passport holder's name, date and place of birth,
passport number, and photograph enhanced with digital recognition technology.
From identity theft to identity death, an RFID-chipped
Take Action now @ http://www.rfidkills.com.
Here is a sample message you might want to send:
“I opposes current US State Department plans to add RFID chips to US
passports. This technology is unnecessary and places Americans at risk of
identity theft, foreign surveillance, and ultimately may facilitate the
transfer of the passport data of US citizens to terrorist groups.
Please abort this unnecessary, invasive, and dangerous plan to “chip”
Americans.”
For more background see this SNIP from “Privacy Advocates Criticize Plan To
Embed ID Chips in Passports, The
Washington Post, by Sara Kehaulani Goo, 3 April 2005, page A06; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21858-2005Apr2.html:
A government plan to embed U.S. passports with radio frequency chips starting
this summer is being met by resistance from travel and privacy groups who say
the technology is untested and could create a security risk for
travelers…Groups representing travel-related businesses and privacy advocates
say the high-tech chips would do more harm than good. Each chip has a built-in
miniature antenna that uses radio waves to transmit information to a machine
reader. Critics contend that terrorists or thieves could use hand-held chip
readers to identify
The State Department said it has received more than 550 comments from the
public, with several hundred coming in the past week after privacy activist
Bill Scannell launched a Web site called
RFIDkills.com that calls the chip-embedded passports "terrorist
beacons”…Groups representing the travel industry also have expressed concern
about the technology. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives said 93
percent of its members, who are travel managers and representatives of airlines
and hotels, opposed using the technology in passports in an e-mail poll.
“It could put the safety of Americans at risk," said Greeley S. Koch, the
group's president.”
************************************
2. Urgent Action Item: Tell Governor Warner to leave photo-red for
dead
************************************
The General Assembly refused to renew a 10 year experiment with photo-red light
surveillance in Virginia this year after “A Virginia Transportation Research
Council study, requested by the state's Secretary of Transportation, indicates
that at photo-red intersections in Fairfax, angle crashes dropped between a
quarter and a third, with corresponding declines in injuries related to those
wrecks. Yet rear-enders ballooned, going up between 50 percent and 71 percent.
Total crashes increased by between 8 percent and 17 percent, while total injury
crashes increased between 7 percent and 24 percent. So the research data seem
to support the Assembly on photo red, and not the steamed NOVA officials” (see
“Photo Red?,” The
Richmond Times Dispatch,
But FCPC has learned from the American Motorists Association (http://www.motorists.org) that some
Virginia legislators are scheming to encourage Governor Warner to use his
executive power to re-write legislation as part of a veto so as to not just
revive the use of photo-red surveillance against the citizens of Virginia, but
to expand its use across Virginia permanently. This action may happen as
early as
Take Action @ http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Contact/email_form.html
and ask Governor Warner to ignore these pleas to curtail due process, privacy,
and liberty under the pretense of advancing public safety. Sample message
follows:
SUBJECT: Leave Photo-red for Dead!
Dear Governor Warner:
Please ignore attempts by some legislators to revive photo-red light
surveillance schemes in
Allowing the continued use of this dangerous and counterproductive technology
would be a true disservice to Virginia's citizens and visitors. The following
four studies conclusively and in combination prove that red-light ticket
cameras cause accidents, injuries and deaths. Their economic advantages do not
justify putting motorists and pedestrians at greater risk, especially when it
has also been proven that simple and inexpensive engineering techniques can
significantly reduce violations and accidents. In fact, many of
"benefits" attributed to ticket cameras can be traced back to changes
in traffic light timing and coordination.
Here are the studies:
1. A study prepared by the
2. The
3. This December 2003 study was commissioned by
4. Red light violations are primarily caused by engineering
problems. This means that a dangerous intersection can only be made safer
through the use of proven engineering solutions, such as modestly increasing
the yellow-light time. This simple technique has dramatically improved
intersection safety from
Please let me know what you are going to do.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
************************************
3. Action Item: Tell US Senate to strip National ID bill from Iraq
War/Tsunami Aid Bill
************************************
Congressional Sponsors of the “REAL ID Act” are trying to sneak a National ID
Card plan onto Iraq War/Tsunami Aid Bill. Opposed by the American Civil
Liberties Union, Gun Owners of America calls the REAL ID Act “bad for gun
owners and constitutional government.”
