News & Commentary

Last year, in an interview with the news weekly Seven Days, the director of operations at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles said a new high-tech facial recognition system bought with a $900,000 grant from the federal Department of Homeland Security would not be used for law enforcement purposes. Well, a year later, the director, Michael Smith, says "things have changed" and the high-tech drivers' license photo system is indeed being utilized to help police departments in police investigations.

Edward Snowden, a former undercover CIA employee, has stepped forward as the person who provided documents to the Washington Post and The Guardian detailing the National Security Agency's broad telecommunications surveillance. The acknowledgement came as criticism of the NSA program continued, despite arguments by government officials that all legal requirements had been followed.

For the first time since the creation of the World Wide Web, Congress has made it clear that all private communications online require a search warrant based on probable cause. That's the word from ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese in Washington following a vote Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to send the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 2013 to the Senate floor. The prime mover on the bill has been Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was in the Senate when the first ECPA law was passed -- in 1986. How long ago was that? Mark Zuckerberg was in day care.

ALPRs may not have been intended to be sophisticated surveillance tools, but that's how they can be used. And that's why the ACLU is concerned about their proliferation in Vermont.

Vermont Supreme Court OK's Limits on Electronic SearchesThe Vermont Supreme Court gave electronic privacy a big boost Friday when it approved restrictions placed upon police when conducting searches of electronic devices.

Our electronic medical records are supposed to be protected by layers of security, and violators who breach the security are to receive stiff punishments. But a Bennington woman -- after her e-medical records were illegally accessed more than 100 times over a 12-year period -- says privacy policies provide a false sense of security and penalties to deter breaches need to be much stronger.

Plates of interest. Hot lists. Geo-fences. Intelligence resource. Never heard of the Vermont Justice Information Sharing System, either? Get to know the acronym, for VJISS is working with local, county, state, and federal police agencies "to deploy a first in the nation statewide License Plate Reader (LPR) data sharing system."

The Washington Superior Court has granted judgment to Christopher Hagan in his lawsuit against the City of Barre, striking the city's residency restriction ordinance that barred individuals with certain criminal convictions from living within most of Barre.

The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to try to learn more about searches of laptop computers and other devices carried by travelers crossing into the U.S. A year ago CBP issued a policy that permits officials to search laptops and similar devices without suspicion of wrongdoing. The ACLU wants to know how the searches square with the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches, and other constitutional protections.