Bush Signs Homeland Security Bill
Jon Broderick
On Monday, November 25, 2002 President Bush signed a bill creating the
Department of Homeland Security. It is the beginning of a process that
will reshuffle bureaucracies, permit greater Internet surveillance and
refocus the government¹s computer security efforts. The most frightening
part o this bill is that it will create a National database of all 300
million American citizens. The records in this database will include web
sites visited on the Internet, e-mails, telephone conversations, bank
transactions and travel plans. Civil liberties groups are greatly
concerned with the impact the new bill will have on privacy. The
director of Electronic Privacy Information Center, Marc Rotenburg, also
questioned the new bill¹s merit. "Is it appropriate for the U.S
Department of Defense to pursue an aggressive program of (technology
development) that can be used for surveillance of Americans?" The new
bill has combined the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization
Services, the Coast Guard and the border Patrol in total employing
about 170 000 people.
I feel that this bill is a violation of basic human rights and
liberties. How can a democracy exist where people live in fear about
having someone monitor and record all of their actions? Though they have
created a civil liberties officer to ensure the department follows "
reasonable privacy protections relating to use collection and disclosure
of personal information" I wonder who will have access to this database.
Not that corporate America would have any interests in these
demographics.
Jon Broderick (20099377) 32BjdbroderA7