Take Action @ http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm
(where phone and fax numbers are also available) and send your
two United States Senators a pre-written message to reject any effort to add
National ID Cards to the Iraq/Tsunami Relief bill. Alternatively, go to www.DownsizeDC.org and click on the link
under "Senate to vote on national ID card." Use the easy Electronic
Lobbyist system to ask your Senators to vote against HR 418.
********************************
4. Action Item: Urge Congress to curb commercial data stalkers
********************************
In the latest sage of Virginia Attorney General Judith Williams Jagdmann has sent letters to nearly 1,500 Virginians
advising that she received notice from ChoicePoint
about the possible compromise of their personal information. "Former
Attorney General Jerry Kilgore created programs and enacted legislation
dedicated to protecting all Virginians from computer crimes and identity
theft," said Jagdmann. "I am carrying on
this work and am committed to prosecuting identity thieves to the fullest
extent of the law in the commonwealth” (see “
But the real crime is that Congress has regulated the commercial creation, use,
and sale of digital dossiers about your family created without your permission
or any right to review the data contained therein – data which others use to
make decisions about you. Despite the fact that Social Security Numbers
(“SSNs”) are independently confidential taxpayer ID numbers under federal law,
commercial firms like ChoicePoint, Lexis-Nexus, and
others are free to use and sell your SSN without regulation. Take Action
at https://secure2.convio.net/cu/site/Advocacy?page=UserAction&cmd=display&id=425
to tell Congress that it’s time to reign in the commercial data stalkers.
At the state level here in
While he might have a good point, his concerns are not matched by this year’s
General Assembly which not only failed to enact comprehensive legislation to
secure your confidential and sensitive information such SSNs and dates of birth
from being entered into public records, but they decided to grant immunity to
Clerks of Court who are publishing your information on the Internet – see
details at “General Assembly gives Circuit Court Clerks IMMUNITY when they make
our records available online!”, The Virginia Watchdog, 31 March 2005; http://www.opcva.com/watchdog/033105.html.
************************************
5. Will Fairfax County Board of Supervisors stand up to the USAPATRIOT
Act?
************************************
While the Connection Newspapers has reported that “An effort to get the Fairfax
County Board of Supervisors to condemn the USA Patriot Act may be jump-started
this month, as a long-awaited report on the federal law's local impact is
released by the county attorney's office” (see “Condemn the Patriot Act? -
Fairfax County may consider taking a position against the federal law this
month,” The Connection Newspapers, by
Brian McNeill, March 10, 2005;
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=47481&paper=0&cat=109),
FCPC has obtained a copy of County Executive Anthony H. Griffin’s report on the
impact of the USAPATRIOT Act on Fairfax County Governance. In the report,
Mr. Griffin concludes that “County Departments reported only positive effects
resulting from the USAPATRIOT Act...[which] extend
beyond the intended purposes of terrorism prevention and will enhance basic
public safety within the county.”
Well, with a rosy assessment like that, maybe the
Strange though, Mr. Griffin made no mention of the effect of the USAPATRIOT Act
regarding library surveillance of county residents…oh, maybe he omitted that
issue because under the USAPATRIOT Act it is illegal for him to tell us about
that sort of thing?
And how about the experience of
FCPC still expects the Board of Supervisors to do the right thing and pass a
strongly worded motion that asks the Congress to hold hearings and enact
serious reforms to this flawed Act which greatly expanded federal surveillance
authority with minimal or non-existent judicial review.
************************************
6. Privacy Quote: “Is
************************************
–Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), answering his own question with: “The
question is no longer rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police
state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been
sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been
undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create
whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the
expense of our liberty. But security and liberty go hand-in-hand.
Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society
with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves
that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the
people and private institutions. Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill
passed by Congress two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state
by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card. Within two years, every American will need a “conforming” ID to
deal with any federal agency-- including TSA at the airport” (see “It Can't
Happen Here,” Texas Straight Talk, by
Ron Paul,
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Questions, or to be added/deleted from future Alerts? Contact Mike
Stollenwerk atFCPCChairman@cox.net.