Last night, I was playing with the 5-0 Radio Police Scanner app for iOS. For the unfamiliar, this app lets you listen in on police and EMS radio feeds in most major US cities. Within 10 minutes, I was listening to an officer attempting to verify, over the public airwaves, the identity of an individual. "Could I get his soc?" the officer asked. I cringed as I heard the station reply with not only the full "soc" of this unsuspecting individual, but also all of the following information:
1) Full Name, including full middle name
2) Date of Birth
3) Social Security Number
4) Address
5) Driver's License Number and State
6) Full mailing address
7) Car make, model, year, and license plate number.
This occurred in a fairly major city, and the officer undoubtedly had a computer in his car, but for whatever reason chose not to use it to obtain the information. Regardless of the reason, why is it OK for a government agency to broadcast enough information to steal a person's identity, without their knowledge or consent, over public airwaves in completely unprotected form and not even warn them that it occurred? There are laws to protect us against breaches of government databases, and security standards to keep prying eyes out, but apparently no laws that prohibit officers from broadcasting to anyone that cares to listen the keys to your identity.
For those companies that can provide encrypted voice communications, now is a good time to lobby lawmakers to require any officer that is going to broadcast an individual's information over public airwaves to do so securely. I fear, however, that this will take years, if it ever occurs.
The only solution, as of right now, is to not ever have interaction with the police. Don't get pulled over - ever.
That's a bit odd, because I would think that the police would have ways of communicating private information in some reasonably secure manner. I guess that's what happens when you're the entity in charge of holding yourself accountable.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on avoiding interaction with police. In the rare event that it's unavoidable, you should never talk to police without a lawyer. Just ask them if you are being detained and if you are free to go. If not, ask to speak to a lawyer.
The idea of private information being broadcast by a government entity like that is pretty troubling. I think that the average person faces enough of a privacy challenge online with things like Google search storing every interaction forever, things like DirtyPhoneBook, and Facebook "accidentally" making releases of private photos and comments to your friends much easier without having to worry about being stopped on the street and having your info blurted out to identity thieves.
Unless you are a lawyer, you don't have the ability to answer any conceivable question without surrendering your rights.
PS: Isn't it sort of weird that a social security number has essentially become a national ID? That's just another reason IMO to get rid of the whole system. It centralizes way too much potential for power and abuse.