EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation,SEC Ignore Non Anonymous Internet Bloggers Need Deserve MORE Protection,Rights Than Anonymous Posters Or Whistleblowers ?
It appears that EFF Electronic Frontier Foudation IS UNAWARE THAT MANY CRIMINALS USE INTERNET ANONYMITY TO COMMIT THEIR CRIMES WHILE THEIR NON ANONYMOUS VICTIMS PAY THE PRICE.
This particularly true in the case of securities and financial frauds that the U.S.SEC and Attorney General protects and pretends not to see.OVER THE YEARS WHILE INVESTIGATING STOCK FRAUDS AGAINST MYSELF AND OTHERS,MANY THAT HAVE BOTH CIA AND ISRAELI
CONNECTIONS,ETC.,IT WAS ANONYMITY THAT WAS MY AND THUS THE CONSUMER AND INVESTING PUBLIC'S WORST ENEMY.
Bitcoin and and the questionably managed SEC Whistleblower program of Doug McKessy are two examples of the dangers of anonymity of
Tony Ryals
ELITES CAN SUBMIT TO SEC ANONYMOUSLY WHILE THOSE WHO CAN'T AFFORD WELL PAID ATTORNEY CAN'T.STILL ALL SUCH ANONYMITY IS CORRUPT IN MY OPINION.WHISTLEBLOWERS DESERVE MORE CREDIT AND RESPECTIBLITY WHEN THEY USE THEIR OWN NAMES.I'm glad Snowden and other whistleblowers use their own name for innumerble reasons.BITCOIN USERS SHOULD HAVE NO MORE ANONYMITY THAN THOSE WHO USE BANK ACCOUNTS ANSD REAL CURRENCIES AS WELL. iF YOU ARE DEFRAUDED BY ANONYMOUS CROOKS USING PENNY STOCK PROMOTIONS OVER THE INTERNET SUCH AS CIA AND ROTHSCHILD CONNECTED AND ISRAEL GOVERNMENT CONNECTED AGORA INC OF BALTIMORE IT IS BECAUSE OF ABSURD ANYMONITY LAWS THAT SHOULD NOT BE ON THE BOOKS.
This is all we know of so-called 'whistelbowers' and in fact based upon this little the SEC could be giving the money to anyone including bribes to shut them up.If a sex scandal occured at the SEC as it has in the past for example,i.e.-ex IG H David Kotz for example,this unaudited slush fund could be used for hush money.Or had this fund existed at the time of the Bernie Madoff scandal it could have been used to pay off one person to keep quiet.After all Bernie had many friends within the SEC including SEC Chair Mary Shapiro who herself along with ex IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman illicity self enriched themselves further by selling NASDAQ to foreign dangerous agents such as Dubai's Sheik Mohamedd Al Rashid bin Maktoum that makes manipulating the NASDAQ from offsshore accounts outside the U.S. and laundering money without internal oversight within the U.S. virtually guaranteed. Also both ex W Bush CHAIR CHRIS COX AND HIS SEC PORN STAR PAL H DAVID KOTZ WHO IS ISRAELI-CANADIAN AND SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO BE INSPECTOR GENERAL TO U.S.SEC IN THE FIRST PLACE AIDED AND ABETTED THE NAKED SHORT SELLING LIE OF CIA AND UK ROTHSCHILD CITY OF LONDON AGORA INC.'S FOUNDER JAMES DALE DAVIDSON THAT WORTHLESS PENNY STOCKS SUCH AS GENEMAX AND ENDOVASC WERE BEING 'NAKED SHORTED' OR 'COUNTERFEITED BY WHAT OVERSTOCK.COM'S CALLED A {SITH LORD' WHEN HE IN FACT ALONG WITH ANYMOUS CRIMINALS WHO THREATED MY LIFE ON YAHOO'S NFI OR NOVASTAR FINASNCIAL MESSAGE BOARD WERE MAIPULATING NFI AND OVERSTOCK.COM SHARES THEMSELVES !BYRNE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN WORKING HAND IN HAND WITH WITH AGORA'S JAMES DALE DAVIDSON AND TOOK OUT A FULL PAGHE AD IN THE WASHINGTON POST PROMOTING THE LIE THAT NUMEROUS WORTHLESS PENNY STOCKS WERE BEING NAKED SHORTED.HIS PAL BUD BURRELL PSTED DEATH THREATS TO ME ON INTERNET USING HIS OWN NAME.THE SEC DID NOTHING ! BURRELL WAS TOTALLY UNOTICED AS HE PUMPED AND DUM´PED NUMEROUS WORTLESS PENNY STOCK WITH HIS NAME ON THE DOCUMENTS SUCH AS USXP,CMKX DIAMONDS,ETC,ETC,,,, :
