Privacy news: Oakland Cameras, Levi employee files, FileGate

[Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>]

It's been a busy day for privacy issues in the Oakland Trib.

Surveillance Cameras in Oakland
-------------------------------
Bay Alarm is trying to sell the City Council a $500K-$1.5M closed-circuit
TV system for watching people in public places.  The three picknickers
didn't litter, but the camera mounted on the public library building could
zoom in enough to that the council could tell a ham sandwich from roast beef,
and whether the two joggers were wearing Nikes or Reeboks.
"Anybody who is a law-abiding citizen is not going to be concerned about
this..
"When I'm out in a public place.... I don't have an expectation of privacy"
said Councilcritter Nate Miley (East Oakland/Elmhurst), who wants a test run
in his district, where residents have bars on their windows and are afraid
to go out at night.  Police Chief Joseph Samuels likes it too.
"This is technology spying on our citizens from camera on light poles"
said John Crew of the ACLU police practices project, speaking against it.
Bay Alarm said that some British cities have dealt with privacy fears by
setting up monitoring centers away from city and police offices,
where tapes are kept in case a crime occurs -- crime victims can call up
the police and ask them to play back tapes, said Mark Demier of Bay Alarm.
The camera systems are also capable of taking pictures in the dark.

Personnel Data Theft Plaguing U.S. Firms
---------------------------------------
Levi Strauss & Co. recently had a disk drive stolen from an office computer.
It had background information on over 20,000 current and former employees,
including names, addresses, SSNs, birthdates, and bank account numbers.
It appeared to be just a crude theft of the $500 hardware, rather than 
somebody trying to steal the information itself, and is "not likely" to be 
used fraudulently because it's "written in a language difficult to decode",
but the affected employees have been notified.  Dave Banisar of EPIC is 
one of the various experts quoted.

Insiders Chip In for FileGate Fall Guy Defense
----------------------------------------------
Remember FileGate, with the White House accessing confidential 
background files of hundreds of Republican Administration workers?  
Remember Craig Livingstone, White House staffer who resigned after 
it was revealed that his office was responsible for it?
Well, he was never charged with anything, but he had about $9550 in 
legal expenses to advise him when he talked to Congress,
and apparently 55 of his good friends decided to help him out.
Hillary Clinton's chief of staff gave $50, Bill Clinton's golf partner
Vernon Jordan gave $250, D.C.City Council member Charlene Davis gave $100,
and overall it averaged out to about $200 per insider.
Petty cash, perhaps, but it goes to show you the Clinton Administration's
attitudes toward violation of privacy and abuse of power.
Needless to say, the Associated Press story was a bit more balanced in tone
than my summary here :-)


----
And in other news, San Leandro High School students, mostly the drama club,
led a protest against against a proposed school board policy that would ban
profanity, obscenity, libel, or slanderous speech in school-produced
publications and productions.  (Out, Out, <censored> spot!)
"We want to be able to have the plays we've had in the past", said Sean
Givens.
"We're not doing profanity, we're doing ideas."  Last year the drama 
department canceled a production of "The Breakfast Club", though it was
allowed to go on with modified language.

And Mike Royko died.  The world will be a quieter place without him.
He'll be missed.  


#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
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