IP: Privacy vs Public Safety

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: "John F. McMullen" <johnmac () acm org>


This is an another example of the conflict between those who put privacy as
the highest (or one of the highest) concerns and those who see law
enforcement efficiency as having a higher value - unfortunately most of the
public aren't informed enough to make an intelligent choice of sides.

-----Original Message-----
From:   James Sexton [mailto:jimsexton () email msn com]


No Joke: Help out!
A while back I sent out some info about a little known piece of legislation
which was (at the time) scheduled to go into effect before the new year.
That got pushed back to March 1st, but that time is rapidly approaching.
That piece of legislation is called the "Know Your Customer proposal".
What is the Know Your Customer proposal, and how can you help abolish it?
Know Your Customer is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
proposal that would require banks and other financial institutions to
develop customer profiles, monitor their customers' accounts, and report any
"unusual transactions" to federal law enforcement agencies like the DEA or
the IRS.  This proposal is not unlike current and proposed gun laws.
The government claims it is trying to thwart money launderers, drug dealers,
criminals. But what this law would really do is turn every bank teller into
a government informer and every American with a bank account into a criminal
suspect.
More specifically, the Know Your Customer proposal, as published in the
December 7, 1998, Federal Register, requires that banks:
* Determine their customer's sources of funds.
* Determine their customer's "normal and expected"
transactions.
* Monitor customer transactions and identify
transactions that are inconsistent with normal and expected transactions.
* Report any "suspicious activity" to federal
investigators.
* Besides the privacy and freedom rights issues, there is a big financial
issue at stake here as well.  It will be a tremendous burden on banks
whether they agree or not.  The reason is that all that monitoring has to be
worked into the systems, people have to be trained, the system has to be
maintained etc. etc. etc.  Who's going to pay for it!  Why you are of
course!  Banks and/or the government will push the costs off to you one way
or another.  So in other words, Your going to pay to have your rights
trampled on!

This policy is scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2000, unless we can
put enough pressure on the FDIC to kill it. The FDIC is taking public
comments on this issue until March 8 -- which gives us just over one month
to make it clear that the American public will not accept this outrageous
regulation.
Public opposition to the plan is growing quickly and
the FDIC is starting to retreat on its position. It has
now announced that the plan could be "substantially
revised."

That's where you come in. This "Spy on Your Customer" program must not be
allowed to be merely watered down, revised, or reformed; it must be
repealed!
With your help, we can hit the FDIC with an avalanche of letters, faxes, and
e-mails-which might be enough to bury this proposal once and for all. This
would put tremendous pressure on the agency to rescind this plan.
And if everyone forwarded this e-mail to just one friend who is concerned
about financial privacy, we could grow the number of comments, and so on in
the same manner as chain letters.
HOW TO CONTACT THE FDIC:
* E-mail: comments () FDIC gov
* Write: Robert E. Feldman, Executive Secretary,
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street, NW, Washington DC
20429.
* Fax: (202) 898-3838

WHAT TO SAY:
Of course you should say what you feel, but to help speed up the process if
you feel the same way, feel free to use the following suggestions.
First, state in simple and unambiguous language that you are opposed to the
Know Your Customer regulation, and want it repealed.
Then, make some or all of the following points:
* In a free society, the government has no business
even asking where you get your money or how you spend it- and politicians
certainly have no right to force your bank to monitor your account. This is
the kind of thing you might have expected of the government of East Germany,
China, or North Korea, but not in the U.S.A.
* The Know Your Customer regulation amounts to an
illegal, warrantless search that violates the Fourth Amendment. Monitoring
every bank account to check for laundered money is no different from pulling
over every driver just in case some are intoxicated, or searching every home
to check for stolen goods. It is unconstitutional- plain and simple.
* The Know Your Customer regulation could subject your money to asset
forfeiture. Asset forfeiture laws allow police to seize your car, your cash,
and even your home without having to charge you with a crime-and force you
to go to court to get it back. Instead of being the safest place to store
your money, banks could become the most dangerous place-since Uncle Sam's
bank robbers can seize it at will.
* Like asset forfeiture laws and fingerprints on
drivers licenses, the Know Your Customer regulation is another
Prove-You're-Not-A-Criminal law. In America, we're supposed to be innocent
until proven guilty-not the other way around.
* Most important, the Know Your Customer regulation
cannot be reformed; it should be repealed!
Thanks!

"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
John F. McMullen
johnmac () acm org ICQ: 4368412
http://www.westnet.com/~observer
http://www.westnet.com/~observer/Y2KCOACH.html (Y2K Site)