Both SEC Chair COX and his IG sidekick H David Kotz promoted the naked short seling lie and extended the lie to big time finance and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae on the SEC website to insight selling and panic.Before 2002 whwn Agora Inc James Dale Davidaon started the lie NO ONE talked bout naked short selling but only short selling.Goldman Sachs besides shorting Fasnnie Mae and Freddie Mac were probaly shorting their own shares in 2008 when Cox used the sec.gov WEBSITE TO INCITE INVESTOR TERROR WITH HIS NAKED SHORT SELING RUMOR.Goldman Sachs later rreported 2008 as one of their best years from all their profits from shoting Freddie Mac,Fannie Mae,etc....Before SEC Cox released this disinfo on internet it was ALWAYS ASSUMED that shares of public companies must be covered by market makers themselves and that they must hold shares of the stocks they sell are procure them elsewhere withinin 3 day maximum ! Cox himself
https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-143.htm
SEC Enhances Investor Protections Against Naked Short Selling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008-143
Washington, D.C., July 15, 2008 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued an emergency order to enhance investor protections against "naked" short selling in the securities of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and primary dealers at commercial and investment banks.
The SEC's order will require that anyone effecting a short sale in these securities arrange beforehand to borrow the securities and deliver them at settlement. The order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday, July 21. In addition to this emergency order, the SEC will undertake a rulemaking to address these issues across the entire market.
"The SEC's mission to protect investors, maintain orderly markets, and promote capital formation is more important now than it has ever been," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "Today's Commission action aims to stop unlawful manipulation through 'naked' short selling that threatens the stability of financial institutions. We will continue our vigorous commitment to investors by working within the SEC and in close cooperation with our regulatory counterparts to promote the continued health and vibrancy of our markets."....................
As you can see by reading this criticism of W Bush's criminal SEC Chair Chris Cox WHO REMOVED THE VERY UPTICK RULE THAT GUARANTEEED THAT ANONYMOUS INDIVIDUALS AND NOT SO ANONYMOUS INDIVIDUALS IN BROKERAGES AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS COULD SHORT THE SHIT OUT OF STOCKS IN 2008.it was Cox himself aided by SEC porn star H David Kotz WHO USED THE SEC.GOV WEBSITE TO FUTHER SCARE THE MARKET WITH AGORA INC FOUNDER JAMES DALE DAVIDSON'S NAKED SHORT SELLING LIE BEGUN TO DISTRACT FROM HIS OWN ILLEGAL PUMP AND DUMPS OF BIOTECH FRAUDS GENEMAX WHICH HE WAS CEO OF A LA THE RECENT BIOTECH PUMP AND DUMP MANIPULATION OF BIOTCH PUMP AND UMP AND MANIPULATION OF KaloBios Pharmaceuticals BYMartin Shkreli.
Shorting America By Walter Cruttenden It is widely agreed ...
https://www.sec.gov/comments/4-627/4627-95.pdf
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The repeal of the uptick rule, which had required traders to only short when it .... Ackerman, Former SEC Commissioner Chris Cox and others have called for a ...Traducir esta página
Falta(n): chair
Ex SEC's Chris Cox's 'Naked Short' Lie,Sean McKessy ...
politicalandsciencerhymes.blogspot.com/.../naked-sh...
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3 nov. 2014 - Video for chris cox sec naked short youtube ... victims of so-called 'naked shortiong' or naked short selling' on the sec.gov website ... post depressionuptick rule to allow his semi-anonymous masters to conspire to short .... in spreading the lie-rumor and interviewed SEC Chair Chris Cox who felt very much ...Traducir esta página
A Big New Uptick Rule - Forbes
www.forbes.com/.../uptick-rule-shorts-intelligent-inv...
