Electronic police state
Encyclopedia
The term electronic police state describes a state
in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence
against its citizens.
of telephone traffic, cellular telephone traffic, emails, Internet surfing, video surveillance and other forms of electronic (including fiber optic) tracking. A crucial characteristic of this process is that the data is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for use in prosecutions in legal proceedings
.
The inhabitants of an electronic police state may be almost fully unaware that their communications and activities are being recorded by the state, or that these records are usable as evidence against them in courts of law. Those who are aware of these facts may be restrained in their complaints or actions against their governments, knowing that any embarrassing, juvenile or unlawful actions in their past can be pulled from pre-existing databases, which could lead to humiliation and/or criminal trials.
In addition, there is also a risk of such databases being widely used in civil proceedings, wherein opposing attorneys demand access to all evidence related to an individual, including vast government databases. This issue seems not to have been addressed by the legal system of any nation thus far.
The term was popularized with the publication of "The Electronic Police State: 2008 National Rankings", by Cryptohippie USA.
Seventeen key factors for judging the development of an electronic police state have been suggested:
This list does include factors that also apply to other forms of police states
, such as the use of identity documents and police enforcement, but go considerably beyond them.
Electronic police states may outwardly be either dictatorial or democratic. The crucial elements are not politically-based. So long as the regime can afford the technology, and the populace will permit it to be used, an electronic police state can form.
Specific examples are often used to justify surveillance activities, usually both sides have an absence of counter-examples.
The United Kingdom
is often seen as an advanced electronic police state, with mass surveillance and detention without trial having been introduced by the government, followed by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
’s MTI program, which aims to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain, and to track telephone calls made over the internet as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles.
A 16 year-old boy from North Carolina (U.S.) was seized in his home by a dozen FBI agents and local police officers and held without trial for over two months under the USA PATRIOT Act, based upon Internet tracking of bomb threats that appeared to be connected to his IP address.
The government of China
has been credibly accused of monitoring a huge amount of Internet traffic in reports from the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
Recently, Buenos Aires
' city government has installed numerous cameras around the city, explaining that they are not for citizen control but to maintain social order
and to fight insecurity
. No sizeable protest has yet been made.
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
against its citizens.
Definition
Electronic police states are characterized by government surveillanceSurveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
of telephone traffic, cellular telephone traffic, emails, Internet surfing, video surveillance and other forms of electronic (including fiber optic) tracking. A crucial characteristic of this process is that the data is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for use in prosecutions in legal proceedings
Legal proceedings
Legal proceedings may refer to:*Legal process** Trial :*** Lawsuit, a civil trial*** Criminal trial* Hearing ** Administrative hearing** Congressional hearing* Impeachment proceedings* Court orders**Foreclosure**Receivership*Arbitration...
.
The inhabitants of an electronic police state may be almost fully unaware that their communications and activities are being recorded by the state, or that these records are usable as evidence against them in courts of law. Those who are aware of these facts may be restrained in their complaints or actions against their governments, knowing that any embarrassing, juvenile or unlawful actions in their past can be pulled from pre-existing databases, which could lead to humiliation and/or criminal trials.
In addition, there is also a risk of such databases being widely used in civil proceedings, wherein opposing attorneys demand access to all evidence related to an individual, including vast government databases. This issue seems not to have been addressed by the legal system of any nation thus far.
History
The term "electronic police state" was first used no later than August 14, 1994, in a post by Jim Davis in the Computer underground Digest, Volume 6: Issue 72.The term was popularized with the publication of "The Electronic Police State: 2008 National Rankings", by Cryptohippie USA.
Classification of an electronic police state
The classification of a country or regime as an electronic police state may be debated. Because of the pejorative connotation of the term, no country has ever identified itself as an electronic police state. The classification is often established by one or more external critics.Seventeen key factors for judging the development of an electronic police state have been suggested:
- Daily Documents: Requirement of state-issued identity documents and registration.
- Border Issues: Inspections at borders, searching computers, demanding decryption of data.
- Financial Tracking: State’s ability to search and record all financial transactions: Checks, credit card use, wires, etc.
- Gag Orders: Criminal penalties if you tell someone the state is searching their records.
- Anti-Crypto Laws: Outlawing or restricting cryptography and/or privacy enhancing technologies (anonymity networks).
- Constitutional Protection: A lack of constitutional protections for the individual, or the overriding of such protections.
- Data Storage Ability: The ability of the state to store the data they gather.
- Data Search Ability: The ability to search the data they gather.
- ISP Data Retention: States forcing Internet Service Providers to save detailed records of all their customers’ Internet usage.
- Telephone Data Retention: States forcing telephone companies to record and save records of all their customers’ telephone usage.
- Cell Phone Records: States forcing cellular telephone companies to record and save records of all their customers’ usage.
