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October 5, 2020
Coalition Wants an End to Secret Watch List
Privacy Coalition members joined by other privacy, consumer rights, and civil rights organizations filed a statement to the Department of Homeland Security. The group opposed proposed changes to the Watchlist Service, a secretive government database filled with sensitive information. The agency has solicited comments on the program, which entails developing a real-time duplicate copy of the database and expanding the groups and personnel with immediate access to the records. The groups, which included: The ALA Washington Office, The Bill of Rights Defense Committee, The Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, The Center for Media and Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Federal of America, The Cyber Privacy Project, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Liberty Coalition, OMB Watch, OpentheGovernment.org, Patient Privacy Rights, Privacy Activism, Privacy Journal, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Rights Now Coalition, and World Privacy Forum. The reply to comments they submitted focused on the security and privacy risks posed by the new system, as well as The Privacy Act. Passed by Congress in 1974, the Act requires DHS to notify subjects of government surveillance in addition to providing a meaningful opportunity to correct information that could negatively affect them.
Posted by EPIC at October 5, 2020 3:10 PM