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26 mar. 2009 - The 1938 rule–which stated that short-sellers could only sell securities ... As former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox explained to Congress on July 24, ... Douglas M. Branson, the W. Edward Sell Chair of Business Law at the ...Traducir esta página
Broken Markets: How High Frequency Trading and Predatory ...
https://books.google.com.gt/books?isbn=0132875268 - Traducir esta página
Sal Arnuk, Joseph Saluzzi - 2012 - Business & Economics
Along with Republican Senator Johnny Isaakson, I wrote to SEC Chair Mary Schapiro, ... the “uptick rule,” which had been removed in what former SEC Chair Chris Cox ...Short sellers play an important role in maintaining an orderly market.PHANTOM MENACE - November 14, 2005 - Fortune
archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/.../index.htm
Nov 14, 2005 - Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is waging an EXTRAORDINARY CAMPAIGN against ... He says they are tools of a sinister "SITH LORD." .... In nakedshorting a short-seller registers a trade without actually borrowing the shares. ... 8, 2005, an NCANS ad was featured prominently in the Washington Post.Meet Patrick Byrne: Bitcoin Messiah, CEO of Overstock ...
www.wired.com/2014/02/rise-fall-rise-patrick-byrne/
Feb 10, 2014 - Overstock.com CEO and chairman Patrick Byrne. .... “Maybe the Sith Lord is actually Patrick Byrne himself — because he ... A naked short sale works much the same way — except that traders don't actually borrow the shares.
Wired
CEO mocks Steve Cohen in bizarre full-page Wall Street ...
qz.com/.../ceo-mocks-steve-cohen-in-bizarre-full-page-wall-street-journa...
Jul 27, 2013 - Byrne once famously called Cohen a “Sith Lord,” referencing a Star Wars villain, for engaging in naked short sales of Overstock.com.Gun allegedly found in Overstock.com CEO's luggage ...
fox13now.com/.../weapons-discovered-in-carry-on-baggage-at-slc...
Jan 17, 2013 - Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was among four people who were arrested in connection with the discoveries. Byrne allegedly tried to go through security with a loaded Glock 23 .40 caliber handgun in his carry-on luggage. A charging document said the gun contained 12 rounds, but none were chambered.
KSTU
Gun allegedly found in Overstock.com CEO's luggage ...
fox13now.com/.../weapons-discovered-in-carry-on-baggage-at-slc...
Jan 17, 2013 - Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was among four people who were arrested in connection with the discoveries. Byrne allegedly tried to go through security with a loaded Glock 23 .40 caliber handgun in his carry-on luggage. A charging document said the gun contained 12 rounds, but none were chambered.
KSTU
Steve Wozniak Apple,Yahoo email theft,Charles Schwab ...
www.brokeragesdaytrading.com/.../steve-wozniak-a...
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This explains much about 'dirtydirtydeeds'O'Brien of the Yahoo NFI and . ..... and sponser,including of cell phones,and 'a boat' named 'James Davidson. Before ...Traducir esta página
ncansd3 utters the james davidson name - New Post
www.offshorealert.com/ForumNewTopic.aspx?g...
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2 jun. 2005 - For those not following the Yahoo NFI board,things started getting ... 'Traducir esta página
Is NCANS a Fraud ? : Indybay
www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/.../17720861.php - Traducir esta página
1 oct. 2005 - The only known address for the ncans.net or the related nfi-info.net .... ordirtydirtydeeds' as he calls himself on yahoo's ostk and nfi message boards. ..... and implied NCANS donations had been deposited and cell phones ...Yahoo NFI board re connections of posters to James Dale Davidson ...
www.offshorealert.com/ForumNewTopic.aspx?g...
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Joined: 10/12/2010. Posts: 5783. Posted: 4/15/2005 1:48:36 AM. By: is 'Traducir esta página
cyrberchatter on yahoo NFI board,and Senator Bennett set up. - New ...
www.offshorealert.com/ForumNewTopic.aspx?g...
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And then in late 2002 James Dale Davidson begins touting (and lying)through Agora .... (NOTE:dirtydirtydeeds on yahoo NFI board is James Dale Davidson)Traducir esta página
What Happens to Tips - Securities and Exchange Commission
https://www.sec.gov/.../owb-w...
You can submit anonymously and be part of the whistleblower program, but if you do submit anonymously you must be represented by counsel. When you ...
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz to Leave Commission
www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/.../1365171489038
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17 ene. 2012 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced thatInspector General H. David Kotz will leave the agency at the end of January ...Traducir esta página
Falta(n): e3x scandal
Scathing Report on SEC Failure to Uncover Madoff's Scheme
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/.../03madoff.html - Traducir esta página
2 sep. 2009 - The incident was one of several recounted by the agency's inspector general, H. David Kotz, in a report that concludes numerous “red flags” ...H. David Kotz | Securities | Investigations | Anti-Money ...
www.thinkbrg.com/professionals-david-kotz.html
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Former Inspector General of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission H. David... During his tenure at the SEC (2007 to 2012), he authored the landmark,Traducir esta página
Insight: How Allen Stanford kept the SEC at bay | Reuters
www.reuters.com/.../us-sec-stanford-idUSTRE80P22...
