DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-profits, unions

firefax

edited title for length

java-man

19 USC 1509 – dealing with customs imports https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1509

inigyou

I'm surprised they still need a law.

softwaredoug

> In several cases, the DHS has withdrawn a 1509 summons after it was challenged in court and before a judge could rule on its legality. That may be a deliberate strategy to avoid having a judge rule on the legality of the summons. They have a toy, they’re increasingly abusing it, then trying to dodge from it being taken away. The thing is nobody has to comply with 1509 summons, DHS has to go to court to enforce it. A lot of the fault is on a company that complies without just ignoring it.

inigyou

Use small platforms where possible. Oh wait, small platforms get sanctioned as terrorist organisations. I've been thinking I need to get my own IP range, but that requires exposing a lot of personal information.

skybrian

Apparently in this case, T-Mobile caved and Google didn't: > The DHS also sought and obtained six months of phone records for Fort from T-Mobile, which included records for more than 10,000 calls and text messages. Fort was not notified the government was seeking the records until mid-July, when government lawyers produced them to her lawyers. Fort’s lawyers wrote in a filing this week they were “stunned” to see the government had unilaterally been able to obtain a log of her communications after a judge had warned them about obtaining records about a journalist. ... > In Fort’s case, Google did not comply with the summons for any of the accounts. The company responded to the DHS by saying it had not offered evidence of how it was related to a customs investigation. > A Google spokesperson said the company reviews each request for data it gets to ensure it is legal and pushes back when it is too broad or doesn’t follow the correct process.

blurbleblurble

Friends don't let friends use SMS/MMS

shevy-java

Welcome to the dictatorship. One has to wonder whether all Trump voters wanted this. I don't think so.

smalltorch

Perfect thread to drop tmailplus. It's for journalists who can't rely on centralized systems. Become your own tiny infra https://gitlab.com/here_forawhile/tmailplus

JumpCrisscross

Note that the DHS budget ($100bn) is sufficient to provide healthcare to every uninsured child, and about half (EDIT: a third) of what it would cost to provide universal healthcare to every American under 18 at the CMS average rate. At the end of the day this sort of wastefulness eventually attracts attention.

wolfcola

ah, but the boot is off of a16z’s neck, so it’s all worth it!

charcircuit

>There is no judge in the loop. You don’t have that independent authority to scrutinize the demand and to say whether or not it’s legitimate, The 4th amendment does not require a judge in the loop to decide if a search is unreasonable. This type of thinking leads to adding bureaucracy making law enforcement less efficient. Criminals benefit from having law enforcement's throughput minimized so they will campaign at every turn to make the government less and less efficient and require more and more procedures for an investigation so it all comes to a halt that way as long as they aren't most wanted 1-10 for a year they can get away with what they are doing.

creamedcorn

DHS is using obscure law to snoop on China and Russia FTFY

iJohnDoe

This is like UAE and North Korea behavior. If you have to spy on these particular groups then you know you’re doing something wrong.

0xbadcafebee

“It’s outrageous conduct on so many levels. It’s hard to know where to begin,” Do they not get that we live under an authoritarian regime? The regime doesn't care about the law. They have been installing their own people at every level of government for years, taking over parts of the government, and granting themselves new powers. When eventually every powerful person in government is part of the regime, it won't matter what the law says. This isn't hyperbole, this is how they have been operating for 1.5 years. This is what the beginning looks like. The end looks like Germany 1942.

kingkawn

They are disgusting pigs and the sooner the public sends them to political hell the better

simianparrot

Domestic terrorists do exist. And Don Lemon got kicked out of the CNN. Not surprised he’s mentioned here. Not everything is an abuse of power.