US Air Force Can 'Accidentally' Spy On American Citizens For 90 Days 200
AstroPhilosopher writes "Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists have discovered documentation (PDF) that allows the military to keep footage from drones for up to 90 days to determine whether further investigation is warranted. Besides using footage from natural disasters and monitoring of domestic military bases, all that's truly required is for an operator to 'accidentally' have the camera running while flying."
NIT (Score:5, Informative)
"Spy on American Citizens for 90 days" != "retain footage of American Citizens for 90 days"
They can accidentally spy on you indefinitely, or rather, spontaneously whenever you might fall within the vantage of the camera. They can only keep the video for 90 days.
Re:Yep, more of the same (Score:0, Informative)
Just out of curiosity, at what point does the phrase "Post 9/11" cease to add meaning to a statement? Unless there's another time line I've not heard of, we're all living and commenting in the same era.
Another Wired Non-story (Score:5, Informative)
Now about applicability. In the US the military is required to assume, lacking other information to the contrary, that anyone we run across is a US Person and thus most likely cannot be collected on. So don't worry, they aren't going to start flying "accidently" across the states filming your backyard activities. We'll leave that to the Jackbooted thugs in the FBI and local PD's. Outside the US the view shifts 180 degrees and we are to assume, again until we get some evidence to the contrary, that any individual we run across is NOT a US Person. But should we collect info on someone and they then turn out to be a US person, we are again given the 90 Window to determine if they are in fact a US Person, and if they are engaged in one of the legally specified activities that allow or even mandate collection and reporting on them. Some examples of these categories would be anyone engaged in espionage for a foreign power, anyone actively involved with a declared terrorist group. (not just someone we think "looks like a terrorist."
And regardless of whether they are involved in collectible activities or not any and all collection on US Persons is reported not just up the military channels but also the DoJ and the CIA. People do lose rank and intelligence positions over violation of the Intel Oversight rules. All military intelligence personnel are briefed on Intel Oversight at least annually.
The poster of this story really has no idea what he's talking about. This is a non-story and it's really nothing new. And once again Wired tries to write about the Intelligence community possibly doing wrong but just proves how little their reporters actually understand things.
But I'm sure the
Re:I can accidentally "spy" with a camera too (Score:4, Informative)
.... It isn't strange that our military also has the authority to take footage. ....
The reason why it's a notable thing is because the military, in fact, doesn't have the authority to take footage. Right at the top of the article (but this is Slashdot, so no one read it) it's pointed out that the military, like the CIA, is not supposed to perform surveillance of citizens on domestic soil.
They're using weasel-words to try and loophole around that block, and it's this type of skirting action that should always be made public and pushed against. Checks and balances, watching the watchers, that sort of thing.
Re:Yep, more of the same (Score:5, Informative)
Jeng, you're talking to people who think that the Air Force, which currently is YEARS behind on the drone data it already has [wired.com], now has nothing better to do than spy on Americans.
Furthermore, this is not even just anything that might be suspicious seen during operations. It's only "persons or organizations reasonably believed to be engaged or about to engage, in international terrorist or international narcotics activities," which is a very narrow scope under US law.
Cue the conspiracy theory: "But, but, but, the big bad Utah Data Center is going to mine this data automatically! The idea is to not need people to analyze this footage! The Air Force is going to blanket the nation in drones, and the NSA is going to analyze it all with computers! The exception for international terrorism and narcotics is just a subterfuge, a sleight of hand, to distract us from their true intent!"
Yes, people really think this. It would be amusing if it weren't so shameful and sad.
To say nothing of the US military satellite systems and manned US military aircraft that fly over the US every day, and have been used in civil assistance and force protection for decades. But hey, this is the slashdot comments section: facts and sense need not apply!
Re:Yep, more of the same (Score:3, Informative)
So hypothetically if the Air Force saw something suspicious on portions of their surveillance that happened over the US then the Air Force would hand that information off to which ever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction.
At which point all of the evidence should be thrown out and the individual who did the spying should be dishonorably discharged for violating the constitution that they swore an oath to uphold. For reference see the Oath of Enlistment and Oath of Office [army.mil] as well as the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution [wikipedia.org]. This may seem a bit harsh, but this seems to be yet another instance of government slowly eroding our rights. All rights are important and all should be preserved, even the ones you may not agree with.