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26 ene. 2012 - Insight: How Allen Stanford kept the SEC at bay ... from former SECofficials and other ex-regulators and law-enforcement officials. .... and the private securities law bar," outgoing SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz said in ...Traducir esta página
SEC now freer to hike whistleblower awards
www.washingtonpost.com › Business - Traducir esta página
27 jul. 2010 - And then they pay $1 million to the woman for ratting on her ex. ... or externally to the public," SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz wrote in a ...
Visitaste esta página 3 veces. Última visita: 19/12/14
The SEC's Kotz, Watching the Watchdog - WSJ
www.wsj.com/articles/SB124269325739532795 - Traducir esta página
20 may. 2009 - H. David Kotz's fate as inspector general of the SEC is up in the air as ... he will be at the center of another embarrassing agency scandal.2015 Year In Review: A Banner Year For Bitcoin And The Blockchain
CryptoCoinsNews-Dec 29, 2015
Silk Road combined the anonymity of cryptocurrency with the security of the ... The film examined the dissident whistleblowersand journalists who sought ... In January, The U.S. Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) ...
Labaton Sucharow Whistleblower Tipped SEC About JPMorgan's ...
PR Newswire (press release)-Dec 18, 2015
... Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblowers, ... whistleblowersthe ability to report anonymously and the opportunity to earn ...
SEC whistleblowers be warned – don't delay in reporting fraud
The Hill (blog)-Dec 2, 2015
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has shown in many ... thewhistleblower's identity under wraps and continues the anonymity ...
The age of the whistleblower
The Economist-Dec 3, 2015
Whistleblowers have already played a part in exposing the company's ... of America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has risen steadily since it ... It rests on three pillars: job protection, anonymity and bounties.
Zuma and allies devouring SA
The Citizen-Dec 17, 2015
It's time journalists uncover the anonymous dealers Zuma and Myeni ... not realise the repercussions on the stock exchange would be as grave as they were. ... to Eat tracing the story of Kenyan whistleblower, John Githongo.
It’s time journalists uncover the anonymous dealers Zuma and Myeni are prepared to move mountains for.
President Jacob Zuma runs this country like he does his polygamous household. If you don’t like your current wife, find another, and another and another. Ditto with ministers of finance.
It matters not what the effects are on the economy; he knows he has enough henchmen and -women who will defend him regardless of what he does. Jessie Duarte, for example, stated Zuma did not realise the repercussions on the stock exchange would be as grave as they were. Give us a break! Such statements alone prove Zuma and his party are not fit to govern......
Anonymity | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/issues/anonymity
The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Online Anonymity Is Not Only for Trolls and Political Dissidents
https://www.eff.org/.../online-anonymity-...
Oct 29, 2013 - David Plotz: People have a misguided belief in it, but, in general, the fact that anonymity is increasingly hard to get—Facebook doesn't permit it, ...
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Anonymity - | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/anonymity
Deeplinks Blog posts about Anonymity. December 18, 2015 - 11:29am | By Wafa Ben Hassine and Eva Galperin · Changes to Facebook's "Real Names" Policy ...
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Freedom of Expression, Privacy and Anonymity on the Internet
https://www.eff.org/Frank-La-Rue-United...
Freedom of Expression, Privacy and Anonymity on the Internet. Comments ... EFF is leading the fight against the NSA's illegal mass surveillance program.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF tells UN: Anonymity and Encryption are the Guardians ...
https://www.eff.org/.../tell-un-anonymity-...
Feb 11, 2015 - In June 2015, the U.N's free speech watchdog, David Kaye, intends to present a new report on anonymity and encryption before the 47 ...
Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF: Anonymity/Pseudonymity
w2.eff.org › Privacy
Anonymity. Many people don't want the things they say online to be connected with their offline identities. They may be concerned about political or economic ...
Electronic Frontier Foundation
....................
