An Ignoble Experiment

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While the use of military-style tactics and equipment to quash protests in Ferguson, Mo., last week drew widespread concern about police infringing on First Amendment rights, some civil liberties advocates are increasingly concerned about software that law enforcement could potentially exploit to thwart protests as well.

The California Legislature recently passed a bill that requires all smartphones to include a so-called "kill switch" that can turn off a device remotely and wipe its data. It's the second state after Minnesota to do so. Some members of Congress have also pushed for a mandatory kill switch.

The problem, according to Jake Laperruque, who works on privacy and surveillance issues at the Center for Democracy and Technology, is that governments could take advantage of the kill switch technology to disrupt communications and interfere with protests.

In an Aug. 15 blog post, he noted that the police's attempts to disrupt protests in Ferguson, Mo., highlight the risks of abuse.

"If the California bill were in place in Missouri, these officers might deploy the government kill switch alongside tear gas and rubber bullets, using the mandated technology to stop coordination between protesters, cut off access to outside information, and shut down video recordings that can deter police misconduct," he said.

Laperruque added that an effort to target smartphones wouldn't be unprecedented. In 2011, the San Francisco area subway system shut down cell service in a group of stations to disrupt protests that were set to occur.

Even if lawmakers don't require kill switches, they're likely to become more common anyway.

In April, the wireless industry trade group CTIA announced a pledge, signed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia, HTC and other companies, to offer kill switches at no additional cost on all smartphones manufactured after July 2015 and sold in the United States.

Kill switches let consumers remotely remove sensitive data from lost or stolen devices. They may also deter theft because they can render devices inoperable.

Its recent action is a reversal for CTIA, which earlier opposed mandatory kill switches. One concern the group highlighted was the potential for cyber criminals to hack into the system that controls kill switches and disable devices that haven't been stolen.

For more:
- read the CDT blog post on police using kill switches to disrupt protests

Read more about: CTIA, Nokia
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This week's sponsor is Fidelis.

2. Education Dept: Unaccompanied migrant children entitled to US education

By Zach Rausnitz

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3. FBI tightening use of national security letters after extensive review, but typo problem persists

The basic education rights of the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who have migrated across the southwestern border this year are no different from those of other children in the United States, the Education Department said in guidance released last week.

The department produced the document in response to inquiries that have poured in amid the influx of unaccompanied minors entering the country.

'"All children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education," it says, regardless of immigration status, even if they just arrived and were immediately placed in immigration proceedings.

When unaccompanied minors are first apprehended, border officials transfer them to the Health and Human Services Department. While in HHS custody, children don't enroll in local schools, although HHS shelters do include some educational services.

But once HHS is able to transfer a child into the custody of a relative or some other sponsor, the local school district, where the child ends up residing in, has to treat them like any other child so he or she can access to elementary and secondary education.

Through the end of July, more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors had been apprehended in fiscal 2014, more than twice the figure from the previous year. Government officials said many are escaping the violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The latest guidance from the Education Department was not the first time this year that the department has issued a public reminder of the education rights of immigrant children.

In May, the Education and Justice departments sent a joint letter to the nation's local school districts, telling them that they may not ask students for proof of citizenship or immigration status. School districts also can't demand to see birth certificates or Social Security numbers as a condition for enrollment.

Instead, families typically prove that they live within the school district's geographic boundaries through an apartment leasing document or utility bill.

The right to public education for children regardless of immigration status stems from the 1982 Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe.

For more:
- download the Education Department guidance (pdf)

By Zach Rausnitz

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4. Disease outbreak worries put pressure on US customs officers

The FBI has made notable strides in bringing its practices around national security letters more into compliance with the law, but not when it comes to typographical errors, says a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general.

The FBI issues national security letters to Internet and telephone service providers, financial institutions, and other private organizations to turn over records on individuals relevant to terrorism investigations. No warrant or other kind of judicial approval is required for the FBI to direct companies to provide that information.

The bureau has invested "considerable resources" for better compliance in response to a series of previous reviews by the IG regarding the use of national security letters, or NSLs, the report (pdf) says. It has invested in improved training and guidance for employees, new record-keeping practices, and periodic internal reviews of NSL use, among other steps.

However, the FBI hasn't done enough to prevent simple typographical errors that result in intrusions into the private lives of unintended targets, the report notes.

Typos in telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, or email addresses have in some cases led the FBI to request and receive information on individuals who are unrelated to their investigations.

The FBI could do more to prevent typos by requiring its personnel to enter basic information into its computer system twice so that the system can detect entries that don't match, auditors say in the report.

The report was based on interviews with more than 75 Justice Department and FBI personnel, as well as examinations of more than 15,000 documents. The 200-page report followed a series of earlier IG reviews regarding the FBI's use of NSLs, issued in March 2007, March 2008 and January 2010.

The number of NSL requests peaked in calendar year 2004, when the FBI issued more than 56,000. Between 2004 and 2009, the number declined every year or rose only slightly, bottoming out at 30,442 in 2009. In 2010, the number leapt back to nearly 55,000.

For more:
- download the report, "A Review of the FBI's Use of National Security Letters: Assessment of Progress in Implementing Recommendations and Examination of Use in 2007 through 2009" (pdf)

Read more about: IG, Justice Department
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By Zach Rausnitz

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