On The Front Lines
The Rutherford Institute Calls on Congress to Investigate DHS Chief Privacy Officer for Failure to Protect Americans' Privacy Rights
WASHINGTON, DC --The Rutherford Institute, along with a coalition of 20 other concerned privacy organizations, has called on Congress to launch an investigation into whether the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to protect the privacy of American citizens from invasive technologies deployed by the DHS.
In a joint letter sent to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, the coalition members cite four DHS programs in particular which have resulted in privacy protections being substantially eroded: Fusion Centers and the Information Sharing Environment, Whole Body Imaging, Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) Surveillance, and Suspicionless Electronic Border Searches.
DHS has the greatest budget authority of any federal agency to develop systems of surveillance directed toward the American public. As a check on this authority, the Chief Privacy Officer's job, according to the DHS Act and amended by the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, is to assure "that the use of technologies sustain, and do not erode, privacy protections." Unfortunately, as the coalition points out, "the CPO has not done so."
For example, the CPO failed to report on the Transportation Security Administration's recent proposal to purchase and deploy "Whole Body Imaging" X-ray machines to search air travelers at all airports. The machines show detailed images of a person's naked body and are equivalent to a "virtual strip search" for all air travelers. The coalition letter points out that the whole body imaging program is almost completely absent from the CPO's annual report. "While acknowledging the new policy in the report would have been helpful, if the Chief Privacy Officer were satisfying her statutory duty ... the new policy would not have been implemented in the first place," the letter states. "Due to its extremely invasive nature, the whole body imaging technology is almost by definition a new technology that erodes the privacy protections of American citizens."
"The DHS CPO has shown an extraordinary disregard for the statutory obligations of her office and the privacy interests of Americans," the letter concludes and urges the Committee to promptly open an investigation into whether the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department of Homeland Security complied with the statutory obligations of the office. The coalition of privacy organizations is also calling on Congress to consider establishing alternative oversight mechanisms, "including the creation of an office that is independent of the agency it purports to oversee."
To view the letter, go to http://privacycoalition.org/DHS_CPO_Priv_Coal_Letter.pdf.
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