Weber claims that in recent years, while the SEC Inspector General's office has been attempting to investigate the agency's seemingly-negligent responses in such matters as the Bernie Madoff case and the less-well-known (but nearly as disturbing) Stanford Financial Ponzi scandal, two of the IG [Inspector General] office's senior officials – former Inspector General David Kotz and his successor, Noelle Maloney – were sleeping together.
WEBER'S ALLEGATIONS HAD MERIT
Apparently David Weber's allegations had substantial validity, as the SEC has settled by agreeing to give Mr. Weber back his SEC job and paying him $580,000 (Purportedly the 3rd largest Whistleblower settlement in federal history.
To read more about the settlement issues - see the Bloomberg story titled;
As the Bloomberg story stipulates;
The resolution puts a capstone on a troubled period at the SEC’s internal investigation unit. Shortly after his hiring last year, Weber reported allegations of unethical conduct by recently departed Inspector General H. David Kotz.
“We have obtained justice for Mr. Weber, but that is only the beginning,” said Hansel [Weber's attorney], who urged further investigation of the allegations Weber raised in the lawsuit. “This entire affair started when the SEC sought to silence Mr. Weber and bury the concerns he raised.”
You can see David Weber's lawsuit ( here ). It reads like a 'Peyton Place" short story.
For a fantastic read by another person who calls it like it is, please go to Larry Doyle's "SenseOnCents.com" Blog and his current review of these issues titled;
Sex, Lies, Stupidity, Oh My:
SEC Whistleblower David Weber Vindicated, Receives Huge $ettlement
SEC Whistleblower David Weber Vindicated, Receives Huge $ettlement
Mr. Doyle lusciously states;
Weber’s titillating testimony turns its focus on other executives within the Commission, including the COO and chair Mary Schapiro. Weber’s charges of nepotism and a lack of meaningful internal controls expose the risks that the Commission presented in its daily management of operations and beyond that as well. One does not need to read very hard to understand Weber’s belief that the SEC’s COO utilized a “pay to play” practice. Additionally, in a scene fit for the classic movie Dumb and Dumber, Weber asserts that SEC representatives brought highly sensitive computer code and encryption data to monitor activity on our equity exchanges to a hacker’s conference in Las Vegas. You cannot make this stuff up, folks.
Saving some venom for Ms. Schapiro as well, Weber paints her as a “LIAR” for perjuring herself during a presentation before the House and Senate Oversight Committee regarding the SEC’s bungled attempt to move to new office quarters. Weber would not be the first to label Ms. Schapiro with the big L. Recall that Attorney Richard Greenfield did just the same in the case brought on behalf of Standard Chartered v FINRA, Mary Schapiro et al.
Some of you may have read Matt Taibbi's November 2012 story about the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") being a den of corruption and sex scandals. The story was about an SEC, in essence, being 'Peyton Place' and was titled:
Taibbi stated;
THANK YOU - David Weber
David Weber has turned down the SEC's to let him come back. He informed yours truly that, while the settlement issues forbid him from talking about specifics, he looks forward to his new career to champion the causes of others caught up in the tangled webs weaved by bad faith in Washington D.C.
We thank David Weber for doing a good effort for his country and applaud his temerity and tenacity to stick with, going where others fear to tread. And we also hope that there will be further investigations into the issues that Mr. Weber was reviewing; which was the cause for retaliation against him in the 1st place.
I, for one, would enjoy seeing Senate/Congressional Hearings of the SEC; which has become the "Selective Enforcement Commission". The new SEC Chairperson is Mary Jo White and every indication (including my recent interactions with her administration) seems to imply that Mary Jo is also from the dark side!
...................................
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/victories-california-and-virginia-alongside-setback-florida-2015-review
Victories in California and Virginia Alongside a
Setback in Florida: 2015 in Review
Congress took action in 2015 to address privacy and transparency, but state legislatures emerged as the nation’s leaders for policy innovation. From Virginia to California, states adopted new policies to reclaim digital privacy, advance government transparency, and protect free expression. These new laws both protect residents of these states, and also provide models for other jurisdictions to emulate.
Over the course of 2015, EFF and our grassroots supporters helped secure a series of important victories for privacy and transparency in California and Virginia, while enduring a disappointing setback in Florida undermining privacy and freedom of expression.
California adopts groundbreaking protections for privacy, transparency
Our work was largely successful in California, where we helped secure three new laws to advance privacy and transparency in law enforcement, a fourth promoting transparency by other local agencies, and stopped two bills that, if successful, would have eroded anonymity.