- Medical records: States demanding records from all medical service providers and retaining the same
- Enforcement Ability: The state’s ability to use overwhelming force (exemplified by SWATSWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
Teams) to seize anyone they want, whenever they want. - Habeas Corpus: Lack of habeas corpusHabeas corpusis a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
– the right not to be held in jail without prompt due process. Or, the overriding of such protections. - Police-Intel Barrier: The lack of a barrier between police organizations and intelligence organizations. Or, the overriding of such barriers.
- Covert Hacking: State operatives removing – or adding! – digital evidence to/from private computers covertly. Covert hacking can make anyone appear as any kind of criminal desired. One example of covert hacking software is Magic LanternMagic Lantern (software)Magic Lantern is keystroke logging software developed by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation. Magic Lantern was first reported in a column by Bob Sullivan of MSNBC on 20 November 2001 and by Ted Bridis of the Associated Press.-How it works:...
- Loose Warrants: Warrants issued without careful examination of police statements and other justifications by a truly independent judge.
This list does include factors that also apply to other forms of police states
Police state
A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...
, such as the use of identity documents and police enforcement, but go considerably beyond them.
Electronic police states may outwardly be either dictatorial or democratic. The crucial elements are not politically-based. So long as the regime can afford the technology, and the populace will permit it to be used, an electronic police state can form.
Objections
Some people maintain that it is the appropriate job of a state to monitor anything and everything it can to keep its citizens safe. Concerns over privacy and abuse may be considered far less significant than the gains to be provided by surveillance. Often the discussion may hinge on an estimation of the state’s morality.Specific examples are often used to justify surveillance activities, usually both sides have an absence of counter-examples.
Examples of electronic police state actions
Many states have developing electronic police state attributes. A few examples are listed below. It is important to understand, however, that these examples do not reflect upon the databases of evidence that are integral to an electronic police state. A crucial element of such a state is that its data gathering and sorting seldom or never are exposed.The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
is often seen as an advanced electronic police state, with mass surveillance and detention without trial having been introduced by the government, followed by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
Jacqui Smith
Jacqueline Jill "Jacqui" Smith is a member of the British Labour Party. She served as the Member of Parliament for Redditch from 1997 until 2010 and was the first ever female Home Secretary, thus making her the third woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State — after Margaret Thatcher and...
’s MTI program, which aims to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain, and to track telephone calls made over the internet as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles.
A 16 year-old boy from North Carolina (U.S.) was seized in his home by a dozen FBI agents and local police officers and held without trial for over two months under the USA PATRIOT Act, based upon Internet tracking of bomb threats that appeared to be connected to his IP address.
The government of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
has been credibly accused of monitoring a huge amount of Internet traffic in reports from the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
Recently, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
' city government has installed numerous cameras around the city, explaining that they are not for citizen control but to maintain social order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
and to fight insecurity
Insecurity
Insecurity is a feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving of oneself to be vulnerable in some way, or a sense of vulnerability or instability which threatens one's self-image or ego....
. No sizeable protest has yet been made.
See also
- Carnivore (software)
- COINTELPROCOINTELPROCOINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
- Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement ActCommunications Assistance for Law Enforcement ActThe Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton...
- Computer surveillanceComputer surveillanceComputer surveillance is the act of performing surveillance of computer activity, and of data stored on a hard drive or being transferred over the Internet....
- Echelon (signals intelligence)
- Hepting v. AT&THepting v. AT&THepting v. AT&T is a United States class action lawsuit filed in January 2006 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the telecommunications company AT&T, in which the EFF alleges that AT&T permitted and assisted the National Security Agency in unlawfully monitoring the communications of...
- Information Awareness OfficeInformation Awareness OfficeThe Information Awareness Office was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to national security,...
- Magic Lantern (software)Magic Lantern (software)Magic Lantern is keystroke logging software developed by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation. Magic Lantern was first reported in a column by Bob Sullivan of MSNBC on 20 November 2001 and by Ted Bridis of the Associated Press.-How it works:...
- Mass surveillanceMass surveillanceMass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire population, or a substantial fraction thereof.Modern governments today commonly perform mass surveillance of their citizens, explaining that they believe that it is necessary to protect them from dangerous groups such as terrorists,...
- Religious PoliceMutaweenThe word mutaween most literally means "volunteers" in the Arabic language, and is commonly used as a casual term for the government-authorized or government-recognized religious police of Saudi Arabia....
- Nineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
- NSA warrantless surveillance controversyNSA warrantless surveillance controversyThe NSA warrantless surveillance controversy concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency as part of the war on terror...
- Social controlSocial controlSocial control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-cultural, if only in the control...
- StasiStasiThe Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
- SurveillanceSurveillanceSurveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
- TEMPESTTEMPESTTEMPEST is a codename referring to investigations and studies of compromising emission . Compromising emanations are defined as unintentional intelligence-bearing signals which, if intercepted and analyzed, may disclose the information transmitted, received, handled, or otherwise processed by any...
- TotalitarianismTotalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...