S to w t Roote • January 30-Fetoruaiy 5, 2OK5
Commentanf
Page 13
Oregon poised to give outdated privacy laws a reboot
BY BECKY STRAUS
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N I S T
'
?
dward Snowden revealed to the world
the great extent of government
overreach and mass surveillance on a
national scale. As the 2015 Oregon
Legislature convenes in Salem next week,
curbing warrantless spying here at home ’
should be at the top of its agenda.
With Sens. Chip Shields (D-Portland) and
Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Reps. Jennifer
Williamson (D-Portland) and John Huffman
(R-The Dalles), the ACLU of Oregon will
advocate for key bills to protect Oregonians’
privacy.
B
Regulate automatic license plate
reader surveillance technology
Law enforcement agencies are now
deploying license plate reader surveillance
technology in Oregon without adequate or
consistent privacy restrictions. Many
agencies are retaining the location
information and photograph of every vehicle
that crosses the camera’s path, not simply
those that generate a h it In the aggregate,
this stored private location data can reveal
the travel histories of thousands of
Oregonians who have committed no crime.
Longer retention periods and the absence of
restrictions on sharing allow the
government to assemble the individual
puzzle pieces of where we have been over
time into a single, high-resolution image of ,
our lives. We are urging the Legislature to
impose consistent statewide guidelines for
government’s use of automated license plate
recognition, or ALPR, surveillance
technology, including benchmarks for use of
the technology, safeguards limiting how long
the data can be retained, and protections
against unnecessary sharing of individuals’
Becky Straus is the legislative director for
the American Civit Liberties Union of
Oregon.
data between government and private
companies.
Prohibit unwarranted access to
electronic communications and
location information
Electronic communication - through
e-mail, cell phones and social media - has
increasingly eclipsed postal mail and other
hard-copy methods as our primary means of
communication. Unfortunatiey, some
government agencies interpret our outdated
privacy laws to allow them to intercept and
access a treasure trove of information about
who we are, where we go and what we do ®
the information being collected by search
engines, social networking sites and other
websites every day. Similarly, location
tracking information - GPS records, cell
phone location records, etc. - can reveal
very sensitive information about a person’s
life, ranging from which friends they are
seeing to where they go to the doctor to
how often they go to church.
We believe that the constitutional
protections against unreasonable searches
and seizures should protect these types of
information held by third parties - such as
internet Service providers and phone
Companies — unless the government has
probable cause of wrongdoing and gets a
court order. But waiting for the courts to
enforce the Constitution relating to newer
technologies could take many years and may
not be successful. Our proposed legislation
will reboot our privacy laws to ensure that
that online and other digital activity, as well
Who Am I
b y Sean S h e ffie ld
I think it is a mixture
Of culture and childhood heroes
Who make us
My heroes were Dr. Martin Luther Kang and Malcolm X
I tried to bring compassion and understanding
To people like Dr. King did
But also a passion and a fire
To my arguments like Malcolm X
Every now and then I let
The Hulkmania run wild
Growing up
In a gang neighborhood
Gave me an understanding
Of different cultures
And a determination
That feeds me to this day
All of these things
Make me
Who I am
Today
o m ü m u t ç
1U L Û U U 11 U d C K U lg
receive the same protection as is
guaranteed to offline activity.
Cellphone search?
Get a warrant!
probable cause.
Detail privacy-protective policies for
police body cameras
Even before, but certainly in the wake of
The type of data stored on a. smartphone
the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,
can paint a near-complete picture of even
Mo., last year, many Oregon law
the most private details of someone’s
enforcement agencies were looking to equip
personal life. Before the age of .
officers with body cameras to record their
smartphones, it was
encounters with
impossible for
members of the public.
police to gather this
While the ACLU
much private
generally takes a dim
information about a We are werfelog this session
view of the proliferation
w ith legislators to reconcile
person’s
of surveillance in our
communications,
the many Im portant gnostloas
society, we hope that
historical
ahestl body cameras« Who de
body cameras can be
movements and
different. Guided by the
cides when they are on or oil?
private life during
right privacy policies,
How
long
should
the
footage
an arrest Today,
body cameras have the
many police officers be retained and how should It
potential to serve as a
routinely search the be used? Is a ll footage subject
much-needed check on
contents of a
to p ublic records disclosure^ or police misconduct and
person’s cellphone
only that which serves a police hold officers
during an arrest
accountable for abuse of
accountability inaction?
encounter.
power. We are working
Sometimes officers
this session with
do so with the aid of
legislators to reconcile
companies like
the many important
Cellebrite that produce tools that strip a
questions about body cameras. Who decides
cellphone of all its data on the scene. Such
when they are on or off? How long should
searches are a highly concerning invasion of the footage be retained and how should it be
privacy and are,; in the ACLU’s opinion,
used?; Is all footage subject to public records
unconstitutional.
disclosure, or only that which serves a
Last term, the U.S. Supreme Court
police accountability function?
agreed with this position and directed law
ACLU was successful in the 2013 session
enforcement to get a warrant before
with important wins on law enforcement use
searching à cellphone. By codifying and
of drones and privacy protections for social
narrowing this ruling, our legislative
media accounts at work and at Oregon
proposal affirms that individuals are entitled
universities. The Legislature should advance
to smartphone privacy and that government
this 2015 package to take the next step to
agents may not search a cellphone unless
rein in the surveillance state.
alberta co op
~ r D C ® 1 7
Kristina Wright | Real Estate Agent
Bellmoore Realty
5 0 3 /4 7 9 . 5 7 6 4
Kristina@R3rtlandH0meGal.com
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