Securing “the nation’s best digital privacy law”
One of California’s new laws, known as the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (or CalECPA), was introduced as S.B. 178 by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) alongside Republican Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine). Described by Wired magazine as “the nation’s best digital privacy law,” CalECPA garnered broad support not only from privacy advocates like EFF, the ACLU, and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, but also technology companies from Google and Apple to LinkedIn and Twitter, and even the San Diego Police Officers Association.
By requiring police to obtain a warrant from a neutral judge in order to search stored communications like email in the cloud, CalECPA enshrines some of the nation's most protective privacy standards. It helps restrict otherwise arbitrary electronic surveillance, protecting both the content and location data of email and other digital communications.
Two other states—Maine and Utah—have adopted similarly broad digital privacy protections. Yet California’s decision represents a sea change because it is the home of both the technology and entertainment sectors, as well as the world’s seventh largest economy when compared to those of other countries. As my colleague Dave Maass recently wrote, “because so many technological companies are headquartered here…[a] new law in California can have nation-wide, and potentially global, ramifications.”
Promoting transparency and security in law enforcement surveillance
Two other new California laws restrict the uses of high-tech surveillance tools used by law enforcement authorities and private actors: S.B. 34 and S.B. 741 were introduced by Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) and contain provisions imposing similar limits on two sets of surveillance methods.
- S.B. 34 addresses automated license plate recognition systems (ALPR), high-speed camera systems often mounted on police cars or light poles that capture an image and metadata such as time, date, and location whenever a license plate comes into view.
- S.B. 741 addresses IMSI catchers—commonly known by the brand “Stingray”—devices that mimic a cell phone tower in order to record data flowing through it.
Both of these surveillance tools subject entire communities to monitoring without the individual basis for suspicion required under the Fourth Amendment to justify law enforcement scrutiny.
The new laws impose parallel restrictions on local agencies using Stingrays, and also create restrictions on local agencies, state agencies, and private contractors using ALPRs. They require local agencies to publicly post a usage and privacy policy, and also adopt “reasonable security procedures and practices, including operational, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards” to prevent potential data breaches. Finally, the new laws require law enforcement agencies seeking to use these tools to first disclose their plans and secure approval from local policymakers.
These measures create vital protections for privacy, transparency, and security. They also have teeth: both laws create rights of private action in the event of a data breach, placing members of the public in a position to represent the public interest. And because IMSI catchers like Stingrays monitor electronic communications, CalECPA also applies, requiring public agencies using them to secure a judicial warrant.
Stopping enhanced drivers licenses
In addition to EFF’s work in California addressing privacy and transparency to help restrain otherwise arbitrary law enforcement surveillance, we also championed both values in other contexts.
First, along with supporters from across the state, we helped stop S.B. 249, a problematic bill that would have allowed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to begin issuing to enhanced driver licenses (EDLs), ID cards with embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips. Purportedly proposed to relieve congestion at the San Diego border crossing, the bill would have created enormous security and privacy risks, potentially allowing anyone with an RFID reader to discover the identities of drivers.
Despite proposals to protect privacy and civil liberties, such as a requirement that EDLs remain optional, the version of the bill ultimately passed by the legislature and vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown would have allowed employers to discriminate against employees who declined to obtain an EDL.
Fighting the digital currency licensing scheme
Finally, EFF worked with allied organizations including Fight for the Future and Taskforce tomobilize public support against a hasty and vague measure that would have required licenses for “virtual currency businesses” that maintain “full custody or control of virtual currency in [California] on behalf of others.”
Meant to addresses digital currencies like Bitcoin, A.B. 1326 threatened to create an array of problems from invasive data collection in the context of the proposed licensing scheme to technical inaccuracies in the measure’s definition of covered services. Over a dozen companies and non-profit groups joined a coalition letter to state Senators noting “serious technical issues, due process concerns, and overbroad language,” pervading the proposal and urging them to “provide adequate time for informational hearings, testimony, and revisions to make this bill better for all Californians.”
While the concerted efforts of supporters from across the state held the line and kept the proposal from finding its way into law this year, we anticipate the issue returning in 2016. Let us know if you’re willing to take action where you live when it does.
Advancing government disclosure and transparency
While our California campaigns promoting privacy achieved enormous success, our work advancing transparency attained more mixed results.
On the one hand, we supported an unsuccessful proposal in S.B. 573 to create a Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the State of California. The CDO would have been authorized to create an open-data roadmap, open-data guidelines, an open-data working group, and a statewide open-data portal.
On the other hand, we also supported a successful measure, S.B. 272, that enhanced the California Public Records Act (CPRA) by requiring local agencies to create a publicly accessible catalog of their enterprise data systems and the vendors that supply them. Ensuring transparency into vendor relationships “is important for ensuring accountability in this age of outsourcing,” while the catalogs of enterprise data can help CPRA requestors find the public information they seek.
Virginia splits the difference
Reflecting a consensus across the ideological and partisan spectrum, Virginia policymakers passed no fewer than three bills reinforcing the right to privacy by restraining mass surveillance by local and state authorities. Two of them became law following the approval of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who rejected the third.
Each of the bills addressed different ambient surveillance methods, despite the common concerns surrounding each of their uses. Reflecting that similarity, two measures reiterated the constitutional warrant requirement, which law enforcement agencies have widely circumvented by classifying surveillance as intelligence collection, rather than a search subject to Fourth Amendment protections.
McAuliffe approved H.B. 1408, a measure requiring state & local police to secure a judicial warrant prior to using IMSI cell site emulators like Stingrays. Virginia’s policy proved prescient, predating by nearly six months a similar policy at the federal level announced by the Justice Department in September.
Thanks to pressure from EFF supporters in Virginia, McAuliffe also signed into law H.B. 2125, which similarly requires police to obtain a warrant before using drone aircraft to conduct surveillance. It also ensures that evidence obtained by drones without a supporting warrant can not be introduced as evidence supporting a criminal prosecution. Finally, the measure prohibits the deployment of weaponized drones generally while permitting their use at two testing & training facilities.
In contrast, McAuliffe chose to veto H.B. 1673, which lawmakers passed to force police to purge after one week data collected from “any surveillance technology,” including tools deployed today and those that may emerge in the future. Gov. McAuliffe first sought tounilaterally narrow the bill to address only ALPR data, which co-sponsor Del. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) described as “essentially destroying the bill,” and “completely miss[ing] the point of the legislation.”
McAuliffe’s rejection of H.B. 1673 is especially striking because retention of ALPR data had already been unauthorized since 2013, when the state’s then-Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli,concluded as the state’s chief prosecutor that existing state law did not support it. State legislators proposed the bill in 2015 only after news reports revealed that police departments were violating the rule by retaining ALPR data for years.
Despite McAuliffe’s veto of H.B. 1673, his approval of H.B. 1408 and H.B. 2125 established a mixed record for 2015. Virginia state legislators, in contrast, took assertive action by trying to include “any surveillance technology” among those limited by its reform legislation. Their concerns will likely re-emerge in 2016, suggesting opportunities for constituents to continue educating the Governor.
Florida steps back, undermining anonymity
In contrast to our work in Sacramento and Charlottesville, our efforts met with less success in Tallahassee. EFF marshaled supporters in Florida to challenge H.B. 271, the True Origin of Digital Goods Act (TODGA), only to watch the bill become law in spite of our efforts.
A proposal to undermine anonymity and freedom of expression in the guise of a “consumer protection” reform advancing the interests of major entertainment companies, TODGA requires any website or Internet service operator "dealing in substantial part in the electronic dissemination of commercial recordings or audiovisual works” to “disclose his or her true and correct name, physical address, and telephone number or e-mail address."
Modeled on similar laws that in other states have been used to justify police raids of music studios, the bill could be used to unmask even anonymous bloggers or musicians. TODGA also raises constitutional problems given its intrusion on the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce.
We are disappointed that TODGA has become law in Florida, since it enhanced the enforcement powers of corporate copyright holders, while undermining both anonymity and freedom of expression. On the other hand, EFF’s work did soften the law’s harmful impacts by adding an exemption for websites and services that distribute the site owner’s own creative work.
Fighting for your rights wherever we can
With the help of concerned grassroots activists and organizers around the country, we plan to expand our reach to address more state legislatures in future legislative sessions.
Would you like to participate in campaigns coordinated through the EFF grassroots organizing network? Sign up for updates, and we’ll share invitations to events in your area, opportunities to connect with other organizers around the country addressing similar issues, and analysis of legislative proposals that present opportunities to defend or advance digital rights.
This article is part of our Year In Review series; read other articles about the fight for digital rights in 2015. Like what you're reading? EFF is a member-supported nonprofit, powered by donations from individuals around the world. Join us today and defend free speech, privacy, and innovation.
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